Building of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (BiH’s) institutions was illuminated on Friday in the form of a “Golden Ribbon” to support children with cancer, and to commemorate all prematurely killed children.
The activity is implemented by the Association of Families and Friends of Children with Leukemia and Other Malignant Diseases in the Tuzla Canton “PIPOL” with the help and support of the Joint Affairs Service of the Institutions of BiH.
International Childhood Cancer Day (ICCD) which was founded in 2002 by Childhood Cancer International (CCI) is celebrated around the world each year on February 15th. CCI – a global network of 171 member organizations in 88 countries including our member organization is committed to working with its international partners including the World Health Organization, SIOP, and others, towards the global goal of reducing childhood cancer mortality and the elimination of cancer-related pain and suffering.
On September 28, 2018 at the United Nations General Assembly, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced its new global initiative to address the disparity between childhood cancer survival in low-middle versus high-income countries. Each year, more than 300,000 children ages birth to 19 years are diagnosed with cancer around the world. Approximately 8 in 10 of these children live in low and middle-income countries where their survival rate is often near 20%. This is in stark contrast to high-income countries, where cure rates exceed 80% for many common childhood cancers.
The Target Goal of the WHO Global Childhood Cancer Initiative is to eliminate all pain and suffering of children fighting cancer and achieve at least 60% survival for all children diagnosed with cancer around the world by 2030. This represents an approximate doubling of the current cure rate and will save an additional one million children’s lives over the next decade.
