Dubai’s popular supermarket chain Choithrams has been supporting 1999 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)’s efforts to bring comprehensive medical care to thousands of cervical cancer patients in Malawi. The collaboration will provide much-needed relief for many women suffering from cancer in the Southern African country by providing timely intervention to a disease that is preventable, detectable, and treatable in the early stage.
Every year, more than 4,163 women are estimated to develop cervical cancer. As one of the poorer southern African countries, around 70 percent of the population in Malawi is estimated to be living on less than $1.90 a day, well below the World Bank’s poverty line.
Ramadan inspires the values of universal community, L.T. Pagarani, chairman of Choithrams Group, said, “Throughout the year we bring goodness to our customers with our products and services. We take this opportunity during Ramadan to support those in need, not just in our neighborhoods, but beyond borders. Goodness as a mission continues to touch lives and we are pleased to stand with the people of Malawi.”
The donation from Choithrams will help to improve cervical cancer screening, and provide patients with access to diagnosis and treatment through Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, a public healthcare facility supported by MSF and serving Malawi’s populous Blantyre and Chiradzulu districts.
Expanding on the remit of the support, Mario Stephan, executive director of MSF UAE, explained, “The Cervical cancer project aims to provide comprehensive cervical cancer services in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH). The project will focus on comprehensive continuity of care-approach by rolling out a spectrum of patient-centered cervical cancer activities in the area of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention and treatment.”
Choithrams has been supporting various projects undertaken by MSF in the Middle East and Africa region. In February 2020, Choithrams support provided relief to thousands in war-affected regions of the Middle East through MSF’s Antibiotic Stewardship Programme in Amman. “We thank our partners, customers and stakeholders for helping us expand the borders of goodness. From each and every member of the Choithrams family we wish the leadership and residents of the UAE a blessed month, Ramadan Kareem,” said Pagarani.
The story of Flora Chiguduli
Flora Chiguduli made a living washing clothes for other families. On a good day, she could make as much as 3,000 kwacha, roughly 3.5 euros. A return trip to a clinic for cervical cancer screening cost her almost the equivalent of a full day’s earnings.
“My husband was supportive throughout” said Chiguduli, “but I never told the rest of my family until I was cured. I was afraid of being stigmatised or taken advantage of.” Flora has become an advocate of the importance of regular cervical cancer screening.
Flora Chiguduli began experiencing pain and severe vaginal discharge in January 2019. Once diagnosed with cervical cancer, she felt relieved: “At least I knew what I had and I was told it was curable” she says. She underwent a few chemotherapy cycles and was operated just before Christmas in the newly-opened, MSF-run operating theatre in Blantyre.
Flora Chiguduli is 36 years old and has five children. She underwent a hysterectomy in the operating theatre opened by MSF in December 2019 at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Blantyre. She is free of cervical cancer now.
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