The Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Sierra Leone, in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), last Friday 19 August 2022 jointly threw their support for the continuing cervical cancer campaign.
Cervical cancer has been recorded to be the second most frequent cancer among women in Sierra Leone, with 504 women diagnosed in 2021 and 367 deaths. China therefore committed $2 million in 2018 through the South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund to partner with UNFPA to reduce maternal deaths and screen and treat cervical cancer in Sierra Leone.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic impact, most of the planned infrastructure renovation works in health facilities only got finished last year and while the screening of women started in the second half of 2021, yet more than 1,700 women have already got screened. For the screening a total of 740,848 women and girls (284,233 adolescents) were reached with messages on Sexual and Reproductive Health, including cervical cancer. Also, key national cervical cancer policy documents have been developed and a number of health care providers received special capacity building courses on cervical cancer screening and treatment.
The joint visit group listened to project progress reports from medical teams of the two health facilities, visited the newly-established reproductive health centres and related wards/labs/blood banks.
Speaking during the joint visit, the Chargé d’Affairs, Chinese Embassy in Freetown, Mr Li Xiao Yong, expressed delight that through the project, the Chinese Government could help Sierra Leone to establish cervical cancer screening and treatment services in nine facilities for the first time.
He pledged China’s continued commitment to supporting the health sector in Sierra Leone, particularly towards the provision of quality services including cervical cancer screening and treatments.
Li Xiao Yong encouraged more men and women, communities and NGOs to get involved in disseminating useful messages to let more women visit those cervical cancer screening facilities to receive quality service.
UNFPA Country Representative, Ms Nadia Rasheed, registered her profound appreciation for the partnership between UNFPA and China. She highlighted the critical support being provided to reach women at high risk of maternal mortality and cervical cancer together with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation.
Through the project, UNFPA supports Sierra Leone’s drive to end preventable maternal deaths by improving access to quality maternal health care, establishing services and improving health seeking behaviour for cervical cancer. The nine facilities including the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital, Jui Chinese Friendship Hospital, King Harman Maternal and Child Health Hospital, the Bo and Makeni Government hospitals, and Lakka Ogoo Farm, Murray Town, Ross Road, and Regent Community Health Centres are expected to benefit almost 430,000 women.
Dr Francis Moses, the National Programme Manager, Reproductive Health and Family Planning, expressed gratitude to the Chinese government and UNFPA for the well-partnered project and long-standing mutual beneficial cooperation among the three parties. He believed that the South-South Fund project had laid a solid foundation towards lowering cervical cancer epidemic in Sierra Leone.
As the nine facilities are the only capable facilities in the whole country to providing cervical cancer screening services, he wished this service could be expanded to more regions and more populations, together with the to-be-launched HPV vaccination project, more and more obvious project effects will be observed and more and more women will benefit from it.
