Making Breast Cancer Education Accessible in an Innovative Way

Fighting Breast Cancer, One Smartphone Per Village (FBCOSPV)​ - FBCOSPV was initially implemented by our trained Village Ambassador (VA) a breast cancer survivor or volunteer;  was equipped with a donated smartphone, loaded with BCIEA Awareness mobile App., accompanied by a Guide in Kinyarwanda.

The VA is deployed to her own village, where she is known and trusted to share life-saving information.

We started off with 23 Trained Village Ambassadors, including two men. Ambassadors effectively leverage Umuganda and Umugoroba wababyeyi as awareness platforms.

Our Village Ambassadors are connected and interact with each other and BCIEA Staff via WhatsApp Ambassador Group, text, and Email.

This project motivated our ambassadors to improve their communication skills through the use of Social Media in Kinyarwanda and English.

We are planning on adding data collection and Reminder functions to our App.

In 2020, in response to #connectrwanda, BCIEA had the fortune of receiving a pledge of 300 Smartphones towards Fighting Breast Cancer One Smartphone per Village from NCBA Bank and Mara Phone offered to update our Breast Cancer Awareness and Education APP, pro bono.

BCIEA has partnered with Volunteer Medical Students from MEDSAR Association to train and implement the project in Huye District, which has 509 Villages.

Everything was moving forward until COVID-19 happened. The first phase of this project plans to start with 100 volunteer medical students. Out of these, we selected 10 Trainer the Trainees (ToT) students who have been trained, and we are now waiting until September when schools re-open.

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