Essay Help on Fight Against Breast Cancer

Essay Help on Fight Against Breast Cancer

This Essay Help Fight Against Breast Cancer describes about Breast Cancer among women, this is basically the campaign of the awareness among the human on breast cancer

Introduction

This report is based on the case study of a campaign that had been carried out on the Breast Cancer among women. This was carried out by Avon in 2001 as a global program named “Kiss Goodbye to Breast Cancer”. We will design and plan out the campaign in Indian Culture based on the earlier campaign on Breast Cancer. Breast Cancer has got its existence from very traditional times. It is described as a cancer that has its origin in the tissues of the breasts. It is found commonly in the inner lining of the ducts that are being supplied milk by lobules. The cancer that occurs in the lobules is called as Lobular Carcinomas whereas the one originating in the ducts is referred as Ductal Carcinomas. It occurs in human (male & female both) and other mammals. The occurrence is most common in women. The percentage of the breast cancer in women out of the overall cancer cases throughout the world is 22.9 percent. 13.7 percent cancer deaths were observed in the year 2008 among the women. A campaign was carried out for the cure and the eradication of the Breast Cancer. We will refer to that as a case study and prepare a plan for organizing a similar campaign in the Indian Culture. This report will help the social workers, doctors and the hospitals in planning for the fight against the Breast Cancer in Women. Through the means of this report we will be able to create a campaign which will help in creating awareness on the Breast Cancer. It will help in collection of funds for improving the medical facilities for the unprivileged class which does not get proper treatment. 

Body of Report

Research

This is basically the campaign that would be organized by Amway in India. Amway will help in the creation of the awareness among the human on breast cancer by distribution of the information brochures. It will also help in collection of funds for eradicating the breast cancer by availing machines and other medical aid for the unprivileged women in the rural and semi—urban areas.

Current Situation

It has been surveyed that the cases of the Breast Cancer have increased on a global level. The cases are on a greatest increase in the countries of Asia especially in India which constitutes around 50 percent of all the cancer patients. A study was carried out by Harvard School of public health and safety where the most cases of the breast cancer were found in the developing countries. When the situation was studied, it was estimated that there will be around 100, 000 cases of cancer on an annual basis in India. And as per the latest study carried out by IARC (international agency for research on cancer), it is revealed that there is an increase by 20-30 percent for the breast cancer every year in developing countries. The major cases are observed in India. The cases of breast cancer are observed mostly in the urban cities of India like: Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmadabad and Chennai etc from the year 1965 to 1985, there has been increase by 50% of the breast cancer cases in women. The women who suffer from breast cancer fall in the age group between 25-60 years. The major population falls in the age group which is younger than 35 years. The survival rates of the women from breast cancer are less in India (Greenleeet al, 2000).

Dimensions of Culture.

There is a lot of Urbanization and change in lifestyles among the Indian people. Women in India are more inclined towards the higher education and even earning employment. They get involved first in studies and then think to do the job and become independent. Due to these reasons, they do not take marriage as a priority and economic independence leads them to marry late. The women who are living in the urban areas are more obese than the ones in the rural areas. The dimensions of the Indian Culture show that there is significant risk in the women for Breast Cancer especially who marry late or do not do breast feeding to child.

Individualism.

The culture of India has changed from the traditional times to this global era. It has been observed that people have become more competitive, self reliant and self oriented. They are now concerned more for their career fulfillment and the personal & professional growth. Due to these reasons they do not want to develop their families in the early stages. Even after getting married, they prefer to enjoy and earn money rather than giving birth to child and bringing break in their career.

Power distance

It is defined as the level to which a culture develops a respect for authority. The power distance for India is quite high. The superiors are more authoritative. India has power index of 70 as compared to the world which has average index of 56.5. Women are either at very higher levels or they may be treated very badly. The high status of women exists in the urban areas where the importance to education is more and women want to remain independent. If we compare it with the rural and semi-urban areas then women over there are given very less importance. Now- a-days, women are respected more in India and they have taken significant positions in the business and delay marriages and hence invite breast cancer (Walsham, 2002).

Masculinity

India has the culture which has male as the dominating member of the family. Males believe that women have taken birth for handling the families well. They should live in the 4 walls of the house. Although the women have achieved significant positions in the business but still the place of their importance is still almost the same.

Uncertainty Avoidance

Indians believe in punctuality but it is not necessary that they exhibit same with others. They blindly believe in the concept that whatever happens to them is the result of their karma. India has relatively lower uncertainty avoidance index. They completely believe in the power of karma and its consequences that have to be experienced. Sometimes, Indians believe that breast cancer has been given as a gift of their karma and they do not pay attention for its cure and prevention due to this they fall prey of deaths.

Long Term Orientation

The index of Long Term Orientation is 61 for India. If we see the current status of the Indian Culture then we can say that there has been a lot of improvement in the women. Earlier the males did not allow women to take over the business and service oriented jobs. They were believed to have taken birth to handle family and do household chores. But the perceptions of the people have changed towards them. They have also started caring for themselves and work for their career. They religion and relationships have the long term existence. They do a long term investment in their studies as well. This has made them self dependent due to which they marry late. Accordingly the child is also born late and the chances of breast cancer in them increase.

Social Context

If we discuss the social context of the Indian Culture then in the urban areas although the importance of the women has increased but in the rural areas, the society has not taken significant change. The women in the rural areas are not given much importance and are believed to have taken birth to handle their families. The society is male dominating in India. People are very social and more inclined to the religion. They are very social people and can exist in any environment (Milner, 1994).  The Society either thinks very high for the women and gives them the space and the place with men or let them suffer. The women in India have significantly gained their position and want to establish themselves. They have got this though in their minds that they want to rule. Irrespective of the caste, creed, religion, women are try to progress and in this race they are forgetting on their social roles towards the society. It is important that they should also actively participate in keeping their health well. They either do not pay attention due to their huge involvement in their careers or due to the household activities. If the condition will persist and not change then the removal of the breast cancer among the women would become a tedious task. It is important that the women should also pay importance to their health along with their careers or the household activities. Breast Cancer was considered not very important to be cured earlier in India. Due to lack of education and qualifications, people used to believe that this is caused as a result of their Karma. But now the society has taken aggressive steps in order to cure and find out the reasons of the occurrences of this cancer. There have been so many social programs and the awareness campaigns that are being run to spread the awareness about this cancer in women. Many programs have been launched for helping the women in fighting over this cancer. The list of the various programs is:

ELLE Breast Cancer Campaign: This program was organized by the company of female cosmetic products named ELLE. Sonam Kapoor, the film actress also health and promotion activity. It was a fund raising program wherein the women were told on the importance of the breast cancer treatment and its prevention. Women were wearing pink colored dress on this day. This campaign was also spread over the entire country and even over the social networking sites like facebook, twitter etc.

LINDEX: with Missoni organized a fundraising program on breast cancer for women and out of the total sales online around 10 percent was contributed towards the fight for the breast cancer. Around 15 million was donated as a result of this activity to the cancer foundation (Narayan, 1998).

Now there have been a lot of cancer foundations that are developed in India which help in the eradication of the cancer especially breast cancer in women. They even get donations and charity which is used for availing cancer treating machines and medications in the government hospitals of the rural & semi-urban areas.

Political Context

There have been a lot of political activities that are organized for the Breast Cancer. Government even provides free aid and treatment to the women who cannot afford the costs incurred from the hospitals. Glaxo SmithKline a pharmaceutical company is also helping the government in lot of donations and medicines for free of cost in government hospitals. The various legislations on this Cancer are:

• Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act 2003.

• Women Health and Cancer Right Act.

Under these legislations, women will get free mammogram done for their breasts. Whenever they have doubt they can immediately visit the nearby hospitals and get detected for breast cancer. The unprivileged women who cannot bear expenses of getting treated for this disease will be treated free of cost in the government hospitals. Government is being supported by all the Indian Pharmaceutical companies under their initiatives for free mammogram of women on the day of the campaign.

Economic Context

As far as the economic context for breast cancer is concerned, there are various foundations that have been established to work for the fundraising and the distribution of the information brochures to the women of the different sections of the society. There have been a lot of weaker sections and the areas of the society that do not have enough facilities for the treatment of the breast cancer problem. Government has tried introducing the facilities such as the availability of the medication and the mammogram machine for the check of these people.

Public Relations Context

As far as the public relations context is concerned, there have been various agencies and the private non-government organizations that work for the benefit of the women. There has been a phone number where the poor women who cannot afford the treatment of this disease can call up and the agents will come visit her and if required she would be hospitalized in the government hospital. The media groups like: Times of India, DNA Newspapers and the TV channels have been continuously spreading the awareness about the symptoms of this breast cancer and even how to curb it. The public organizations like: Cancer Institute of India and the National foundation of Cancer aid and research have been working rigorously towards the eradication of this disease. They have been actively involved in the distribution of the information brochures and organizing the seminars and the free treatment and check camp for the poor people (Banerjee, 2008).

Case Studies Elsewhere

Breast Cancer is the second most dangerous and globally present cancer. Its early detection helps in its proper treatment and control. Many cultures have been actively participating in the eradication, free check up and awareness campaigns against breast cancer. UAE Countries launched Think Pink Initiative for fighting breast cancer. Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation in Pennysylvania has been actively involved in the free check up and treatment campaign against breast cancer. Susan G Komen is the global initiative and the world’s boldest community that is being formed for the breast cancer patients. The various other works and the campaigns against Breast Cancer are:

• Kicks against Breast cancer.

• GE Healthcare Breast Cancer Initiative.

• Siemens fight against Breast Cancer.

Almost all the pharmaceutical companies have joined hands for this fight against the breast cancer. Glaxo SmithKline took out the medication and early detection program for the Breast Cancer.

Target Publics

The target for this campaign would be Amway. Amway has been discussed on the program that we are going to organize in India against the Breast Cancer. Amway on its total sale in India would contribute around 15 percent to the government hospitals in terms of procuring the medicines as well as the mammograms that should be available for the help of the poor people. It is essential that in this program we will target on the pharmaceutical companies to launch a pop up window on their websites for this campaign. We will target the National Society for cancer which will help us in conducting a seminar and information speech of the president of the National Society of Cancer who will highlight on the importance of the early detection of the breast cancer. We will also take aid from the government for the successful planning and implementation of this program. Locally based on the various diverse subcultures in India, our representatives will go and organize campaign on the planned day in their local Municipal corporation offices. These campaigns would be targeted majorly in the metropolitan cities and the rural areas where gram panchayat offices would be used as the venue of this campaign.  

Media

The local newspapers and the mostly watched channels would be used as a source for the launching of this campaign. There will be help that would be taken from the healthcare and medical magazines for the spread of the date, time and venue of the campaigns of this breast cancer in the local areas. Even the Hospitals and the medical shops will display the information regarding these campaigns.

Ethical Issues

Ethical Issues that may arise while organizing this Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign would be:

• The organizers may collect the funds from the proper sources and do not force people on giving funds.

• Doctors should contribute without any demand in return.

Objectives

The various objectives of this Fight against Breast Cancer Program are: Collection of as many funds as much as possible, spreading the awareness on early detection and treatment of the Breast Cancer, Distribution of the information brochures among the people who could not attend the seminar that is being organized. These objectives have been similar with the case study campaign organized.
The new objectives that I would like to propose are: Free Check up of almost all the women of the rural areas of India, Raising as many funds that we are able to buy around 1000 mammogram for the 1000 small hospitals in the rural areas.

Strategy

2.3.1. From this case study we can use many strategies which would be helpful to us for organizing the awareness campaign in the Indian Culture like: Women Celebrities could be used as a tool for spreading the information, stories, experiences and feature articles could be published in the newspapers and the magazines above this campaign information, Each and every Amway product that would be sold will have a small certificate for the buyer that is thanking them for their contribution in the campaign by buying Amway product. This will even motivate other people in buying the products of Amway and contributing to the society.

2.3.2 In the Fight against Breast Cancer Program, I would do the following:

• Invite the President of National Cancer Foundation to address the seminar of the participants.

• The Information Brochures as well as the CD’s of the President guide would be circulated to each and every district so that they can later organize small groups of people and play these CD’s before them and re-spread the program.

• Amway Product Buyers and their names would be printed in the newspaper so that they feel happy for their contribution to the society.

• Women would be invited for the free mammogram checkups in their local hospitals so that they remain aware of their health (Saxena et al, 2005).

• Each and Every TV Channel which is most visited by the people would display the advertisement on this program.

Tactics

The original tactics that could be used in this campaign are Display of the messages among the women on each and every product of Amway. Through the use of the mass media that is newspapers and the TV channels, the messages would be repeated and displayed.
The Media sources that would be used for this Fight against Breast Cancer Program would be: Health care Magazines, Posters in the Notice Boards of the Hospitals and the Private Clinics, Information Brochures and the Pamphlets distribution in the newspapers locally available. The people who would contribute for the success of this campaign are: Doctors, Nurses, Foundation Social Workers, President of the Cancer Foundation, Non-government organizations, the Media editors etc. The Amway product head and the marketing manager will design the advertisement or the small print that would appear on the bottles, sachet and the boxes of the Amway Products. They will also sponsor on the Seminar that would be organized in the Community Hall of the Cancer Foundation.  It is essential that funds are available for organizing the campaigns. If there would be fewer funds then the full plan cannot be implemented properly. The NGO Social workers will go to each and every home of their locality and distribute the information cards of this seminar and the campaign program (Sadler et al, 2001).

Evaluation

The Evaluation would be done by referring to the various pamphlets and the information brochures that have been distributed among the various people. This will help us in getting the idea on the number of people that are targeted. Each day the number of products sold by Amway will let us know the number of people who have given their contribution to the society. This will help us in finding out the people’s interest in eradicating this cancer. We will design an evaluation chart against each person and his responsibilities so that the process does not go slow. It will also help the people in knowing the deadlines and the timings they need to achieve their targets and the tasks.
In order to find out whether the tactics used have helped us in success of the campaign we can do the following activities:

• The number of magazines and newspapers old each day beside the ones that reach everyday at homes of people. This will help us in finding out the level of success for our program.

• The amount that is collected in the collection box at each hospital for the successful organization of this campaign.

• The number of registrations for the Fight against Breast Cancer Program.

• The number of products sold by Amway and their company sale on daily basis. This record will help in getting the full success counts.

We will keep a record of the entire campaign event. We will list down the responsibilities and divide the tasks among the various team members who are involved in this program. Each and every person would be given the measurable key performance tasks which they have t fulfill each day. Also the record of the Amway sales and its contribution would be given to the Cancer Foundation in India which is the head of organizing this fight against Breast Cancer Program. The printing of the information cards and their distribution has to be targeted well (Gold, 2001).  

References

Milner Jr, M. (1994). Status and Sacredness: A General Theory of Status Relations and an Analysis of Indian Culture: A General Theory of Status Relations and an Analysis of Indian Culture. Oxford University Press.
Banerjee, S. (2008). Dimensions of Indian culture, core cultural values and marketing implications: An analysis. Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, 15(4), 367-378.
Narayan, U. (1998). Essence of culture and a sense of history: A feminist critique of cultural essentialism. Hypatia, 13(2), 86-106.
Bryde, J. F. (1971). Modern Indian Psychology.
Walsham, G. (2002). Cross-cultural software production and use: a structurational analysis. MIS quarterly, 359-380.
Greenlee, R. T., Murray, T., Bolden, S., & Wingo, P. A. (2000). Cancer statistics, 2000. CA: a cancer journal for clinicians, 50(1), 7-33.
Parkin, D. M., Pisani, P., & Ferlay, J. (1999). Global cancer statistics. CA: A cancer journal for clinicians, 49(1), 33-64.
Parkin, D. M., Bray, F., Ferlay, J., & Pisani, P. (2005). Global cancer statistics, 2002. CA: a cancer journal for clinicians, 55(2), 74-108.
Saxena, S., Rekhi, B., Bansal, A., Bagga, A., & Murthy, N. (2005). Clinico-morphological patterns of breast cancer including family history in a New Delhi hospital, India-A cross-sectional study. World journal of surgical oncology, 3(1), 67.
Sadler, G. R., Dhanjal, S. K., Shah, N. B., Shah, R. B., Ko, C., Anghel, M., & Harshburger, R. (2001). Asian Indian women: knowledge, attitudes and behaviors toward breast cancer early detection. Public Health Nursing, 18(5), 357-363.
Gold, B. H. L. A. B. (2001). The Breast Cancer Wars: Hope, Fear, and the Pursuit of a Cure in Twentieth-Century America: Hope, Fear, and the Pursuit of a Cure in Twentieth-Century America. Oxford University Press.
Seow, A., Duffy, S. W., McGee, M. A., Lee, J., & Lee, H. P. (1996). Breast cancer in Singapore: trends in incidence 1968–1992. International journal of epidemiology, 25(1), 40-45.
Slamon, D. J., Clark, G. M., Wong, S. G., Levin, W. J., Ullrich, A., & McGuire, W. L. (1987). Human breast cancer: correlation of relapse and survival with amplification of the HER-2/neu oncogene. Science, 235(4785), 177-182.
Clarke, M., Collins, R., Darby, S., Davies, C., Elphinstone, P., Evans, E., ... & Wang, Y. (2005). Effects of radiotherapy and of differences in the extent of surgery for early breast cancer on local recurrence and 15-year survival: an overview of the randomised trials. Lancet, 366(9503), 2087-2106.
Kelsey, J. L., Gammon, M. D., & John, E. M. (1993). Reproductive factors and breast cancer. Epidemiologic reviews, 15(1), 36.