BETTER HEALTHCARE FOR AFRICA, INC

BHA works to reduce the incidence and suffering from cancer by supporting cervical cancer screening and treatment in Zimbabwe; providing cancer education to doctors, medical students, nurses and midwives; improving palliative care; supporting HIV prevention; supporting efforts to improve women’s health; and assisting St. Albert's Mission Hospital meet critical needs. BHA works to eliminate death from cervical cancer in the rural districts served by St. Albert’s and Karanda Mission Hospitals through early detection of the disease and, ultimately, by primary prevention through vaccination. BHA’s cancer prevention and education efforts have a dual goal of establishing an infrastructure that will permit swift and effective distribution of HPV vaccination and HPV testing for cervical cancer prevention when these technologies become widely available. BHA initiatives also stress that preventing cancer can help prevent heart disease, hypertension and other serious noncommunicable diseases.

BHA develops innovative programming, collaborates with dedicated, compassionate colleagues in Zimbabwe and works with other NGOs. Philanthropic support is essential for sustaining cancer screening programs in Zimbabwe. BHA board member and oncologist Dr. Lowell Schnipper, Theodore W. and Evelyn G. Berenson Distinguished Professor of Medicine in the Field of Oncology, Harvard Medical School, Clinical Director, Cancer Center and Chief, Hematology/Oncology Division, emeritus, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, obtained grants and private donations to support screening and treatment at two mission hospitals. He is also working with the ob/gyn at Karanda Mission Hospital, and collaborators at Stanford University and at the University of Zimbabwe on a study to identify the HPV subtypes that cause cervical cancer in Zimbabwe. BHA provides cancer education to hospital staff, and is working with a Zimbabwean hospice organization to provide palliative care training at two mission hospital.

BHA is led by educators, physicians, pharmacists and community health experts. Darrell Ward and other BHA board members have worked with physicians and nurses at St. Albert’s since 2000, when Darrell first visited the hospital as a Fulbright Scholar. We have visited the hospital many times since then and know the doctors and staff well. BHA board member Dr. Lowell Schnipper, has obtained grant funding and private donations to support BHA’s cervical cancer prevention initiatives at St. Albert’s and Karanda mission hospitals. BHA provides cancer education in Zimbabwe using videos and print material from a free online course called Introduction to the Science of Cancer (ISOC), which is offered by The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute. BHA seeks grants, conducts fundraisers and solicits crowd funding to support our initiatives and programs.

Cervical cancer prevention programs supported by BHA at two hospitals have screened more than 16,000 women and identified 931 women with precancerous changes and 193 cases of possible cancer. About 50% of women with a pre-cancerous lesion have been treated and cancer presumably prevented. The St. Albert’s conducts up to 10 community cancer-education visits per year and screenings at up to 3 remote clinics per month. BHA has conducted cancer education workshops at both hospitals. BHA is now working to maintain cervical screening at two hospitals; evaluate self-sampling by women for make cervical screening to reduce costs; purchase a vehicle to bring cancer prevention and education to remote areas; bring palliative care training to two hospitals; improve the water system at St. Albert's Mission Hospital and maintain an emergency fund to help St Albert's meet critical needs. Please visit www.betterhealthcareforafrica.org.