The Afghanistan NCD Alliance celebrated World Heart day through two events held in October to raise awareness around noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).

The current political, humanitarian and economic context make advocacy efforts extremely difficult for civil society to pursue while the burden NCDs is escalating. However, Afghanistan NCD Alliance in collaboration with the World Heart Federation led an event on October 18th with and at the Ministry of Public Health, which gathered government officials including the Deputy Minister of Health, representatives from NGOs and health-related foundations as well as representatives from media and public audience to make NCDs a priority in the health agenda to improve the national health system.

The event was covered by national media channels to reach a wide audience and to deliver the World Heart Day messages to as many as possible. Printed infographic about cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and how we could reduce the burden of CVDs were been distributed to the participants and in some schools and universities.

On October 20th the Alliance, represented by Dr.M.Musa Shukoor and Dr.Sayed Ikram Hashimi, organised another sensibilisation event in collaboration with Save Heart organization for Afghan peoples and the Al-Hayat Hospital. This event gathered echocardiologists from different private sector hospitals, cardiac surgeons, representatives from WHO- Afghanistan, the Afghanistan Islamic Medical Association, medical students, patients and their family members.

This was the opportunity to highlight the latest data on CVDs, their risk factors and to share experiences, future opportunities and solutions to reduce the burden among the population. All stakeholders recognised the need and importance to improve the collaboration for multi-sectoral and multistakeholder action to strengthen and advance the NCD strategy. Printed infographics were distributed to all patients visiting the Al-Hayat Hospital to raise awareness regarding CVDs risk factors.

Throughout October, the Afghanistan NCD Alliance strategically leveraged the Breast Cancer Awareness month by rolling out 5 advocacy campaigns in collaboration with the National Cancer Control Program (NCCP) of Ministry of Public Health and Afghanistan Society of Obstetrician and Gynecologists (AFSOG).

This included two campaigns aimed at increasing knowledge of medical professionals about the prevention, early detection, treatment, palliative care and self-examination of breast cancer in two maternity hospitals (Malali Maternity Hospital and Rabi Balkhi Hospital) in Kabul. On that occasion, notebooks including preventive messages and breast self-examination guidelines were distributed by the National Cancer Control program to the participants.

The alliance also conducted three campaigns for female students of three universities (Ghalib University, Dawat University and Khatam-Al-Nabieen University) in Kabul, to strengthen their skills to perform breast self-examination and raising awareness about breast cancer by disseminating key messages to their families, relatives, friends and their communities. You can follow the Afghanistan NCD Alliance advocacy work on their Facebook page.