The VMOF is supporting the VMOF/NCBC International Delegate Program (IDP), initiated by Dr. Keyserlingk, a VMOF Medical advisor, which now includes 52 International Delegates who are actively involved with breast cancer care in 41 Lower and Middle-Lower Income Countries (LMICs). These International Delegates are chosen for their individual expertise and direct involvement with breast cancer care in their respective countries. Their commitment, documented via a competitive process, to face the challenges and overcome the obstacles to breast cancer care give them the credibility to justify the VMOF to provide specific International Delegates with funding for a VMOF Mini-Fellowship. The duration of the VMOF Mini-Fellowships will depend on the available funding. The VMOF and it’s partners will thus seek to raise funding for successful LMIC International Delegates to cover air transportation and room & board along with access to pro-bono multi-disciplinary breast cancer training at the VM Medical Center’s Breast and Oncology Center, in Montreal. These training opportunities for breast cancer caregivers from underserved countries will sometimes be done in conjunction with the National Consortium of Breast Centers (NCBC), also a non-profit educational organization regrouping over a thousand breast care members from over 500 Breast Centers across North America, the first Canadian NCBC Center being the VM Medical Center’s Breast and Oncology Center.
VMOF MINI-FELLOWS will participate in all breast-cancer-related meetings and activities during their stay at the VM Breast and Oncology Center, including both hospital-based activities and Breast Cancer Conferences when feasible, either in Montreal or elsewhere in North America, including the NCBC 5-day comprehensive annual Breast Cancer Conference. They will also make a formal public presentation during their Mini-Fellowship to increase public awareness of the challenges of breast cancer care in a LMIC.
WHY SHOULD I PROVIDE FUNDING FOR THE VMOF MINI-FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM?
Health care providers from underserved countries and their patients need your help NOW! If you are in any way involved with breast cancer care, are a breast cancer patient, or just well informed and empathetic, you already know how breast cancer can affect patients and their families even in developed countries such as Canada... then multiply the devastation 10-fold in developing countries where it is now ravaging entire populations, so many of them young patients with such delayed detection that they would require palliative care that does not exist.
Attending a VMOF Mini-Fellowship will provide the educational and training tools that our deserving International Delegates from low-resource countries urgently need to help their patients win their war on breast cancer.
As our list of International Delegates waiting for the required training grows, so does the global breast cancer epidemic. We need to train as many Delegate-soldiers as possible, and as quick as possible, to ensure that our sisters from less fortunate countries finally also have access to dignified breast cancer care.
CONCERNING THE MINI-FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM, WHILE ANY AMOUNT WILL BE MOST APPRECIATED, THE FOLLOWING FUNDING OPTIONS ARE PROPOSED:
$7,000 To sponsor an International Delegate from a developing country to attend both the NCBC Annual 5-day Comprehensive Breast Cancer Conference, preceded by a one-month Mini-Fellowship at the VM Breast Oncology Center. The sponsor may choose a specific country and/or Delegate who will be identified as being funded by the sponsor’s name. The sponsor may increase the duration of the Mini-Fellowship.
$4,500 To sponsor an International Delegate from a developing country to attend a one-month Mini-fellowship at the VM Breast Oncology Center. The sponsor may choose a specific country and/or Delegate who will be identified by the sponsor’s name, or increase the duration of the Mini-Fellowship.
$2,500 To sponsor an International Delegate from a developing country to attend the Annual 5-day Comprehensive Breast Cancer Conference. The sponsor may choose a specific country and/or Delegate who will be identified by being funded by the sponsor’s name.
$500 To fund room and board for a Delegate from a developing country to attend the Annual 5-day Breast Cancer Conference.
You can donate any amount to help the International Delegate Program to provide educational and training opportunities, and/or to help them provide dignified breast cancer care for their patients.
PLEASE DONATE TO THE VMOF INTERNATIONAL DELEGATE & MINI-FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
You may make a general donation to the VMOF INTERNATIONAL DELEGATE & MINI-FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
OR
You may prefer to make a targeted donation for any of the above-described Mini-Fellowship options that aim to provide educational opportunities for deserving International Delegates
If you choose the latter option, please specify your preferred funding option along with any other pertinent details, such as your choice of Delegate, or country, in the Details Box on the on-line Donate Page.
To donate, please click here
Tax-deductible forms will be provided on-line.
Donate today and be able to say, “I know what happened to my donation dollars.”
Project 2: SUPPORT THE VMOF-VETTED SPECIFIC INTERNATIONAL PROJECT
