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 As part of a "There's no shame in it" campaign launched by private
charity Fares Al-Arab in conjunction with the health ministry,
Muslim preachers have been promoting early detection and bakers have
enclosed similar messages in bread packages.
A mobile testing van has taken to the road, providing scans for some
150 women a day over the past week at the start of the annual
international breast cancer awareness month in October.
"'There's no shame in it' is a message of hope and safety for every
women, telling them to go ahead and check," said Georgette Harb, the
campaign's leader.
"There is a category in the community that deals with the issue as
shameful, and they deal with breast removal and the word breast as
if it was obscene or shameful," said Harb.
Breast cancer accounts for 32% of the cases of cancer among women in
Gaza, the health ministry said.
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 Cancer patients there face
multiple problems ranging from poverty, the lack
of medication in the territory's hospitals and
some difficulty going for treatment to Israel,
the West Bank and beyond due to permit
restrictions.
During the campaign, Gaza's main
telecommunications company PalTel bathed its
headquarters in pink lights, the colour
illustrating breast cancer awareness, with more
institutions due to follow.
Gaza, a narrow coastal strip that borders Egypt
and Israel, is home to about two million
Palestinians. Poverty and unemployment in the
enclave run high.
(Writing by Nidal Almughrabi; Editing by Emelia
Sithole-Matarise)
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