Team:AFCM-Egypt/Public Engagement
Benisuef
Lying directly on the Nile banks and being one of the governorates of Upper Egypt, Tesmant village in Benisuef, where most of the people work as farmers was the best candidate to launch our anti-Schistosoma and anti-smoking campaigns.
The main aim of the campaign was to raise awareness against both Schistosoma infection and smoking which are both amongst the most common causes of bladder cancer. This was done by giving professional lectures about the disease, its causes and ways to prevent it. To make it more perfect, we made sure stakeholders from the government, the public and private sectors were engaged.
First we presented the whole thing to the governor of Benisuef and convinced him to spread our thoughts all over the city. Then we enforced the idea of preventing the disease by modifying lifestyle and daily habits like smoking and ignoring the use of personal protective equipment to the public. Not only that, but we also convinced two companies to join us fight bladder cancer.
Al Ansar plast is a leading plastic manufacturing company in Benisuef which we were able to convince to start a new production line for plastic personal protective equipment. Similarly, Nice company for chemicals and water detergents adopted the idea of launching a new manufacturing line for producing to be added to the water as a killing agent for Schistosoma.
