OUR ACTIVITIES
Humble beginnings
The Digumarti Foundation started with supporting the education of girls from primary school to college. While still passionately contributing towards education, currently the foundation’s primary aim is screening and prevention of cervical and breast cancer.
Comprehensive cancer care
Dr. Raghunadharao and Dr. Leela contributed to the development of the Department of Atomic Energy sponsored Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Visakhapatnam, as a comprehensive cancer care centre catering to the people of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
The Gynaecologic and Preventive Oncology Department, established by Dr. Leela in 2014, is amongst the first few departments started at HBCH & RC in Visakhapatnam and the first one for the Telugu States.
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Mother-Child Pairs Program for Eliminating Cervical Cancer
Dr. Leela Digumarti designed this flagship project in 2015 as a solution towards elimination of cervical cancer, the major cause of cancer mortality in rural women in India. Under this program, every child and its mother is considered as one unit. Our motto is to screen the mother for cervical cancer with HPV testing, while vaccinating the child against HPV, the human papilloma virus, that causes cervical cancer.
This is in consonance with the WHO’s 3 pronged plan call for global elimination of cervical cancer (prevent-screen-treat) and aligns with the ambitious program chalked out by the Ministry of Health, Government of India.
With the help of volunteers from several NGOs, village schools are identified and adopted. Since 2019, the Foundation has successfully raised funds to screen women and vaccinate children in 8 rural areas: Appapuram in Srikakulam District, Uddanapuram, Vempadu and Pedaramabhadrapuram in East Godavari District and Dharnarayudupeta in Visakhapatnam. Children and their mothers from the Zilla Parishad School in Aganampudi, Visakha Vimala Vidyalaya in Gantyada and and the Perla Rammurthy Chetty School for the Deaf and
Mentally Handicapped, Vizianagaram have also been screened and vaccinated.
The cost of screening and vaccination for each class of 80 students is about ₹ 10.5 lakhs. Typical cost of providing the care for effective cervical cancer prevention per village is about ₹ 27-30 lakhs.
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