Camp Gallery|Campaigns in India

Black Women’s Health and family support – 8^th March 2010

The B.W.H. group celebrated international women‘s day and invited Roko Cancer Team to come and talk to the ladies about breast cancer awareness. There were approximately twenty five Somali women present. The women enjoyed the talk and the documentary that was shown.

Holi Festival – Laguna Banqueting Hall, Park Royal 26^th February 2010

Roko Cancer team were invited to celebrate the festival of Holi at Laguna Banqueting Hall where the Roko Cancer Team were given a table to distribute Breast Cancer Awareness literature and give advice on being breast aware and show a breast awareness and the importance of early detection documentary. There were approximately one hundred people that attended the function.

Shepherds Bush Gurudwara 21^st February 2010

The Breast Cancer Awareness Team went to the Shepherds Bush Gurudwara where there was a special function on.There were approxi-mately one hundred and fifty people present at the Gurudwara and Roko Cancer team were invited to show documentaries and raise breast cancer awareness and the importance of early detection. There were also two doctors present at the event who took blood tests and blood pressure of attendees.

The Kiran Project, 18^th February 2010

There were fifteen women present for the breast cancer awareness seminar and this was part of  the  health awareness week that has been going on at the Kiran Project. The awareness seminar was held in conjunction with  a clinical nurse from the Batholomew hospital.  She came along to explain the procedure of a mammography and why it is important for women to go for their mammograms when invited by the NHS.  A simple quiz was also played which hopefully dispelled.

Some of the myths associated with breast cancer and having a mammogram.  For instance, one women thought that having a mammogram would prevent her from getting cancer.  Another women thought that she would definitely get breast cancer because she had been unable to breast feed her  baby.  Many of the attendees also thought that having breast cancer was the cause of having other ailments which then leads to breast cancer.  Many of the women were surprised to know that when attending a breast screening  the staff would all be women.

Islington Bangladeshi Association

There were thirty women present and there was a volunteer and a doctor who were available to further explain to the ladies about the importance of early detection of breast cancer.  A documentary was shown ‘be Breast aware’ which had Bengali subtitles. The documentary was paused intermittently so that Dr Rahman could explain what was been said in the documentary. The presentation was received very well by all the ladies and appreciated that we had taken the time to come out and do the presentation and show then documentaries.
Outcomes To try and get the documentaries dubbed in the different languages so that the different ethnic groups can follow the documentaries more effectively.

Asian Women’s Disability Group - 17^th November 2009

There were thirty women present.   Most of the women spoke in Hindi.  The presentation was made in English and a Hindi speaking volunteer was present for the benefit of those who did not speak any English.  The   It was a friendly group and the administrator at the Asian women’s disability group (breast cancer survivor) then spoke to them about her experience of breast cancer. 
Outcome: Ensure that charities A.V. equipment is in good working order as equipment of some support groups is unavailable or not suitable. 

Wandsworth Gurudwara -  15^th November 2009

Wandsworth Gurudwara were celebrating their 40th anniversary and Roko Cancer were invited to the celebrations.  The function room was full with five hundred people attending the Gurudwara throughout the day.  There were representatives from other communities including members of the Wandsworth police force and other organisations such as representatives from the National Health Service.   A stall was set up by the Roko Staff, where Breast cancer awareness leaflets were available in Punjabi as well as English, Urdu, Gujerati and Bengali.  In addition documentaries were shown, Be Breast Aware, Remember me and Love for Life. There were many attendees and Roko Cancer attracted a lot of attention and the feedback from the attendees was positive with regards to our campaign.

Asian Women’s Resource Centre - 15^th October 2009

This was a group of approximately 20 – 30 women who meet up for all kinds of advice regarding health, benefits and legal matters in a deprived area of Harlesden.  The seminar was organized by the coordinator for Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Most of the women did not speak English so the workshop was conducted in Hindi and documentaries were shown in Urdu and Hindi.  Most of the women present were from Pakistan. 

Outcome: This group consisted of members from a low socio-economic group who do not always have access to information.  Many of the group were surprised at the number of changes to look out for with regards to detection of breast cancer and many were unaware that with modern technology breast cancer did not mean a death sentence and if detected early enough could be successfully treated. This is something that needs to be re-iterated when going to groups such as this one as well as the fact that when going for a mammogram, there is a female medical staff and an interpreter can be requested.

Asian Women’s Lone Parents Association - 10^th October 2009

The group consisted mainly of Bangladeshi women who were had an Eid party and their AGM.  Roko Cancer went along to talk to the ladies, (forty in total) and had a one to one session with ladies that wanted to find out more about breast cancer and to be more aware about looking after themselves so any sign of breast cancer could be detected early. The women were happy  to talk about their experiences and were keen to become more breast aware.
Outcome: The group consisted  of women that were not brought up in the U.K. and were unfamiliar with how the NHS worked and were not used to discussing topics such as breast cancer openly.  However, the younger members of the group were much more receptive and were keen to learn more about breast cancer and take charge of their health.
To utilize the younger generation in bringing about breast cancer awareness amongst their community.  This could be done by involving them more in the seminars and to give them the responsibility of passing on information such as being aware of changes in your breasts and the importance of early detection in the fight against breast cancer.

London Mela

On 16th August, 09 a LONDON MELA was conducted. The Mela was attended by 40,000 people and we were able to talk to many of the people who were interested and attracted by the posters that we had displayed.  The posters which were of Bollywood stars and other celebrities were an attraction for Asians (of the older generation especially), but also younger Asians.

Enfied Saheli

On 24^th July, 09 a Breast Cancer Awareness Programme was held up at ENFIED SAHELI It is a women’s support group that provides support and advice for women in Enfield.  Thirty members of the group attended the breast awareness programme. The documentaries were shown which were well received.  One member of the group was willing to talk about her experience of breast cancer which also highlighted the lack of awareness of the disease within the women Asian population.  The Breast Awareness presentation also gave her the platform to talk about her experience, her feelings and pass on any advice to the other members is an all women, Asian environment. The programme proved to have an astounding outcome and more women were encouraged to talk about their experiences of breast cancer.

Leicester Mela

On 12th July, 09 a mela was organized at LEICESTER MELA, U.K. The mela was very well attended with over a 1,000 people attending. More then 500 hundred leaflets were distributed and interest in the documentaries was shown by both men and women with messages from Pamela and Yash Chopra attracting most of the attention.
The outcome from both melas shows that leaflets in the community languages as well as in English are in demand as in Plumstead where there is a large Punjabi community all the leaflets in this language were gone by the end of the day.  In Leicester there is a large Gujarati community and again the leaflets in this language were all finished by the end of the day.

Plumstead Mela

The mela was a lively event and we were able to distribute over 500 leaflets and interaction was made with many visitors of different communities explaining the breast self examination by our volunteer from medical field Swathi with the assistance of other volunteers.There was a large Nepalese community present which we were able to distribute the leaflets to (Hindi).The other communities in the mela appreciated our initiative of distributing leaflets in their languages. Even the Mayor and local MP also appreciated our novel method of reaching the communities.

Aaiana Project

The number of women present were ten of which four were from Somalia.The venue was cramped as it was held in the office of the administrative staff so we were unable to use the projector screen- instead the laptop was used to show to women the documentaries.It was difficult to communicate with the Somalian women as they did not speak English or any of the community languages and were not interested in staying for the duration of the seminar.Awaiting evaluation sheets and list of names and addresses from the group administrators 07/07/09 .The organizers of the event at Aaiana group had assured me that there would be members of staff that would help interpret.

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