Pink Ribbon, USC ink agreement for greater outreach

Islamabad: Pink Ribbon Campaign and Utility Stores Corporation (USC) have inked a Memorandum of Understanding to raise maximum awareness at the grassroots level about breast cancer — a disease that kills 40,000 women in Pakistan every year.

Since USC has a chain of more than 6,000 stores with nearly 16,000 staff members with millions of customers walking in every day in 5,559 union councils across the country, the collaboration will lead to the utilisation of this huge platform to spread information about prevention of breast cancer.

At the signing ceremony, Pink Ribbon was represented by its chief executive Omer Aftab, and USC by its managing director Khaqan Murtaza. Both organisations have mutually agreed to become strategic partners and to utilise every possible option to create awareness among people about the deadly disease.

Omer Aftab termed the collaboration a milestone, saying USC’s outreach this will help Pink Ribbon to extend its message to a wider audience. Khaqan Murtaza was also pleased to team up with Pink Ribbon.

Pink Ribbon’s initial goal was to raise awareness regarding breast cancer among at least 500,000 people this year. However, the collaboration with USC has enabled the campaign to target millions of Pakistanis at the street level. Pink Ribbon is already running different activations through community engagement in all four provinces including small districts like Jacobabad, Abbottabad, Nankana, Kasur, Sahiwal, Muzafarrabad, Mian Wali, Larkana, Chaghi, Nasirabad and Panjgoor.