Medicaid Cancer Foundation (MCF), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), has initiated a synergy with local artistes to create awareness in the fight against prostate cancer.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the move was aimed at sensitising the men folks from 40 years and above about the dangers of the cancer, the funding and the treatment.
NAN reports that the event was a collaboration between Johnson and Johnson (J&J) Innovative Medicine and Maigaskiya Visuals, tagged, “Art 4 Cancer”.
Dr Zainab-Shinkafi Bagudu, the Founder of the foundation described the work of Art as major communication tool for the fight against the scourge of the disease.
Through Art, he said that emotions, ideas, and innovative ideas can be employed as strategy to mobilise the people for the better understanding of the dangerous effect of the decease.
Bagudu, a former first lady of Kebbi State, identified lack of effective communication tool for mobilisation of the citizen in advocacy as a major impediment.
She, however, noted that one of the dynamic strategies to educate the is the mobilisation of artistes to convey messages for effectiveness.
According to her, the foundation decided to move the crowd out of their homes to raise fund for cancer patients by using the talent of the creative artists to express concern about cancer.
“Art is a way of expressing different emotions, different ideas and different innovations. One of the biggest problems that we have in cancer advocacy is how to get the message across to the people.
“The important thing is for us to know that cancer is real; it is killing over 20 million people across the world every year, and 80 per cent of these people are from the lower and middle cadre, so we have to educate ourselves about it.
“We need to accept preventive measures; we need to adopt a healthy lifestyle; no smoking! no alcohol!! and then exercise regularly. These are some of the things that are important to prevent it.
“Another key to this is that early detection is the key to saving lives,” Bagudu maintained.
Mr Joshua Ochogwu, Programme Manager, MCF, said that “Art 4 Cancer” was designed by the Foundation to reduce the culture of silence, emphasising the evil effect of prostate cancer to the society.
He said that art has the power of reviving, uniting and bringing people together, and showed his appreciation for the large turnout of scores of creative artistes at the programme.
“We have visual artists here, young creative minds, musical artists, poets and we have photographers, among others.
“It is a passion for us, it is something we believe it will create more awareness about cancer.
“A lot of our art photography have been sold already, depicting photographs on cancer.
“No man can stand and fight cancer alone, we can only stand together to fight it and see the success,” he said.
