Thousands of Zongo women are benefiting from breast cancer screening exercises across Zongo communities in the Ashanti Region in commemoration of October as breast cancer awareness month across the globe.

Hajia Zeinab Sallaw, the Ashanti Regional Director of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), who is the brain behind the initiative is targeting not less than 3,000 Zongo women by the end of the exercise.

So far, over 1,000 women in Asawasi and Ahwiaa Zongo benefited with plans underway to extend it to Ejura and other Zongos in the region before the end of October.

Each beneficiary apart from being screened free of charge also took home face masks and alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
It is being put together by Hajia Sallaw in collaboration with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Health Caucus in Ashanti Region as part of the campaign strategies to canvass for votes for the NPP.

A team of doctors and nurses from the Breast Care Centre at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) are supervising the exercise.
Hajia Sallaw, who doubles as the Ashanti Regional Treasurer of the NPP told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the sidelines of the Ahwiaa screening that the initiative was her way of giving back to her people.

She said she owed the Zongo community the responsibility to promote their welfare as a government appointee, having lived in the Zongo all her life.
"Breast cancer is a disease killing a lot of women across the world and since October has been dedicated to create awareness we have decided to provide the opportunity for women in Zongos to check their status", she observed.

She said it was one of the numerous support she had been providing for the Zongos since she was appointed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to head MASLOC in the Region.

She advised the people of Zongo especially the youth, to embrace peace ahead of the 2020 general election to prove to the world that the people of Zongo were not trouble makers.

They should endorse President Akufo-Addo and the NPP in order not to truncate the massive transformation of Zongos through the Zongo Development Fund.

Dr Dominic Danquah, Head of Breast Care Centre, KATH who led the medical team, applauded Hajia Sallaw and the NPP Health Caucus for the initiative which he said was a preventive measure to protect women from breast cancer.

He disclosed that a few of the women had been referred for further examination due to some risks factors they identified.
He urged women to regularly check their status by doing self-examination or seeking the help of health professionals to stay safe from the disease, adding that, early detection was critical to treatment.