Dr. Fidele Rubagumya, founder and chair of the Rwanda Children's Cancer Relief, shares lessons he learned from the NextGen Leaders for NCDs East Africa workshop, hosted by the YP-CDN Rwanda Chapter.

With more and regular NextGen Leaders’ workshops and collective planning, there is no doubt that the broad diversity of patient and advocate voices for NCDs will become louder and that our actions, collectively across borders, will be felt for many more generations to come.

Read the full article on The New Times below:

[embedlycard url="http://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/article/2016-10-20/204621/"]

The Young Professionals Chronic Diseases Network (YP-CDN) organized a Non-communicable Disease (NCD) Symposium to launch the NextGen Leaders for NCDs East Africa Workshop -- a training program in collaboration with RTI International and the University of Nairobi to prepare the next generation of NCD leaders in health policy and advocacy, on September 9th, 2016 at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. The main thematic areas covered at the symposium included - NCDs landscape in East Africa, Concerns and priorities of youth across the East African Region, Solutions to improve availability and affordability of essential medicines for NCDs, and Financing for NCDs in East Africa.

“If we want to change the NCD landscape in Africa, we need to start with ourselves”. - Dr. Joseph Kibachio, Director of NCDs, Ministry of Health Kenya

“Financing for NCDs is a very important donor issue”. - Dr. Rachel Nugent, Vice President (NCDs), RTI International

“We need political will and commitment to fight NCDs”. - Emma Wanyonyi, International Institute For Legislative Affairs Kenya

The Young Professionals Chronic Diseases Network (YP-CDN) organized a Non-communicable Disease (NCD) Symposium to launch the NextGen Leaders for NCDs East Africa Workshop -- a training program in collaboration with RTI International and the University of Nairobi to prepare the next generation of NCD leaders in health policy and advocacy, on September 9th, 2016 at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. The main thematic areas covered at the symposium included - NCDs landscape in East Africa, Concerns and priorities of youth across the East African Region, Solutions to improve availability and affordability of essential medicines for NCDs, and Financing for NCDs in East Africa.

“If we want to change the NCD landscape in Africa, we need to start with ourselves”. - Dr. Joseph Kibachio, Director of NCDs, Ministry of Health Kenya

“Financing for NCDs is a very important donor issue”. - Dr. Rachel Nugent, Vice President (NCDs), RTI International

“We need political will and commitment to fight NCDs”. - Emma Wanyonyi, International Institute For Legislative Affairs Kenya

This piece was originally published on the blog of the Kenya Hospice and Palliative Care Association. 

Dr. Kirtida Acharya of the University of Nairobi moderating a panel with YP-CDN Chapter Leaders from Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Burundi. 

Delegates of the YP-CDN Rwanda Chapter at #NextGen4NCDs

There is a saying that "When you want it done, then put it in the hands of the young ones." The power of enthusiastic and empowered young people was reinforced with me recently at the NextGen Leaders for NCDs East Africa workshop. Organized by the Young Professionals Chronic Disease Network (YP-CDN), in partnership with other stakeholders including RTI International, 50 young professionals and students attended from 8 different countries. 

From September 9-11, 2016, we brought together 47 health professional and patient NCD advocates from YP-CDN Chapters active in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Burundi, as well as American Cancer Society Global Scholars from Nigeria, to learn advocacy and leadership skills, discuss NCD priorities and solutions, build regional ties, and to work on advocacy action plans to execute in their countries.

As an American Cancer Society Global Scholar and having attended the Advocacy and action training in Boston last year, I learnt that financial and geographical factors are major barriers to accessing comprehensive cancer care especially in low- and middle-income countries. Issues pertaining to cancer and cancer advocacy are the same worldwide. The only difference is that some countries are better equipped to tackle cancer than others.

Civil society groups across Africa were disappointed with the lack of prioritization of NCDs in the 2016 WHO AFRO Regional Committee Meeting and issued the following statement.