De Groot, Squibb fight cancer in Africa with storytelling cloth

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – Dr. Annie De Groot, a University of Rhode Island researcher and the co-founder and CEO of EpiVax, and Eliza Squibb, director of the Global Alliance to Immunize Against AIDS Vaccine Foundation, recently completed an awareness-building trip to Africa armed with a yellow storytelling cloth to encourage women in Mali to learn about the human papillomavirus, which is associated with cervical cancer.

The cloth, designed by De Groot and Squibb, shows healthy, flowering uteruses as well as the words “I protect myself. I care for myself. I get vaccinated.” In West Africa, textiles are used to communicate and tell stories.

The number of women receiving cervical screenings in the region benefiting from the program increased by more than 500 percent during the first three months of the program over the same period during the previous year.

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