HPV and Cervical Cancer Prevention for West Africa

We are thrilled to be back in Bamako, and we’re writing you with a special request:

We met with our “Story-telling Cloth" collaborators to go over the results of the Community Education & Cervical Cancer Screening Campaign. When we met with the director of the National Immunization Program, she was very impressed with our report on high levels of HPV vaccination acceptance and extensive training of healthcare personnel for increased screening.

She informed us that there are leftover doses from the HPV Vaccine pilot program and they need to use them before they expire. She is wondering if she could do a campaign with the doses in the district of Bamako where we already educated the population with the “story telling cloth” program.  This is the perfect opportunity to pilot a “Mother-Daughter Cervical Cancer Prevention” program so that moms can get screened and girls can get vaccinated in the same clinic appointment.

There are 7,981 leftover doses from her pilot project that they could give out in Bamako. These doses expire in November, and they need to get the doses out quickly. If we could get the vaccine to the community clinics we work with, then they will apply for the 2nd dose in 6 months so that all girls are fully protected against infection.

Here’s what we need to mobilize healthcare personnel and get those vaccine doses to girls in our community:

• Weeklong census activity to register 10 year old, vaccine-eligible, girls in the district. ($2,000 would cover daily stipends and transportation for the census staff)
• Supervision of the team of vaccinators deployed to clinics and community sites on vaccine campaign days. ($2,000 for daily stipends and transportation for the supervision staff)
• Vaccinators’ salaries are already covered in the National Program budget.
• Training for census staff, vaccinators and supervisors would take place in partnership with the Bamako public health office ($10,000 for a 2 week training event with the different teams).

With $14,000, we could get 7,981 girls vaccinated against HPV. Breaking down the cost per girl, that’s just $1.75 to get a child a vaccine that would otherwise go to waste.

 So, what do you say? Can we make this happen?

 Please join us to help protect girls from cervical cancer in Mali!