Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Effective Cancer Education in Small Indian Towns: A Model for Occupational Health Education


Dr. Dave introduced me to many members of his staff and I was particularly struck by the work of Ms. Bhawana Jhaveri. She has been conducting cancer awareness programs in villages outside the city that have been very successful. The education programs go to schools and put on presentations about not smoking and early detection of common cancers. These presentations combine plays, flip-charts, folk music and drums in the street to attract attention. They have their own version of the "prom promise" where kids sign something promising not to smoke. I don't remember the prom promise being an effective deterrent, but she is still gathering data on the effectiveness of this type of program and I look forward to her results. She also runs workshops for medical professionals to teach them early detection methods. I am hopeful that we might work together in an effort to bring about occupational health education using the same methods. She seemed excited about working with us.

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