Bangkok--24 Jun--Verve
The National Cancer Institute Foundation together with Bayer Thai Co., Ltd. today jointly announced their second year partnership on the “Liver Cancer Prevention Project” at Siam City hotel. This year, the project aims to educate youths selected from 19 universities in Northeast region of Thailand and being named as “Public Health Youth Volunteer” on how to prevent the people from cholangiocarcinoma caused by unhealthy eating habit, especially the consumption of raw or undercooked freshwater fish with scaled skin.
Dr. Thiravud Kuhaprema, Chairman of the National Cancer Institute Foundation, revealed: “In 2009, we started our ‘Liver Cancer Prevention Project’ to educate people and reduce the number of liver cancer patients in the Northeast by launching a campaign called “Kin Sook Saeb Lai-Than Pai Ma-Reng Tub” (let’s eat cooked food to prevent liver cancer). The campaign was kicked off with a ‘Train the Trainers’ program for public health volunteers (village volunteers) in Nong Khai to equip these village volunteers with the capability to pass on cholangiocarcinoma knowledge to their villagers. The first year of our operation was a success. Before passing on the knowledge to their villagers, 88% were previously used to the habit of having raw or undercooked food. 27% of them thought raw and undercooked food tasted better than well-cooked food, 19% adopted this habit as a handed-down eating culture, 18% considered raw and undercooked food as the basic meal for northeasterners, and 8% were not aware that this eating habit could cause cancer. After the learning, however, a positive sign was seen among the villagers as 98% of them have tended to change their eating habit towards well-cooked and more hygienic food.”
In 2010, the foundation is gearing up the campaign to educate the public by expanding the coverage of its audiences to youths, who are regarded as a key target group and the future of the society. With this move, youths will be trained in a ‘Train the Trainers’ activity for Public Health Youth Volunteers and become the project campaigners.
Under the cooperation with academics in 19 universities and colleges in 19 provinces in Northeastern area to enroll 76 students and 38 academics to participate in the training activity focusing on general knowledge about cholangiocarcinoma, risk factors and prevention. As part of this campaign, the youth volunteers from each province are also encouraged to work out a promoting activity plan with a financial support of 20,000 baht. Moreover, the three winning teams with the most creative ideas will be awarded with scholarships of 10,000 baht, 7,000 baht, and 5,000 baht respectively.
“We have also gained support from government and private agencies to help maximize the efficiency of this campaign and create public awareness about the threat of cholangiocarcinoma, such as by joining the concert tour of Siang-Esarn band and promoting the campaign through northeastern region’s radio and TV media,” Dr. Thiravud said.
Dominikus von Pescatore, Managing Director of Bayer Thai Co., Ltd. added: “As our commitment to a better health of Thai people, Bayer Thai always gives a strong emphasis on corporate social responsibility for almost 50 years of our operation in the Kingdom, particularly in educating the public about disease prevention, treatment, and diagnosis. We hope very much that this campaign will accomplish its expected results and lead to a significant decrease in the incidents of cholangiocarcinoma in Thailand.”
For more information about causes and prevention of liver cancer, both hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma, please visit www.nci.go.th and www.bayer.co.th.
More information please contact:
Viraya Khunprom,
Corporate Communications of Bayer Thai Co., Ltd
Tel: +66 (0) 2232-7016 Fax: +66(0) 2267-2784
E-mail:
[email protected]
Verve
Araya Srisilpsophon or Porntipa Yoosang
Tel: +66 (0) 2204-8227 or +66 (0) 2204-8078 Fax: +66 (0) 2259-9246