Africa-Press – Uganda. The 2023/2024 International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) students of Aga Khan High School on Saturday launched a two-week campaign to help men living in Old Kampala to access free prostate cancer screening at the Uganda Cancer Institute.
Mr Micheal Musaazi Magembe, the head of the international school, said this is a part of the campaign initiated by the school to eradicate prostate cancer.
He added that since the school is running IBDP, the students on Saturday organised a cancer run for the community living near their school to raise awareness about the campaign dubbed Creativity, Activity, and Service (CAS), which is one of the requirements for their academic programme.
“Part of the IBDP programme requires them to come up with programmes that promote good health and the environment and for this reason they partnered with Kakajjo community to bring the awareness to them. We were last here in 2017 but due to Covid-19, we stopped. CAS projects include those for improving health and the health benefits that come with them,” he said.
Mr Stephen Mawanda, the head of admissions, marketing and public relations, explained that the CAS projects normally involve the students reaching out to the community to create awareness about the livelihood and they do this with minimal support from the school as a way of training them to be responsible citizens. He added that this brings the less privileged communities closer to the Aga Khan community and is supposed to be an annual event.
Asked why they settled for prostate cancer screening, Ms Jasnoor Kour, the head of media and marketing for the project, said after conducting research about the services offered during the health camps that different organisations take to the Kakajjo community, they realised that too much attention has been given to screening of breast and cervical cancer and little attention is given to prostate cancer, which has left men out in the treatment.
“In Uganda and Africa, research shows that African men are more likely to get prostate cancer because of high testosterone levels. We partnered with Uganda Cancer Institute so that more people get to know about it, because if they can detect it early, then they can start treatment early,” she said.
Mr Faizan Yousuf, the head of administration and finance, said: The 46 student in the class collected the money themselves to get the real life experiences. Some of them reached out to their parents to sponsor the project and they divided themselves into teams responsible for organising the event.”
He added that the curriculum helps them understand the importance of community work and gives them exposure, which prepares them for the world they get into after studies.
Ms Tessa Marie Namatta, the overseer of the cancer run, said for three weeks, they have been mobilising and educating the community around them about cancer because their team realised that unlike HIV/Aids and malaria, cancer is not always talked about, that’s why they partnered with doctors from Uganda Cancer Institute for the project.
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