Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

As In­ter­na­tion­al Women’s Day is com­mem­o­rat­ed, women and girls are be­ing urged to take charge of their health by en­sur­ing they re­ceive the HPV vac­cine and un­der­go reg­u­lar Pap smears to guard against cer­vi­cal can­cer.

The ad­vice comes from Sorop­ti­mist In­ter­na­tion­al Na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (SITT) vice pres­i­dent Car­olyn King-Hen­ry and com­mu­ni­ca­tions of­fi­cer Tahi­ra Ah­mad dur­ing SITT’s first 5K event, which start­ed and cul­mi­nat­ed at Skin­ner Park yes­ter­day.

Held un­der the theme: Strides for Jus­tice, King-Hen­ry said they chose to com­mem­o­rate the oc­ca­sion with a race be­cause they want­ed to pro­mote health.

Not­ing that the group has its HPV He­roes cam­paign, King-Hen­ry said it is about bring­ing aware­ness and pro­mot­ing pre­ven­ta­tive mea­sures against cer­vi­cal can­cer.

“We think that women and girls need to be more aware of the pre­cau­tions that could be tak­en. There are vac­cines that could save lives. If you take it ear­ly, the quick­er you can de­tect as well, and of course, to get screen­ing, do your pap smears when it is sched­uled.”

They en­cour­aged men and boys to al­so get vac­ci­nat­ed and screened to fight against can­cer.

With vi­o­lence against women and girls still preva­lent in the coun­try, King-Hen­ry again en­cour­aged vic­tims to seek out a safe space and reach out to some­one for help.

She al­so re­mind­ed them that sev­er­al ser­vices are avail­able to ren­der aid, in­clud­ing the po­lice, shel­ters and sup­port groups.