COWETH FOUNDATION: Now fully fledged NGO on health and community development
Based in Choma, Coweth Foundation is now an officially registered Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) in Zambia, dedicated at empowering communities through health, education, and community development.
The organisation’s key result areas put more emphasis on health, especially cancer awareness, testing, and community screening.
The Foundation also looks at issues to do with education, school infrastructure, learning materials, and support for vulnerable learners.
On community development, Coweth Foundation focuses on skills training, youth and women empowerment, with aim of boosting sustainable livelihoods.
Apparently, the organisation is currently seeking partnerships with communities, government ministries, and development stakeholders to create lasting impact.
Coweth Foundation says one of its key results areas include building healthier, educated, and empowered communities.
The Foundation announced the new feat on its social media, Facebook account:
“WE ARE OFFICIALLY REGISTERED! Welcome to Coweth Foundation.
“Exciting News!
“We are proud to announce that Coweth Foundation is now an officially registered Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) in Zambia.
“Based in Choma, Coweth Foundation is dedicated to empowering communities through Health, Education, and Community Development.
“Our work focuses on: Health – Cancer awareness, testing, and community screening. Education – School infrastructure, learning materials, and support for vulnerable learners. Community Development – Skills training, youth and women empowerment, and sustainable livelihoods.
“We look forward to partnering with communities, government ministries, and development stakeholders to create lasting impact.
“Follow our page to stay updated on our upcoming programs, volunteer opportunities, and outreach activities.
“Together, we are building healthier, educated, and empowered communities.”
Coweth Foundation emphasises the importance of cancer awareness campaigns in the country as it is one of the risk prone areas.
Meanwhile, Zambia faces the double burden of rising cancer incidence and a disproportionate volume of mortality from delayed presentations.
The Ministry of Health Zambia acknowledged cancer research as a key pillar of cancer control in the National Cancer Control Strategic Plan 2022–2026, but there remains a paucity of country-specific evidence to inform strategies, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of research activities.
Over the next 50 years, the global cancer burden is estimated to increase disproportionately in the low and middle-income countries (LMICs).
The low-income countries are estimated to have the highest increase by 400%, followed by middle-income countries at 168%; and lastly, high-income countries (HICs) by 53%. This translates into a projection of 75% of all cancer mortality LMICs by 2030.
To overcome this challenge, cancer research is key to advance high quality cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment options.
Yet, despite the high cancer burden faced by LMICs, less than 4% of the total global annual cancer research output as measured by publication came from authors from these countries.
In fact, African authors represent the smallest proportion of all LMICs [9]. Furthermore, the inequalities of cancer research do not only exist across continents but also within Africa, with only South Africa and Egypt contributing to 62% of all African cancer research [10].
To tackle the disparity in global cancer research, international stakeholders from the Global North could play important roles.
Research activities could be supported through the provision of funding as well as the sharing of research expertise and logistics with the aim of building research capacity. In Zambia specifically, the country has received immense support from the governmental Cancer Moonshot initiative launched by the National Cancer Institute of the United States (US).
It also maintains collaborations with international non-governmental institutions such as the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an arm of the World Health Organisation (WHO), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), African Cancer Registry Network, African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC) and Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), as well as partnerships with leading academic cancer centers such as MD Anderson Cancer Centre (MDA) and King’s College London (KCL).