ABOUT US

Cancer Association of Zimbabwe - Services

The Cancer Association of Zimbabwe (Cancer Centre) is a non-profit making organization which was started in 1961. The Association was formed by a group of cancer survivors and volunteers in a bid to support each other morally, emotionally, spiritually and physically.

The Cancer Association of Zimbabwe vision is to raising cancer awareness and improving the quality of life of cancer patients and their families. It is dedicated to collectively reduce the disease burden due to cancer through promotion of action research, education, supportive counseling, advocacy and other evidence based interventions taking a holistic approach. Since the beginning of this noble service, the Cancer Association has continued to grow in providing cancer support services and cancer awareness programmes. These are listed and explained further below.

Harare Cancer Society Service Structure

Awareness Programmes

Cancer Awareness

Prevention and early diagnosis are the thrust of the awareness or education programmes. The Knowledge Management Department at the Cancer Association use internal and external lectures, seminars, talks, discussions, exhibitions and expos to disseminate knowledge. This includes sharing information on the most common cancers in Zimbabwe, cancer prevention, the importance of diet, the role of change of lifestyles towards wellness and cancer screening procedures. The media and Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials such as brochures and posters are also used to disseminate information widely to the general public.


Counselling


counselling

Counseling is a process that is instrumental in the development of skills that help patients and their families to effectively confront and cope with a cancer diagnosis. A diagnosis of cancer instills fear, anger and guilty feeling clouded with uncertainty to both patient and family. Therefore, counselors offer informative, emotional, spiritual and psychosocial counseling that enables the patient and the family to come to terms as well as cope with their individual condition. With the help of a counselor a patient can explore feelings and express them better, examine beliefs and work toward making healthy changes. Counseling can take a number of forms; individual, groups and couple counseling.