Growing Challenges and Institutional Efforts to Support Cancer Patients in Yemen

Alia Mohammed – Sawt Al-Amal (Voice of Hope)

Cancer is one of the most dangerous and widespread diseases threatening human health, and its incidence in Yemen has increased significantly in recent years, placing a heavy burden on patients and their families. These challenges are compounded by the difficult situation the country is experiencing due to the ongoing conflict, which has directly affected the health sector and its ability to provide necessary services.

Despite the immense challenges facing the country, official and non-governmental institutions play a pivotal role in supporting cancer patients through various programs aimed at improving patients’ quality of life and alleviating their suffering. These include providing necessary care through awareness programs, early diagnosis, and providing medications and treatment. In this report, we review the role of these institutions and their efforts.

Governmental Bodies Supporting Cancer Patients

The Ministry of Public Health and Population is the largest official body playing a pivotal role in providing necessary care for cancer patients in Yemen. The ministry is working intensively to confront this growing disease through comprehensive strategies focused on treatment, prevention, and community awareness, making it a cornerstone in the fight against cancer at the national level. The ministry has established specialized cancer treatment centers in various governorates, aiming to facilitate access for patients to treatment services. These centers provide chemotherapy and radiotherapy services, commensurate with available capabilities to meet the needs of patients.

In addition, the Ministry of Public Health and Population is striving to enhance its efforts to combat cancer through a set of initiatives aimed at awareness, treatment, and psychosocial support for patients. This is done through organizing large-scale awareness campaigns targeting local communities to raise awareness about cancer, its causes, and prevention methods. It also highlights the importance of early detection in improving treatment and survival chances and utilizes various media and social media to reach the largest segment of the public.

The ministry also works in coordination with international organizations, such as the World Health Organization and the Red Cross, to secure the necessary financial and logistical support. This support includes providing medicines and modern medical equipment to meet the needs of cancer treatment centers, providing technical support and training for medical cadres to improve the quality of health services, and providing psychosocial support services for patients and their families to help them cope with the psychological pressures associated with the disease.

On the other hand, cancer centers in various Yemeni governorates provide free treatment services as per available capabilities, including chemotherapy, medications, and diagnosis, with coverage of part of the cost of external examinations. Many cancer treatment centers in Yemen rely on local donations to support patients, especially with the scarcity of international support.

Local Health Centers

The National Cancer Control Foundation in Yemen is one of the leading charitable institutions working to provide comprehensive support for cancer patients in the country. It seeks to address the health and social challenges faced by patients and their families. The foundation aims to achieve multiple goals to combat cancer and provide the necessary care and support, including increasing community awareness about cancer, its causes, and prevention methods, with a focus on the importance of early detection as an effective way to reduce the incidence rate and improve treatment outcomes, and providing psychological and social support for cancer patients and their families during the treatment journey, as well as providing chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and the necessary healthcare for patients.

Dr. Umaima Ahmad Al-Hamzi, Supervisor of the Life Center for Early Detection at the General Cancer Control Foundation in Aden, confirmed that the foundation seeks to improve the quality of life for cancer patients and contribute to reducing the incidence of the disease in Yemeni society.

She explained that the foundation provides comprehensive and integrated services for cancer patients that include health, social, and psychological aspects. It provides medical imaging services, such as CT scans, magnetic resonance imaging, and specialized mammogram devices for detecting breast cancer, and conducting medical tests using advanced devices, such as ultrasound for detecting tumors in the neck, breast, and pelvis, in addition to providing colposcopy for cervical cancer screening and performing surgical procedures. The foundation also provides a specialized oncologist who offers his services for free weekly.

She pointed out that the foundation provides direct social support to patients by providing food baskets and financial amounts to the needy, and organizes psychological support programs to help patients cope with psychological challenges, through organizing recreational trips to improve the psychological state of patients and bring joy to their hearts.

Dr. Umaima explained that psychological support is one of the most important basic needs that cancer patients need to combat the disease, emphasizing that psychological support is not limited to patients only, but also includes the people around them, due to the great psychological pressures they face as a result of dealing with the disease.

She confirmed that the foundation provides individual psychological sessions that focus on the personal cases of each patient, as well as organizing group sessions that bring together survivors who have recovered and fighters who are still going through the treatment journey. It also organizes many recreational trips that are part of psychological support, so that patients can meet and interact in a positive atmosphere with specialists and experts in psychological support, which contributes to improving their psychological state.

She pointed out that these initiatives are a fundamental step in providing comprehensive care that takes into account psychological and social aspects, in addition to medical services, which enhances the foundation’s efforts in combating cancer and improving the quality of life for patients.

Dr. Al-Hamzi explained that one of the most important tasks of the General Cancer Control Foundation is to continuously work on awareness and health education, which is implemented throughout the year, in addition to intensifying awareness activities during the global months dedicated to types of cancer, such as World Breast Cancer Day in October, and cervical cancer in January.

She added that the foundation organizes field visits to schools, institutions, and centers that target large groups of women through the visiting doctor project, which provides early detection services. These campaigns focus on disseminating information about the importance of early detection, prevention methods, and risk factors.

Challenges and Difficulties

Despite the efforts of the concerned official bodies and charitable institutions to support cancer patients in Yemen, there are many significant challenges that hinder the provision of comprehensive and effective healthcare.

Perhaps the most prominent of these challenges is the deterioration of health services as a result of the ongoing conflict, the lack of modern equipment and devices necessary for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer in many health facilities, as well as the lack of resources and funding for the budget allocated to healthcare, which affects the ability of health centers to provide services. In addition to that, the lack of awareness about cancer and the importance of early detection is one of the most important challenges facing cancer patients.

To address the challenges facing cancer patients in Yemen, a comprehensive approach and integrated efforts are required from all concerned parties, including official bodies, civil society, and international organizations. To achieve tangible progress, the focus must be placed on allocating larger budgets to support the health sector in general, and cancer patient services in particular, organizing specialized training programs for doctors and nurses on the latest diagnostic and treatment methods, and launching national awareness campaigns in cooperation with the media and civil society organizations.

Cancer remains a major challenge in Yemen, threatening the lives of thousands of patients daily, amid the difficult economic and political conditions that the country is going through. Despite these challenges, hope remains to improve the health situation of cancer patients, especially with the joining of efforts and intensifying them among all concerned parties and civil society and the international community to build a more effective health system capable of addressing the challenges associated with this disease, and enhancing health programs and increasing awareness of the importance of early detection and treatment to ensure improving the quality of life for patients and reducing the incidence rates.