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 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.
Mother-Child Pairs Program for Eliminating Cervical Cancer
Dr. Leela Digumarti designed this project to approach the child and her mother together, to screen the mother for cervical cancer with Liquid-Based Pap smears and/or HPV testing and vaccinate the child with quadrivalent HPV vaccination. With the help of volunteers from seversl NGOs, village schools are identified and adopted.
Since 2019, the Foundation was able raise funds to successfully screen women and vaccinate children in 5 villages: 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 and Visakha Vimala Vidyalaya in Gantyada have also been screened and vaccinated.
The cervical swabs are screened for HPV using RT PCR technique. Women who are HPV positive undergo colposcopy and locally ablative procedure to remove the abnormal tissue. The Digumarti Foundation sponsors the screening, including the cost of HPV testing, follow up and treatment. The foundation buys vaccines from the open market through the funds given by the donors.
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.