Most go to the hospital as a last resort. All over the continent, there lingers a belief in magic-that the cancer victim has been cursed and needs this curse removed to get well again. Women come to them to give birth and are seen about 3 times during each pregnancy. Using local, community-based midwives is the method chosen here. The midwives are taught how to do clinical exams and go into the communities to examine women.
Spirituality is very strong among the people and emotional support during disease is stressed.
Various cartoon stories were created to help educate women. 750 women die there each year from the disease. Higher incidence rates are projected, especially among younger women. Since they are a recent war zone, there is not much money for women s health. This country does have long-standing cancer groups, the one in the capitol city of Zagreb just celebrated its twentieth anniversary.