Pracksidis Wandera, a dedicated staff member at KEPSA, embodies the resilience and strength of a true warrior. Having battled and triumphed two types of cancer, her journey has fueled a deep passion for advocacy, making her a formidable cancer awareness ambassador. Her dream? To see cancer defeated once and for all. This is her story—a testament to courage, lessons learned, and groundbreaking initiatives aimed at raising awareness about cancer.

“When going through this journey, it can be overwhelming and this has become a force for me to share my story of hope and positive vibes and how that contributes to personal healing. Before going through this journey, I had very many misconceptions about cancer. I remember having heard that the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine for girls was to make our girls sterile. This is something I believed for many years. When my girls came of age to get the Vaccine, I completely refused. Indeed, lack of knowledge is a societal disease!

This ignorance or inadequate knowledge plays a big role especially in the cervical cancer space, as many lives could be saved if only our people had the right knowledge. I have lost very close relatives, childhood friends and women that I have been close to and walked the journey of treatment with at some point. These people succumb not because cancer is not curable but because they did not get help in good time, because they do not have the right knowledge.

As I continue to advocate and create awareness about the monster, my focus is to go back to our rural homes. #KomeshaCancerMashinani is my goal. Statistics show that about 50% of women diagnosed with cervical cancer die from the disease, especially in developing countries and I wonder why that should be the case in this day and age where there is health advancement and possible cure for this ogre.

The misconceptions in our communities contribute to these numbers. Many still believe that cancer is not curable, it’s a death sentence, it's witchcraft, it’s a curse, among other traditional or religious inclinations that do not allow women to go for cervical physical examination. Shockingly some used to think that it’s a disease for the rich! To some extent, I hoped that this was true because they could afford treatment anywhere in the world since they have the resources! Today we are losing many women to cervical cancer because they can’t afford treatment costs. Many choose not to take the tests, saying it's better not to know yet they can’t afford, fearing dying out of stress, not the disease.

#TwendeMashinani campaign seeks to #KomeshaCancerMashinani by breaking the misconceptions and barriers that continue to exacerbate the situation. We will continue to spread the right knowledge and give hope to the affected. Cervical cancer and any cancer are curable when detected early, hence no one should die from it.

On this backdrop, in commemoration of the 2025 Cervical Cancer Awareness month, we took the awareness to #Mashinani to sensitize the community about cancer prevention and share the stories of hope by cancer survivors. The campaign was born during my visit to bury a friend during which my mom mentioned a number of cases of those who were sick with different cancers. I decided to join a Baraza during which I talked to the village elders about the plans I had, and this was the beginning of a #TwendeMashinani.

The Busia sensitization is just the beginning of #TwendeMashinani we will take the message of HPV vaccine, cervical screening, early diagnosis and effective quality treatment as the tools for cervical cancer prevention. Our advocacy is based on the World Health Organization's Global Strategy to eliminate cervical cancer by 2030 by ensuring 90% of girls below 15 years receive HPV vaccine, 70% of women below 35 years are screened for Cervical cancer and 90% of those diagnosed with Cervical cancer disease to receive treatment.

The event was organized by Jidhamini Shujaa in partnership with Busia County through the District Hospital. During the campaign planning period, the District hospital started a drive to administer HPV vaccine to girls between 9 to 14 years through which over 400 hundred girls were vaccinated, as per the hospital oncologist. The number of those walking in for screening has also gone up as a result of the awareness walk during which survivors got an opportunity to interact with the community educating them on the need for annual screening. To all our partners who supported the walk both in cash or in kind, a big thank you!

Has your girl received a HPV Vaccine?

Ladies, have you been screened?”