CANCaRe Africa shared on LinkedIn:
“Day 2 of the Zero Abandonment workshop in Jimma, Ethiopia
Another busy and productive day, with three groups working in parallel towards our shared goal.
Research and local evidence, led by Yalew Melkamu and Trijn Israels, working on scientific papers, abstracts and posts to share local evidence.
Advocacy, led by Barnabas Atwiine and Alejandra Mendez, recording videos and creating powerful posts to raise awareness and inspire action. Watch this space!
Implementation – Phase II, led by Diriba Fufa, reconsidering the implementation strategy, exploring the best way forward, with a focus on sustainability and scaling up cash transfers.
Different teams, different tasks, but one shared ambition: to support families of children with cancer and make treatment abandonment a thing of the past.
Everyone working hard, sharing ideas and building momentum. Inspired and energised!”
About Zero Abandonment
The Zero Abandonment initiative in Ethiopia, led by CANCaRe Africa (the Collaboration for Evidence and Research in Care of Childhood Cancer in Africa), is a targeted clinical and public health effort focused on eliminating treatment abandonment among children diagnosed with cancer.
In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), treatment abandonment – defined as a patient failing to return for planned protocol therapy for 4 consecutive weeks or longer – is one of the single greatest contributors to avoidable childhood cancer mortality. Even when effective chemotherapy, surgery, and supportive care protocols are available at tertiary medical centers such as Jimma University Medical Center in Ethiopia, families face severe structural barriers, including:
- Catastrophic Out-of-Pocket Expenses: Costs associated with travel, temporary lodging near referral centers, and lost daily wages for working parents.
- Geographic Isolation: Multi-day journeys from rural agrarian regions to central specialized oncology facilities.
- Information Asymmetry and Stigma: Misconceptions surrounding the curability of pediatric malignancies, often leading to reliance on non-medical alternatives when early treatment side effects appear.
Without targeted supportive infrastructure, these factors result in high rates of therapy discontinuation, converting potentially curable oncological diagnoses into fatal outcomes.
You can also read: 5-Step Positive Cycle for Zero Abandonment in Childhood Cancer Care in Ethiopia – CANCaRe Africa.
