Who We Are

Cancer is a major public health problem that affects all countries. Developing and implementing an effective cancer control plan and reducing inequalities in access to prevention, diagnosis and quality care is a national challenge in every country.

Nepal is a low-income country in Southeast Asia with a population of 29,7 million where cancer control has not been a priority public health agenda. According to the Global Cancer Observatory, there were an estimated 20 508 new cancer cases and 13 629 cancer deaths in Nepal in 2020. Mortality is high in low- and middle-income countries and associated with poor prognosis which is due to lack of awareness, delayed diagnosis, inequity in health accessibility, and affordability as compared to high-income countries.

This shows that cancer necessitates collaborations among stakeholders to develop cancer prevention and a cancer control strategy tailored to the country’s needs.

All figures presented are from hospital data and do not represent the total population. There just one population-based cancer registry created in 2018 which covers only 20.3% of the total population : the Cancer Registry Program. It is therefore difficult to precisely know of incidence rates, future incidence rates and the number of cancer deaths. In reality there are many more new cases and deaths from cancer than the figures show.

To date, no national cancer screening program has been implemented in the country.

Cancer screening services are available only in tertiary level hospitals and private clinics in cities and this has a cost for the person who wants to be screened.

Occasionally, cost-free screening camps are organized by non-governmental organizations like my NGO Nidhi Shakti Health Protection Center (NHPC).

It is to promote health accessibility through health education and services that I founded this association in 2016, based in Kathmandu, Nepal .

In concrete terms, NHPC acts on three levels: we provide access to care for socially and economically vulnerable people, and to early cancer screening in rural and urban areas, and we invest in public education campaigns dedicated to cancer.

Thanks to the involvement of our volunteers and or donators, we are currently in partnership with 10 hospitals in Kathmandu Valley, and more than five thousand patients have been helped.

Thank you for being with us and sharing these values, which we believe are right.

Pradip Shapkota, President of Nidhi Shakti Health Protection Center.