News Feed

November 12, 2020 The impact of COVID-19 on global cervical cancer prevention efforts has been wide-ranging, with unclear long-term ramifications. Our new TogetHER Interview series provides an opportunity for key leaders in global cervical cancer control to discuss current challenges and provide perspective on where the field needs to go from here. This installment of the TogetHER Interview series features Dr. Mengistu Asnake Kibret, Country Director for Ethiopia, Pathfinder International. Header photo credit: Ricardo Franco/Pathfinder International. Headshot photo credit: Pathfinder International. How have you and your organization been impacted by and adapted to COVID-19? As Pathfinder’s country director in Ethiopia, I will speak…

November 10, 2020 The impact of COVID-19 on global cervical cancer prevention efforts has been wide-ranging, with unclear long-term ramifications. Our new TogetHER Interview series provides an opportunity for key leaders in global cervical cancer control to discuss current challenges and provide perspective on where the field needs to go from here. This installment of the TogetHER Interview series features Lois Quam, President and Chief Executive Officer of Pathfinder International. Header photo credit: Ricardo Franco/Pathfinder International. Headshot photo credit: Pathfinder International. How have you and your organization been impacted by and adapted to COVID-19? When the pandemic became our reality in March, and…

Photo Credit: WHO Cervical cancer kills more than 300,000 women every year – equating to a death every two minutes. Yet, these deaths are not inevitable. We know how to combat this disease. Through effective population-based prevention measures, including widespread deployment of HPV vaccine and robust screening programs to detect and treat early disease, we will save lives. Urgent action – in the form of political will and resource mobilization – is needed to scale up the implementation of these proven cost-effective measures. In 2018, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), called for a series…

October 29, 2020 The impact of COVID-19 on global cervical cancer prevention efforts has been wide-ranging, with unclear long-term ramifications. Our new TogetHER Interview series provides an opportunity for key leaders in global cervical cancer control to discuss current challenges and provide perspective on where the field needs to go from here. This installment of the TogetHER Interview series features Carrie Hessler-Radelet, President and CEO of PCI, a Global Communities Partner, and President of Global Communities. Header photo credit: Ashley Dittmar for PCI. Headshot photo credit: PCI How have you and your organization been impacted by and adapted to COVID-19? Unplanned program shifts…

October 27, 2020 The impact of COVID-19 on global cervical cancer prevention efforts has been wide-ranging, with unclear long-term ramifications. Our new TogetHER Interview series provides an opportunity for key leaders in global cervical cancer control to discuss current challenges and provide perspective on where the field needs to go from here. This installment of the TogetHER Interview series features Karl Hofmann, President and CEO of Population Services International (PSI). Header and headshot photo credit: PSI How have you and your organization been impacted by and adapted to COVID-19? Like everyone and every organization everywhere, COVID-19 has disrupted PSI’s work and the way…

October 21, 2020 The impact of COVID-19 on global cervical cancer prevention efforts has been wide-ranging, with unclear long-term ramifications. Our new TogetHER Interview series provides an opportunity for key leaders in global cervical cancer control to discuss current challenges and provide perspective on where the field needs to go from here. This installment of the TogetHER Interview series features Prof. Groesbeck Parham,  Honorary Consultant at the University of Zambia and professor of gynecologic oncology in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . Header photo credit: Friends of Africa, Inc. Headshot credit: University of…

Congratulations to TogetHER member Jhpiego, who recently marked the closure of their successful partnership to screen women for cervical cancer and treat pre-cancerous lesions from 2015 through 2020, funded by the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Botswana Ministry of Health & Wellness Deputy Permanent Secretary for Health Services Dr. Mareko Ramotsababa joined Jhpiego’s Acting Country Director Dr. Amon Marwiro and other senior staff of the Ministry of Health & Wellness (MOH) at a ceremony to celebrate the program’s exciting results. The MOH and Jhpiego trained 171 health…

October 15, 2020 The impact of COVID-19 on global cervical cancer prevention efforts has been wide-ranging, with unclear long-term ramifications. Our new TogetHER Interview series provides an opportunity for key leaders in global cervical cancer control to discuss current challenges and provide perspective on where the field needs to go from here. This installment of the TogetHER Interview series features Dr. Kofi Effah, who heads the Cervical Cancer Prevention and Training Centre (CCPTC) in Catholic Hospital in Battor, Ghana. Header and headshot photo credit: CCPCTC How have you and your organization been impacted by and adapted to COVID-19? In 2020, we started strongly…

October 13, 2020 The impact of COVID-19 on global cervical cancer prevention efforts has been wide-ranging, with unclear long-term ramifications. Our new TogetHER Interview series provides an opportunity for key leaders in global cervical cancer control to discuss current challenges and provide perspective on where the field needs to go from here. This installment of the TogetHER Interview series features The Lily Project’s Co-Founder and Executive Director, Anielka Medina. Header and headshot photo credit: The Lily Project How have you and your organization been impacted by and adapted to COVID-19? The short answer is it has impacted everyone and everything. Our teammates have…

October 8, 2020 The impact of COVID-19 on global cervical cancer prevention efforts has been wide-ranging, with unclear long-term ramifications. Our new TogetHER Interview series provides an opportunity for key leaders in global cervical cancer control to discuss current challenges and provide perspective on where the field needs to go from here. This installment of the TogetHER Interview series features Basic Health International’s Executive Director, Mauricio Maza. Header and headshot photo credit: Basic Health International How have you and your organization been impacted by and adapted to COVID-19? As in many areas of the world, BHI has been impacted by COVID. Our research…

October 5, 2020 The impact of COVID-19 on global cervical cancer prevention efforts has been wide-ranging, with unclear long-term ramifications. Our new TogetHER Interview series provides an opportunity for key leaders in global cervical cancer control to discuss current challenges and provide perspective on where the field needs to go from here. This installment of the TogetHER Interview series features PATH President & CEO Nikolaj Gilbert. Header photo: PATH How have you and your organization been impacted by and adapted to COVID-19? PATH has not been immune to the challenges that COVID-19 has dealt all of us. As a public health organization, we…

-September 30, 2020 The impact of COVID-19 on global cervical cancer prevention efforts has been wide-ranging, with unclear long-term ramifications. Our new TogetHER Interview series provides an opportunity for key leaders in global cervical cancer control to discuss current challenges and provide perspective on where the field needs to go from here. This installment in our TogetHER Interview series features Elizabeth Mbuthia, Co-Founder and Member of Women 4 Cancer. Photo credit: Women 4 Cancer How have you and your organization been impacted by and adapted to COVID-19? Women 4 Cancer is a Kenya-based non-profit organization formed in 2012 to address…

-September 22, 2020 The impact of COVID-19 on global cervical cancer prevention efforts has been wide-ranging, with unclear long-term ramifications. Our new TogetHER Interview series provides an opportunity for key leaders in global cervical cancer control to discuss current challenges and provide perspective on where the field needs to go from here. The first installment in our TogetHER Interview series features Jhpiego President & CEO Leslie Mancuso, who spoke to us during the 2020 UN General Assembly. How have you and your organization been impacted by and adapted to COVID-19? Nine months into the pandemic, COVID-19 touches Jhpiego’s work in…

Cervical cancer is the most common cancer among women in Botswana, and is the most common cause of cancer death in the small nation of 2.3 million people, regardless of gender. Women in Botswana face multiple barriers to cervical cancer prevention despite important efforts to provide universal access to cervical cancer screening and to scale up vaccination against HPV. TogetHER member Jhpiego has been working closely with Botswana’s influential network of nurses to test new and more acceptable forms of cervical cancer screening and treatment. TogetHER’s newest case study describes how garnering the perspectives of women has guided the assessment…

The MoviCancer Foundation is working to expand the capacity of health workers in Nicaragua to prevent and treat cervical cancer using a WHO-approved method for pre-cancer treatment known as thermal ablation. Portable, battery-powered thermal ablation devices now offer health workers the chance to treat women immediately following their clinical exam, without the need for electricity or gas.  MoviCancer’s thermal ablation efforts are supported, in part, through TogetHER’s Cervical Cancer Grants Program, which provides small, highly targeted grants to programs generating the evidence needed to speed access and uptake of cervical cancer prevention technologies in low- and middle-income countries.​

This past week, Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) officially adopted the WHO Global  Strategy Towards Elimination of Cervical Cancer as a Public Health Problem, as presented in May 2020 at the 73rd World Health Assembly. The adoption of the Strategy represents a major milestone for the global cervical cancer community, and one that gives national, regional and global stakeholders a common goal, with specific 10-year targets for vaccination, screening and treatment. Based on WHO models, if countries are able to vaccinate 90% of girls against human papillomavirus (HPV) by age 15, screen 70% of all women for…

July 14, 2020 First, I would like to acknowledge the vision and tireless efforts of Celina Schocken, co-founder of TogetHER, who along with Kathy Vizas, launched this organization in 2017. In only a few short years, TogetHER has become a trusted partner committed to championing global cervical cancer prevention. It is a testament to Celina’s hard work and determination to have brought this organization so far, in such a short period. We’re fortunate to have Celina and Kathy continuing to guide TogetHER in advisory roles. On behalf of the TogetHER team, and our partners, thank you!  As of July 1st,…

Human Rights Watch explores the connection between poor HPV vaccination coverage and inadequate access to sexual health education with Alabama’s disproportionately high cervical cancer rates. Read more here and watch the accompanying video below. Human Rights Watch. US: Alabama Missing Ways to Improve Young People’s Health. © 2020 by Human Rights Watch

Over 70,000 women die of cervical cancer in India every year, more than any other country in the world. A lack of access to critical cervical cancer screening services puts an untold number of Indian women at risk. As part of the Under-Told Stories project, the PBS NewsHour profiled a program by TogetHER’s member organization PSI to break down barriers to cervical cancer screening and treatment in India.

Cervical cancer kills more Nicaraguan women than any other cancer. A lack of available resources to prevent and treat cervical cancer in Nicaragua is compounded by inadequate education regarding women’s health. Issues of stigma and machismo present further barriers that can make a woman’s decision to be screened for cervical cancer even more difficult. In our newest case study, TogetHER is proud to highlight one group taking the fight against cervical cancer to rural Nicaragua. The Lily Project’s mobile clinics bring critical women’s healthcare with a patient-centered approach to rural Nicaraguan women, who otherwise would have little to no access…