Breaking the Cycle: Health and Empowerment for Kenyan Women

Dear friends, colleagues and supporters of Together Women Can and WaWa Kenya!

Today we need your support to cover the treatment costs for 14 young women diagnosed with cervical cancer.

We would like to give you an update on the achievements and challenges of our ongoing project in Homa Bay County, Kenya. This project was supported by Boehringer Ingelheim and is a collaborative effort between Together Women Can (TWC: https://togetherwomencan.co/) and our local partner WaWa Kenya (https://www.wawakenya.org/). The project combines the missions of TWC - cervical cancer prevention through cervical screening and HPV vaccinations - and of WaWa - stop sex-for-fish practices by empowering women and girls around lake Victoria regions.

Over the past 13 months, we have vaccinated more than 1,100 girls against HPV and screened 990 women for cervical cancer. Unfortunately, 18 young women, who are mothers to an average of 4 children, with 80% of them being HIV positive, were diagnosed with cervical cancer. As of now, we have managed to treat 4 of these women and give them a second chance at life. Today we need your support to cover the treatment costs for the remaining 14 cervical cancer patients and save their lives.

Our ultimate goal is not only to treat diagnosed women, but uplift selected families from poverty by including them in our economic empowerment program. This aspect of our project aims to establish a sustainable chicken farm which will provide long-term financing for women's training programs. These programs are intended to offer alternatives to the horrible sex-for-fish practice which is prevalent in Homa Bay. We built a farm for 1,500 hens including stable, office and training buildings. So far, 150 women have received training in financial literacy and entrepreneurship. Your support will contribute to making the farm self-sustainable with the possibility of upscaling the egg production.

We urgently need to secure the treatment for our cervical cancer patients! The cost of cervical cancer treatment for one woman is approximately 3,000 €. If just 30 people were to donate 100 € each, this would save one woman’s life. Please consider your donation a generous and impactful Christmas gift for women in need. Help us reach our goal of 20,000 € for acute and critical cancer treatment and for the empowerment program!

Asante sana - thanks a lot!

For German donors: For tax return the tax office accepts the account documentation of the donor for donations up to 300 € as "vereinfachter Spendennachweis" in case of donations for non-profit organizations.