Takoradi · Western Region · Ghana
Stepin Women Foundation empowers women and communities with the knowledge, support and pathways they need to prevent cancer, recognise warning signs early and take informed action.
Who we are
Stepin Women Foundation is a Ghanaian non-profit organisation working to change when — and how — women meet the health system when cancer is involved.
Too many women in Ghana first reach a hospital months after noticing that something had changed. Not because they did not care, but because no one had explained what the change might mean, where to go, what it would cost, or what would happen next. That gap between noticing and acting is where lives are lost, and it is the gap Stepin exists to close.
We work in communities, markets, workplaces, schools and places of worship across the Western Region and beyond — teaching women what to look for, connecting them to qualified care when something is found, walking with them through the system, and measuring whether any of it actually worked.
Women and their families in Ghanaian communities — with men engaged as allies, not bystanders.
Cancer education, early-detection awareness, referral, patient navigation and survivor support.
Because late presentation is not inevitable. It is a knowledge and access problem — and both can be solved.
Alongside the Ghana Health Service and clinical partners — never in parallel to them.
The challenge
It is diagnosed late because information is scarce, screening is rare, distance is real and fear is powerful. These are the numbers that shape Stepin's work. Every figure below is sourced, dated and linked.
Alongside an estimated 17,944 deaths annually, and a five-year prevalence of 63,764 people living with cancer.
GLOBOCAN 2022 · IARC / WHO
Among women aged 25–49. For a cancer that is almost entirely preventable, this is the single most fixable number on this page.
Ghana Demographic and Health Survey 2022 · analysis, 2025
More than three quarters of women aged 25–49 have never had their breasts examined by a health professional.
Ghana Demographic and Health Survey 2022 · analysis, 2025
In a study at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, with an average of ten months between first noticing a symptom and seeking care.
Ghana Medical Journal · Clegg-Lamptey & Hodasi
With 1,815 deaths. Ghana's cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates are roughly twice the global average.
GLOBOCAN 2022 · IARC / WHO
A virus we can vaccinate against, and precancerous changes we can find and treat years before cancer appears.
World Health Organization, 2024 · Cervical cancer fact sheet
The Stepin model
Awareness alone changes very little. What changes outcomes is a connected pathway that carries a woman from first hearing something useful all the way to qualified care — and then proves whether it worked. Select any stage to see what it means in practice.
Make cancer knowledge ordinary — in markets, churches, mosques, workplaces, schools and homes. Plain language, local languages, no fear tactics, no shame.
Five flagship programmes
Together they form one continuous pathway — from the first conversation in a community to a measured, reported outcome.
Cancer education and awareness delivered where women already are — in language they use, without fear tactics or shame.
Early detection and screening awareness — helping women understand what checks exist, what they involve, and how to reach them.
Referral and patient navigation. The bridge between noticing a change and actually being seen by someone qualified.
Practical and emotional support for patients, families and survivors — through diagnosis, treatment and afterwards.
Monitoring, evaluation, research and advocacy. The part that turns activity into evidence, and evidence into policy.
Send us a message. Tell us what you are looking for — information, a referral, a session for your community, or a way to help.
2027 – 2029
Stepin's strategy is deliberately sequenced: prove the model in one region, scale what the evidence supports, then work at national level.
We are publishing this roadmap openly because partners and funders deserve to see where an organisation intends to go — and to hold it to that.
Cancer education and community outreach at scale, early-action campaigns, Community Champions, referral pathways, a patient navigation pilot, the Stepin Women's Cancer Summit, and the first full impact report.
Expand to more communities, grow the Champions network, strengthen referral and navigation, extend research, launch digital programmes, and build corporate and institutional funding.
Regional expansion, national advocacy, research partnerships, health-system collaboration, corporate partnership and long-term sustainability.
From the field
Stepin has been doing this work since before it had a strategy document. These are real outreaches, seminars and screening days — in Takoradi, in Sekondi, and at the Western Region's main referral hospital.
Our archive
Every conversation, every community and every woman reached is part of the Stepin story.
Join Stepin Women Foundation in building communities where women have the knowledge, confidence and support to take informed action against cancer.
