Breast Cancer and Prayer Camps: Faith with Wisdom. FINAL PRODUCTION

                                    WARNING: CONTAINS SENSITIVE MATERIAL

Breast cancer is the most common invasive cancer in women and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women after lung cancer. Advances in screening and treatment for breast cancer, have improved survival rates dramatically for decades now.

Early detection and management are key to fighting this killer. Countries that have made progress in this direction have been able to reduce the breast cancer mortality rate by 2 - 4% according to WHO.

Breast cancer: early stage
Source: Google

Breast cancer: late stage
Source: Google

However, in Ghana, the situation seems to be different, as some women tend to see church and prayer as a better option than hospital for the management of this pitiless killer.

Quite unexpectedly, the reason for such a choice is at times a firm faith in the effectiveness of prayer, but which fails to be anchored on wisdom.

Victoria Yeboah, a young Ghanaian woman says that, out of loyalty, she resorted to church when she discovered she had breast cancer. The disease, however, kept on spreading until she went to the hospital.

Victoria Yeboah

“As the pain kept on increasing, I went to the   hospital and I was then told I had breast   cancer, and if I had delayed it would have   developed to stage 2. Then I was stage 1”

This phenomenon, which is progressively gaining grounds, in Ghana, is a source of concern for medical practitioners. One of them, Dr. Nikki Yelipoe of the Royal Hospital in Accra, insists that going to the hospital in early stages of breast cancer is vital.

                                    Dr. Nikki Yelipoe, Royal Hospital - Accra

Men of God share a similar view. They consider breast cancer to be a physical condition that can have spiritual ramifications, or necessitate spiritual support. 

One of them, Prophet Alex Twum, leader of the Word Vision Chapel Int. advises his congregation members in the following terms: “The first time you have breast cancer, see your doctor first, then see your pastor… Don’t go and stay in prayer camps because of breast cancer, it’s a disease.”

Prophet Alex Twum, Leader of Word Vision Chapel Int.

Maybe it’s a physical thing, but still, you need prayer. Maybe it’s a spiritual thing, but still, you need medicine.

Prayer and medicine are not mutually exclusive. It is good to have faith, but wisdom demands to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. The reference for any health issues is the hospital, and that is the first place any woman affected with breast cancer should go.

By Nadeen Mensah

     

CHALLENGES NAFTI STUDENT FACED DURING E-LEARNING

  

 Source: SABC-NEWS
         

Checking the temperature of a student 

 

The COVID-19 pandemic came with new and innovative ways of doing regular activities and academic institutions are not left out. Teaching and learning activities had to be done online since schools were closed down to prevent the spread of the virus. 

The introduction of the e – learning sessions although was innovative it came along with challenges not only for students but for lecturers as well. 

 

                                                                                  

                                                                            Home page of e-learning portal 

 A Digital Art student at NAFTI, Gabrielle Mbida explains how the internet connection has affected her so much. "I find it very difficult to submit assignment on the school or E-learning portal, I sometimes have no choice than sending it via E-mail or WhatsApp in other not to miss the deadline or fail my course. In other cases, the portal is supposed to accept a file of 20 MB yet when I try to load an assignment of 5MB it is unable to load," she laments. 

Other students also stated that sometimes due to traffic on the e- learning platform it makes the server slow or makes the platform inaccessible. When this happens, they are unable to watch their lecture videos and also submit their assignments. 

          

A photo of the portal when its inaccessible

 

  

Belinda Oduro is a lecturer in the Broadcast Journalism Department at NAFTI. She also stated some challenges of the e- learning and how it has affected her.  "If at any given moment in time we have all the students and lecturers logging on to the platform at the same particular moment the system gets choked; it is so slow and can be quite frustrating when you want to upload a video. Sometimes, I have made it a point to wake up at 12 midnight or 1am just so I could upload my lessons or assignments or even mark assignments." She continues to lament, "I don't know whether the student really understood what I thought or not and whether they were answering the questions base on what they have learnt or what they googled or what their friends told them and it quite a challenge for me, so at the end of the day I still walk away not 100% sure whether the student has understood everything i taught or not." 

 The head of Technical at NAFTI, Stanley Yeboah explains what the main issue is and how the Institute is planning to solve the problem 

Mr. Stanley on how the e -learning problems are being handled

E-learning despite its numerous challenges, has come to stay, as such management needs to offer the best solution to ensure that teaching and learning is effective at NAFTI.  

                                                        

                                        Front view of the National Film and Television Institute(NAFTI)

 

Written by: Ophelia Dzamesi.