AT LEAST 60 golfers will tee it up at Royal Harare in the 2021 Pro-AM NAC Golf Tournament which has set an ambitious target of raising US$100, 000 for HIV and Cancer prevention.
Golfers will battle it out for a prize purse of US$50,000 in a field that will include past champions Ben Follet Smith and current holder Robson Chinhoi.
The fifth edition of the Pro-AM NAC Golf Tournament kicks off Wednesday, coming hard on the heels of the Ladies Golfers competition, held recently.
The tournament seeks to raise US$100, 000 with US$52,000 meant for KIDZCAN for implementation of childhood anti-cancer initiatives.
Addressing a news conference on Monday, NAC Chief Executive Officer Dr Bernard Madzima said the tournament has become one of NAC’s annual fund-raising strategies, bringing together partners, stakeholders and the public in raising resources to support anti-cancer initiatives.
“Although HIV and AIDS remain major long-term health and developmental challenges facing Zimbabwe, we have recorded commendable progress over the years, punctuated by significant reduction in new HIV cases and an increase in the number of HIV positive people accessing antiretroviral treatment,” Madzima said.
“The current Zimbabwe Population based HIV Impact Assessment and the Global AIDS Report have both confirmed that Zimbabwe has achieved its 90-90-90 fast track targets by 2020, placing us in a better steady to achieve epidemic control and end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.”
“As a consequence of this progress we have made especially in providing ART to people living with HIV, they are now living longer and becoming susceptible to other diseases, especially non-communicable ones and in particular cancer, which kills over 8.8 million people per year globally,” he continued.
In Zimbabwe, over 6000 new cases of cancer are recorded each year, with cervical cancer alone accounting for 35% of all the cancers.
Lack of community awareness has been identified as one of the major challenges facing the nation in fighting cancer, as 80% of cancer patients present late at stages 3 and 4, resulting in increased premature deaths.
Other challenges include inadequate resources for cancer programmes and limited service coverage, leaving people in outlying areas with limited or without services at all.
Through resources raised by the previous golf tournaments, NAC has procured over 20 cervical cancer screening machines for identified health centres.
Madzima appealed to corporates and the private sector to partner NAC in this initiative.
“While there has been an increase in the number and occurrence of anti-cancer awareness and containment measures, childhood anti-cancer initiatives remain underfunded. It is in this regard that NAC has decided to partner KIDZCAN to raise resources for their childhood cancer initiatives,” Madzima added.
