One Program, Two Generations: A Mother-Daughter Approach to Cervical Cancer Prevention in Nepal

27 May 2026

Cervical cancer ends hundreds of thousands of women’s lives around the world every year. Millions around the globe have lost a mother to a disease we know how to prevent and treat.

Cervical cancer strikes women from every generation. KMC Alumni Health Sector is taking an innovative – and generational – approach to cervical cancer prevention in Nepal.

Nepal recently rolled out a national program to immunize young women and adolescent girls against HPV, the virus that causes almost all cases of cervical cancer. Real-world evidence shows that vaccinating young people dramatically reduces new cervical cancer diagnoses as immunized individuals reach adulthood.

Unfortunately, few adult women in Nepal have been vaccinated against HPV, meaning that their best option for prevention is effective screening. Usually this means a woman must travel to a health facility for physical examination, an important but often uncomfortable procedure.

Testing for HPV itself offers a less invasive means to identify women at higher risk of developing cervical cancer that can be undertaken by women themselves through self-sampling. This gold-standard method offers more privacy for women who want to be screened for cervical cancer. Just as importantly, it provides more accurate results.

KMC Alumni Health Sector saw an opportunity to use school-based HPV vaccination programs as a springboard to reaching more adult women with self-testing. This project – with support from TogetHER for Health’s Cervical Cancer Grants Program – provides HPV testing kits to women and girls at school-based vaccination campaigns to bring home to their adult female caregivers.

The results so far have been impressive. The program has expanded the capacity of 64 health workers and 16 teachers to support cervical cancer screening, and connected almost 200 women to screening. It’s also raising awareness of HPV and cervical cancer in target communities.

We’re thrilled that our colleagues at Moonshine Agency – the brilliant minds behind the Conquering Cancer documentary series – have produced a short video spotlighting this creative approach to protecting multiple generations against cervical cancer. Learn more about this innovative program here.

And if you want to help TogetHER keep funding groundbreaking women’s health programs like this, consider supporting our Prevention is the Point campaign. We’re raising $175,000 to support five new projects through our Cervical Cancer Grants Program. Click here to take action to save women’s lives.