Mindanao Breast Cancer Support & Empowerment Association (MBCSEA) has always been in collaboration with the Silsilah Dialogue Movement during the Celebration of World Interfaith Harmony Week through the years. The group decided to conduct a FORUM ON EARLY DETECTION OF BREAST CANCER for this year’s WIHW and choose the Padayon Center as their venue.

Silsilah helped the group in preparing this activity by inviting the people in the community, especially women to attend the said forum. Atleast 60 participants attended the special activity where Silsilah provided the snacks and food for all the participants.

After the lectures and several prevention's of the certain disease, the speaker encouraged the participants to raise their clarifications. The participants are very interested with the topic especially most of them have fears of having diagnosed with breast cancer and considering that the medical cure of this disease is uncertain and very expensive.

The main concerns of the participants are the symptoms of this certain disease and where must they go for cure if once they are diagnosed with breast cancer.

The speaker answered them by basic recommendations like to know your body and self better. It is very important to know how to self-check the breast for possible symptoms of breast cancer. Also, the speaker advice to have a proper lifestyle: eating nutritious foods, avoid processed foods, water therapy to have a proper sleep and to have a regular self-check. If an individual found symptoms of the disease, it would be better to go to the hospital or contact the family doctor for thorough checking and immediate treatment.

With the spirit of the World Interfaith Harmony Week 2020 “Celebrating Dialogue towards Harmony”, this activity is very significant. We faced different battles in life and we know that health is the most difficult battle, that if not properly prevented and if taken for granted, we might lose our life.

This activity to raise awareness of the growing risk of the Breast Cancer disease is a good opportunity, especially to the poor community who can’t afford to consult a doctor.

With the efforts of MBCSEA and Silsilah the women in the community learned something about the importance of their health and knowing one’s self. May we continue to give compassion to our fellow people regardless of their beliefs and culture and that we may do special things for them for commitment. The spirit of World Interfaith Harmony week will journey throughout the year with the hope to have dialogue with people towards harmony and peace.

---