Fighting Cancer In A Country Without A Word For It


Folks Magazine (Amazon/PillPack)

Philippa Kibugu-Decuir aims to prevent breast cancer deaths in East Africa using a survivor’s most powerful weapon: knowledge.

Teaching is, and always has been, Philippa Kibugu-Decuir’s calling: from the time she was a little girl giving lessons to her playmates, to her combined 28 years teaching English and Special Education in Houston, TX.

It’s fitting, then, that the motto that steers the efforts of the nonprofit organization she founded, Breast Cancer Initiative East Africa (BCIEA), is “Knowledge Is Power.”

“Knowledge liberates people from ignorance, poverty, and disease,” Kibugu-Decuir says. “Learning is a privilege in Africa, the only way out of poverty. Teachers are highly respected.”

Operating in both the U.S. and Rwanda, BCIEA’s mission is to improve and save the lives of low-income women in East Africa by providing access to information about breast cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment. By conducting awareness campaigns and training local breast cancer survivors and volunteers to educate their neighbors, BCIEA combats misinformation and increases breast cancer awareness one person at a time, one village at a time. . . .

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