Awareness and Prevention
In a health care system where cancer public health is yet to find its due importance and where there are no national or state level cancer screening programmes with health insurance facilities only available to a fraction of the population, the role of voluntary organizations in running cancer primary health care services becomes vitally important.
The HCG Foundation therefore engages in cancer awareness generation events regularly. The volunteers and staff of the Foundation extend their realm of work and reach out to different populations with the message of Cancer prevention. Participation in various activities to disseminate information on cancer risk factors, importance of cancer screening and early detection of disease is a regular feature.
Corporate Training
The HCG Foundation has developed special modules for the corporate sector organizations where technical and highly professional employees are provided relevant information on the risk of cancer they are more likely to encounter in their life due to specific occupational demands and how to cope with it.
Mobile Screening
Aiming at overcoming the hurdle of transportation that comes in the way of medical check-ups, the HCG Foundation, in association with the Infosys Foundation, launched a mobile cancer bus in 2014. Staffed with a doctor, nurse and paramedical staff (five team members in all), the clinic is equipped with mammography, an x-ray system, ultrasound system, pathology and lab.
The mobile cancer clinic is deployed in Gulbarga to cater to districts in north Karnataka. It is a boon to people living in remote areas. The mobile clinic creates accessibility to advanced cancer screening and early diagnosis. It is a fully sufficient bus with advanced technology which helps in creating awareness by disseminating information about cancer through a television fitted inside the mobile clinic with provision to beam images onto a screen outside.
The Mobile Bus Clinic will serve the purpose of disseminating educational awareness about cancer, cancer diagnoses and screenings.In so doing, the last mile will be reached on the journey to deliver education about cancer.The goal of the mobile bus clinic is to leverage pre-existing infrastructure in the local communities to detect cancer at the earliest possible stage in rural communities.
Student Outreach
Since 2018 we have been conducting a healthy habits campaign in government schools in order to communicate the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle among schoolchildren in 4th, 5th and 6th standards.
As part of this, we are running six different sessions within the program: a volunteer session (led by a trained volunteer), a nutrition session (led by a nutritionist), a doctor session (led by a pediatric oncologist), a yoga session (led by a trained yoga instructor), an art session (led by an artist), and a review session (again led by the volunteer).
The goals of this program are to teach students about peer pressure and the dangers of substance abuse, help them resist peer pressure in a healthy way, teach the importance of a balanced diet, and facilitate informative interactions between the students and healthcare professionals.
