Mathiwos Wondu Ye-Ethiopia Cancer Society

MWECS was established at the first General Assembly meeting of the founding members held on April 17, 2004.MWECS is non-government and non-profit making Ethiopian Resident Charity organization that is dedicated to the national control of cancer and aspires to support cancer patients in Ethiopia. MWECS recruited & seconded Technical Advisor to Federal Ministry of Health/FMoH/, whose salary is paid by MWECS and works full time for FMoH. Finally, FMoH managed to develop National Cancer Control Plan/NCCP/ with more than 90 Million USD budget for five years, NCCP became the first of its kind in Ethiopia, one of the few costed & budgeted, government approved & implemented NCCP of its kind in Africa. Thanks to our joint concerted & continuous effort, FMoH has started to pay attention to Non Communicable Diseases (NDCs) including cancer. Thus, five regional cancer centers being built, construction of cancer center of excellence capable of doing bone marrow transplant is underway, six radiotherapy machines/each worth about 4Million USD/being procured & installed at the six main referral university hospitals and cancer treatment is available at regional level for the first time. MWECS is open to sharing and exchanging cancer control knowledge and competence equitably. MWECS was accepted as an associate UICC member in May, 2007. MWECS is proof positive example that one family & group of people truly can make a difference, an organization initiated at the Mathiwos family’s living room, now with more than 22 staffs implementing seven projects, one on pediatric cancer, two on women cancers, two on tobacco control, one NCDs & one national cancer control plan.