Punjab has started to see a rise in cancer cases.

University of Wisconsin – Madison, Christian Medical College team up for a two-month project on cancer awareness

The University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA and the Christian Medical College have developed a collaboration designing a two-month project examining the effectiveness of direct education programs on cancer awareness and prevention in university students and school children in Punjab, India. 

Kevin King a student from the University of Wisconsin, has come to the Christian Medical College along with his mentor Dr. Gurwattan Singh Miranpuri, an alumni of Punjab Agricultural University, to work with Dr. Neeta Kang at the Betty Cowan Research and Innovation Center on spreading cancer awareness in Punjab.  Working with a team of CMC medical doctors, the group will be delivering direct educational health sessions designed to increase cancer awareness in university students in Ludhiana and school children in a rural village of Bathinda district.

Once known as the breadbasket of India, Punjab has started to see a rise in cancer cases.  The fundamental level of cancer knowledge of the population is as important in controlling cancer as new methodologies to prevention, early diagnosis and treatment, and screening tools.

This is the first attempt at direct education on cancer awareness for children with the hopes that they will return to their families to spread the information learned during the sessions. 

Soldier Takes Citizenship Oath in Iraq

By Army Spc. Kandi Huggins U.S. Division North CONTINGENCY OPERATING SITE WARRIOR, Iraq, July 7, 2011 - Swearing the oath to support, defend and serve the United States while serving in the Army was not quite enough for one soldier deployed to Iraq with 1st Infantry Division's 1st Advise and Assist Task Force. Army Spc. Angie Schaefer accepts a U.S. flag from U.S. Ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey during a naturalization ceremony at Victory Base Camp, Iraq, July 4, 2011. Schaefer, a Colombia native, took her oath to become an American citizen at the ceremony. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Daniel Stoutamire  Standing before a host of soldiers July 4, Army Spc. Angie Schaefer, a petroleum supply specialist with the task force's Company A, 101st Brigade Support Battalion, now had the opportunity to raise her hand and swear another oath she has wanted to take since high school: the oath that would make her an American citizen. Schaefer said she came from a very close-knit, traditional family and attended private school in her native Colombia. "It was definitely a different experience after I came to the states," she said. Schaefer said she was 7 when her grandparents moved to Miami, where she was able to get a free education. She said she had wanted to join the Army since participating in Junior ROTC in high school. She was able to enlist based on her permanent resident status in the United States. Two years later, Schaefer found herself in Iraq with U.S. Division North, supporting Operation New Dawn. "She's always working with a smile on her face," said Army 1st Lt. Jesse Dean Swanzy, a quartermaster officer and Schaefer's platoon leader. "Specialist Schaefer constantly contributes by volunteering to go on missions to supply our outlying forward operating bases. She leaves her mark on [Operation New Dawn] by helping her country through literally supplying the advise, train, assist mission." As a member of the 1st Platoon "Road Warriors," Schaefer drives supply trucks to bases around Contingency Operating Site Warrior. Fellow soldiers helped to prepare Schaefer for the naturalization test required to become a U.S. citizen, Swanzy said, adding that the unit really supports soldiers. During the ceremony, Schaefer smiled as she shook hands with Army Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, commander of U.S. Forces Iraq, who congratulated and welcomed her as a citizen of the nation she serves. "I'm excited," Schaefer said. "Becoming a citizen makes me feel accomplished, because I will be the first one in my family to become a citizen – not just a permanent resident – and I will have more stability in everything I am doing and plan to do." After the citizenship ceremony, Schaefer said she wants to attain her security clearance and go to college through Green to Gold, an Army program that allows soldiers to go to college and become officers through ROTC. "I know it will be a challenge," she said, "but I know I can do it, and I welcome whatever the future holds for me."

Related Sites: U.S. Forces Iraq