18 May 2018 – TogetHER for Health congratulates WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on his call today to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health threat. “We have the tools and, crucially, the political commitment to achieve it. Let’s beat cervical cancer, let’s beat NCD’s,” said the Director General.

Globally, more women now die of cervical cancer than die as a result of childbirth. It is the leading cause of cancer death in most Sub-Saharan African countries, where little prevention, screening and treatment is available.

Effective, low-cost tools are now available to prevent and treat the disease, with new tools becoming available to save even more women. TogetHER aims to be the catalyst for implementers, advocates, the private sector, donors and policy makers to focus attention on new and effective opportunities to prevent cervical cancer.

Founded by women’s health leader Celina Schocken and attorney and women’s health advocate Kathy Vizas, TogetHER is a new global public-private partnership. Focused on building a movement to end cervical cancer, initial campaigns are already working to ensure greater access to the HPV vaccine for girls, as well as pushing for broader access to cervical cancer screening and treatment, and the inclusion of cervical cancer screening into more women’s health services.

“TogetHER is 100% focused on creating a new story for women and girls, and a final end to cervical cancer. We will work with First Ladies, Ministers of Health and other international and local leaders and raise awareness about effective programs that need to reach more girls and women” said Celina Schocken, co-founder and Executive Director.

Kathy Vizas, co-founder and Board Chair, created TogetHER to build on a previous successful program in India and said, “We will ensure that cervical cancer is on the global agenda and push leaders and funders to talk about the issue so that no more women die from cervical cancer.”

Both women feel that now is the time to build on the work started across a number of countries. This new initiative amplifies strong cross-sectoral partnerships to harness the power and influence of both traditional and new supporters, and creates change for the women and girls impacted by cervical cancer.