Grounds for Health is a non-profit organization that provides women’s healthcare to communities in coffee growing areas. And today, June 5th, they are teaming up with Peet’s Coffee to launch a summer-long campaign titled #WhereSheIs that will help in their mission to prevent cervical cancer in women at origin.
Throughout the course of the summer, Grounds for Health will be delivering free cervical cancer self-test kits to women in coffee-growing areas of Ethiopia and Kenya. In total, Grounds for Health will hand out 2,700 kits, which women can “In just minutes… can collect their own samples to learn if they have HPV and whether they will need treatment,” per the press release.
“Cervical cancer is an entirely preventable disease, yet in the places we work, women are dying because they do not have access to basic screening and treatment,” says Kyle Engelman, Director of Philanthropy at Grounds for Health. “Fewer than 15% of women in Ethiopia and Kenya have ever been screened. The availability of new self-sampling tests, and Grounds for Health’s commitment to reaching rural women who do not have access to preventive healthcare, will change that.”
Each month, the non-profit will announce a new location where they will be handing out kits. For June, Peet’s will be raising awareness for the highlighted region: “the coffee farms, processing facilities, and cooperatives where women work.” Additionally, from now until June 12th, the coffee company will give a 1lb bag of their Baridi Blend to anyone who donates $27 or more, “the cost to screen and treat one woman,” to Grounds for Health.
Then in July, #WhereSheIs will focus on open-air markets, giving out kits to both shoppers and vendors. In August, kits will be distributed to rural health posts and villages. With the #WhereIsShe campaign, Grounds for Health hopes to raise $100,000.
It’s a worthy cause that will be going on all summer. For more information on the #WhereSheIs campaign or to donate, visit Grounds for Health’s official website.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
