LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Summit, a Landmark event for the fight against cancer worldwide.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ORGANIZATION: AGIR ENSEMBLE
CONTACT NAME: Dr MATEUS KAMBALE SAHANI
PHONE NUMBER: +243 998625635 or +250 788884503
EMAIL ADDRESS:kambalesahani@yahoo.fr or agirense@yahoo.fr

AGIR ENSEMBLE Selected to Participate in Premiere
LIVESTRONG® Global Cancer Summit in Dublin, Ireland

First-ever event to bring together world leaders, advocates and corporations from
more than 60 countries to address the global cancer burden

CITY OF GOMA, DRC – July 10th, 2009 – Today AGIR ENSEMBLE announced that Dr MATEUS KAMBALE SAHANI will represent the organization at the premiere LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Summit in Dublin, Ireland, August 24 - 26. The Summit is the landmark event of the LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Campaign, an effort of the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF). Dr MATEUS KAMBALE SAHANI will represent the organization’s commitment to fight cancer in DRC and engage with world media, political leaders, representatives of non-governmental organizations and corporate leadership.

“It is established that the burden of the invasive cancer in France is from 27 to 33 new cases for 100,000 women. It was demonstrated as well as every year 8 000 new cases are treated in France and 4000 women die from this disease. France being a country in which the technology seems to be advanced and most of the hospitals have a program of prevention of cancer (vaccination, screening and treatment of the precancerous hurts), now what about developing countries as DRC in which we have no improved program of prevention or program of screening and people have no information about the disease, the warning signs and the role of the screening?” Dr Mateus SAHANI.

“Cancer is a major public health problem that affects every country in every region of the world regardless of economic and social situation,” said Lance Armstrong, LAF founder and chairman, cancer survivor and champion cyclist. “Through collective action, we will make a renewed commitment to reducing the burden of cancer around the world and break down the stigma and silence too often associated with the disease.”

In September 2008, Armstrong announced the Foundation’s commitment to making cancer a global priority at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting in New York. The LAF made this commitment after its worldwide research, conducted over 18 months, revealed widespread misconceptions, stigma and lack of awareness associated with cancer.

In response, the LAF established the LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Campaign to urgently address the burden of cancer worldwide and support the 28 million people living with cancer around the globe. Cancer kills more people every year than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. It is estimated that cancer will be the leading cause of death worldwide by 2010.

With such staggering statistics, the LAF recognized that a global challenge like cancer required a global movement. And so it began urging world leaders, leading cancer organizations and cancer survivors to join together by making commitments to take action in their communities to reduce the burden of cancer.

AGIR ENSEMBLE is proud to join the LIVESTRONG movement with Cervical Cancer Awareness Campaign in DRC, North Kivu Province.
It is clearly established today that 28 million persons live with cancer among whom 13 % die from it. The last year, 7.9 million persons died from cancer among whom 72 % were in developing countries.
The World Health Organization declared that if the current tendency is not inversed, number of deaths in the world can reach 11.5 millions in 2030.
The cervical cancer is one of the most frequent cancers and takes the 2nd place of the causes of death by cancer and nevertheless easily avoidable if the women constituting the group of risk adhere to the program of prevention and early detection.
The cervical cancer, at the beginning, has no clinical signs but we can detect it even at this stage because the cervix is always accessible. If detected at this stage, cervical cancer is curable in 100 % with a simple treatment, or the detected precancerous hurts allow to prevent the arisen of cancer.
All these elements must be known by people to allow a success of the prevention of the cancer.


AGIR ENSEMBLE is looking forward to participating in the LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Summit in Dublin, Ireland from August 24-26, 2009 and helping to make the case for acting urgently to address the global cancer burden.

Unlike other conferences and forums, the LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Summit is unique in that it will kick off a unified global movement while providing attendees the opportunity to connect with other advocates, network, gain media exposure and access tools and resources to help them mobilize in their own communities. Speakers include honorary Summit chair and former Irish President Mary Robinson, Irish Cancer Chief Professor Tom Keane, CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta as well as representatives from the World Health Organization and other global bodies.

For more information on the LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Campaign and the Summit, please visit www.LIVESTRONG.org.

About the Lance Armstrong Foundation
At the Lance Armstrong Foundation, we fight for the 28 million people around the world living with cancer today. There can be – and should be – life after cancer for more people. That's why we kick in at the moment of diagnosis, giving people the resources and support they need to fight cancer head-on. We find innovative ways to raise awareness, fund research and end the stigma about cancer that many survivors face. We connect people and communities to drive social change, and we call for state, national and world leaders to help fight this disease. Anyone anywhere can join our fight against cancer. Join us at www.LIVESTRONG.org.

About AGIR ENSEMBLE:
Cancer is a real problem in developing countries! We have many difficulties to monitor a case of cancer and even to give the diagnostic to people affected by the illness. Many people die without knowing their diagnosis. In our country, professionals of health have difficulties to get diagnosis of certainty, to announce the diagnosis, to treat people affected by cancer because they usually arrive at the advanced stage of the sickness. That is why AGIR ENSEMBLE is doing all its best and with the own means to raise awareness people of cancer and to share with health professionals(including doctors and nurses) information on cancer to allow them doing what they can for a cancer patient. In this case, within AGIR ENSEMBLE, there is a scientific group composed by 6 doctors and 4 nurses. This scientific group meets each mouth to discuss some cases found in different hospitals of the town of Goma. The meeting has the goals of confirming the diagnosis by joining together skills from different doctors and different hospitals, making a decision of treatment and finding a mean to announce the illness to the sick or the family. Habitually we announce the diagnosis to a wise person of the family. This because cancer still being considered as a no acceptable disease and people think about sorcery. No one accept that some one can live with cancer. For each world cancer day, AGIR ENSEMBLE organizes activities of raising awareness people following the theme chosen by UICC. We usually organize also other session as education for early detection of breast cancer by teaching to girls how to make a daily auto examination of the breast. AGIR ENSEMBLE is member of UICC in the fight against cancer, of FCA and ATCA in the fight against tobacco and its director of Health Department (Dr Mateus KAMBALE SAHANI) is a member of many international networks as Global Cancer control Community of UICC, GLOBALink, Global Dialogue for Effective Stop Smoking and usually participate in their respective e-forum.
AGIR ENSEMBLE made many actions within the framework of the control of tobacco: sessions of sensitization with various subjects developed, participation to the Training session (workshop) on FCTC hosted at Kinshasa by FCA in collaboration with LUCTAF.

During the world cancer day, February 04th, 2008, AGIR ENSEMBLE organised 2 sessions of sensitization on tobacco as a public health problem and has disseminated the content of the ministerial tool on tobacco control in DRC to people of Goma and on February 4th, 2009 we have begun the campaign “I love my healthy active childhood”. See the report of these days on our blog http://agirensemblerdc.blogspot.com. Other realizations as publications can be also found on this blog or at http://drmateussahani.blogspot.com.
For a long time AGIR ENSEMBLE is in partnership with 5 secondary schools: Majengo institute, Institute of Himbi, Visoke institute, Mont Goma institute, Institute of Kasika, with 4 primary schools: EP Majengo, EP Bwakya, EP Uzima, EP Mabanga and with the various sections of the CBCA community church. This relationship allows us to realize our activities of fight against tobacco without resistance. Before and later the FCA workshop of Kinshasa, this partnership was strengthened with other NGO as SEA, IDPE, CAMEVU, and SYLAM.
Our actions at schools have the goals of protecting youth against tobacco and other health problem and to inform youth on cancer at the young age. This permit young people to avoid beginning smoking. Even if we have limited possibilities but we try what we can to help our people being informed on cancer and tobacco.



Thank you.

AGIR ENSEMBLE/UICC-DRC.