Rwf 888m for cancer treatment

KIGALI - The Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation has committed to raise Rwf 888 million to help in the treatment of paediatric cancer in Rwanda. The amount will be spent in a period of three years. “This is an impressive initiative that we highly welcome.

Saturday, May 28, 2011
COMMENDED INITIATIVE; The Director General of Health Communication Centre Arthur Asiimwe (File photo)

KIGALI - The Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation has committed to raise Rwf 888 million to help in the treatment of paediatric cancer in Rwanda. The amount will be spent in a period of three years.

"This is an impressive initiative that we highly welcome. Rwanda’s health sector has registered impressive progress because of support from various partners and this is an addition to available initiatives,” said Arthur Asiimwe the Director General of Health Communication Centre. 

A joint statement released by Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation, Partners In Health and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, indicates that all the three partners will develop a comprehensive program to address cancer prevention, diagnosis, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, surgery and survivor follow-up care for children faced with cancer.

"Childhood cancer occurs randomly, regularly and excludes no ethnicity, socioeconomic class or geographic region and that is why it is imperative we reach beyond our borders and bring access to treatment to countries like Rwanda,” said Gordon.

He added that; "Partners In Health and the Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation share a mutual desire to reach the day when no child faces the uncertainties of cancer. With our new partnership we are one step closer”.

The Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation supports children battling paediatric cancer by funding programs that improve patients’ quality of life, treatment programs that increase survivorship and paediatric medical research dedicated to finding a cure.

Partners in Health (PIH) works in 12 countries around the world including Rwanda and provides quality health care to people and communities devastated by joint burdens of poverty and disease while Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is a principal teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical School and is among the leading cancer research and care centres in the United States.

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