HPV and Cervical Cancer Prevention for West Africa

In 2018, GAIA VF provided screening to 5,611 women along with HPV vaccinations for almost 800 girls! This feat was accomplished through two major avenues. First, community health workers and teen educators received a 2-day training on how to run education outreach in their neighborhoods using the new storytelling cloth (see attached photo) to educate their communities about cervical cancer (CC) prevention by vaccination and the importance of CC screening. Three community health workers and three 15- to 18-year-old teen educators served as community liaisons in each participating neighborhood performing weekly education/awareness sessions. Each outreach session informed participants of both how to receive a CC screening and which girls are eligible for HPV vaccination.

Each of our CC screening and vaccination sites, 5 community clinics (CSCOM) and the district health referral center (CSREF), also provided weekly education sessions led by midwives and nurses. These education sessions took place in the waiting areas of the clinic where everyone visiting the clinic that day could listen. Mothers bringing their daughters for a vaccine eligibility evaluation were re-educated about the importance of CC screening and HPV vaccination during these sessions. Women learning about this opportunity for the first time were encouraged to revisit the clinic with their daughters.

Finally, since cost is a major obstacle to accessing healthcare in Mali, discount cards covering CC screening costs and clinic admission fees were distributed at education sessions to women planning to bring their daughters to attend HPV prevention events at local clinics (the cost for these services is $2 USD). By synchronizing neighborhood outreach and clinic activities while subsidizing clinic costs, we were able to ensure that difficult-to-reach women and girls are also connected with the program.

Second, GAIA VF provided technical and material assistance to six sites to ensure we met our CC screening and HPV vaccination objectives. The DRS and CNI (Malian government authorities on vaccination; national and local respectively) provided HPV vaccine doses to each of the partnering clinics, and the DRS provided a 6-day training for healthcare workers to perform CC screening by visual inspection with acetic acid and Lugol’s iodine (VIA/VILI) and to deliver the HPV vaccine. In addition to this health-authority approved re-training, throughout the intervention, clinic personnel also received small salary supplements, based on achieving their projected goals for CC screening and HPV vaccination. At each of these sites, one doctor, one midwife, two nurses, and three community health workers (CHW) participated in the project. In addition, GAIA VF aimed to reduce gender discrimination in the healthcare industry by focusing our training on women and girls, with females composing 95% of the individuals engaged in the campaign.

This combination of technical assistance, training, and community education is GAIA VF's most successful method of infectious disease prevention. As this project comes to a close this month, we will continue to utilize the experiences gained to continue fighting for equitable access to healthcare for developing countries.