Preventing Cancer for Women in Ghana

Dear Friends and Supporters, 

We have a very exciting update to share you with regarding the Cervical Cancer Program! We recently found out that Dr. Fofie, the dedicated physician who initiated the idea for the cervical cancer screening and treatment program, is able to return to work at the Wa Regional Hospital in the upcoming months! We are so glad that Dr. Fofie has now fully recovered from the eye injuries that caused him to temporarily cease his employment as the primary OBGYN at the hospital. He is currently in the process of reinstating his position and hopes to be back in Wa by September!

As you all know, Dr. Duodu has been acting as the head of the program in Dr. Fofie's absence and will continue to do so until Dr. Fofie's full return. We sincerely appreciate all of Dr. Duodu's help and efforts in setting up the cervical cancer program so far. However, Dr. Duodu is also in charge of the fistual program for the Upper West Region and as such has a very demanding schedule. We are so grateful to him for his help while Dr. Fofie recovered but are also very excited to see Dr. Fofie return to his passion of establishing the first cervical cancer screening and treatment program in the Upper West Region. 

Additionally, one of our Board Members recently recovered 25 standard Graves speculums and 5 Petterson speculums (for women who haven't had children) from a medical supply warehouse. These supplies are worth over $400- funds that can now be diverted to purchase additional supplies that were not originally included in our first purchase! While the items such as a diathermy machine and cryotherapy set are not often donated, we hope that we will be able to continue to find recovered speculums, tenaculums and/or forceps that will allow the funds you have all generously donated to go further towards purchasing the more expensive equipment.

Project Heal, the student organization we mentioned in our last update, will also be returning soon from their trip to Ghana and we look forward to hearing how it went. We will keep you all updated on their trip and as Dr. Fofie returns to Wa. Thank you all for your continued support of this important and much needed program! As always we are open to comments, questions, or suggestions and you can reach me directly at director@medplusconnect.org.

Thank you,

Anna LeViere

Dear Friends and Supporters,

We wanted to give you a little background on our organization, MedPLUS Connect, to preface the latest update on the cervical cancer program. The idea for MedPLUS Connect began when our three founders were still undergraduate students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The idea grew from a student run organization they also began while in college, called Project Heal. This group was a service group that taught basic first aid and dental workshops in Ghana and also brought over very basic medical supplies as well. When our founders saw the significant shortages of medical supplies in the hospitals and health centers throughout Ghana, they decided to pursue the idea of Project Heal on a larger scale and founded MedPLUS Connect. The primary mission of MedPLUS Connect is sending recovered medical supplies to hospitals and health centers in Ghana but we also undertake specific value added projects when the need is communicated to us through our community partners. Establishing the first cervical cancer screening and treatment program is one of these value added projects that we remain highly committed to.

Project Heal is still a successful student organization at UNC and the partnership between the two organizations has remained strong as both MedPLUS and Project Heal have grown. We are excited that the students who will be traveling to Ghana on Project Heal's service trip this summer are very interested in helping out with the cervical cancer program! We are talking with Dr. Duodu to find out the specific ways they can best help the program but some of the possibilities include hand carrying items such as the speculums and forceps, to Wa, Ghana and assisting with the training of the nurses on cervical cancer screening. We are so excited that our partnership with Project Heal will now be able to aid the cervical cancer program and should have more information on this by the time of our next update! 

We are also excited that it's almost time for the first Matching Day of 2015! The first matching day of the year is this Wednesday, March 18th! All donations (up to $1,000) will receive a 30% match from Global Giving, while funds remain. This means that a donation of $100 will actually earn the cervical cancer program $130! Matching will begin at 9:00 am EDT on Wednesday, March 18th and will end at midnight.

If a larger donation seems overwhelming, you can also give a recurring donation, where you give a little bit each month for as long as you like. Just $12 purchases a speculum that is used to provide early screening for cervical cancer! Please visit our project page if you would like to make a donation or share our page with your family, friends and colleagues: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/prevent-cancer-for-women-in-ghana/.

Thank you all for your continued support of this important and much needed program! As always we are open to comments, questions, or suggestions and you can reach me directly at director@medplusconnect.org.

Thank you,

Anna LeViere