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For the past five years, the Sister Sister Breast Cancer Support Group has received a helping hand from the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI) in the fight against breast cancer, and this year the institution is turning it up a notch.<\/p>\n
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From Pink Scoop ice cream day to a Pink Awareness bake sale, to Sock it to Cancer Pink Sock Day and a balloon release day in memory of survivors and those who have passed on, BTVI\u2019s community service project is to promote breast cancer awareness, particularly as early detection saves lives.<\/p>\n
BTVI\u2019s Dean of Student Services, Racquel Bethel, said it is important that educators venture beyond the four walls of the classroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to connect students and society. We live in a community and hurricane Matthew reminded us that it\u2019s not just about us. We have to think beyond ourselves and be our brother\u2019s keeper,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n
The first in a series of events was a speakers\u2019 series that included breast cancer survivors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe connected students with faces. These are real people, and they told their stories. Breast cancer could impact anyone at any age,\u201d said Ms. Bethel.<\/p>\n
One of the speakers, Lakeisha Bastian, is a survivor of eight years. She underscored the importance of educating and encouraging people to become supporters. She said an abundance of awareness needs to be garnered so people can become more sensitive towards breast cancer.<\/p>\n
The non-profit charitable group\u2019s president, Andrea Sweeting, stated that support is a part of the survival kit. The Bahamas has the largest rate of breast cancer individuals per capita.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a death sentence,\u201d added Meredith Munnings, \u201cwe want people to go and get tested, and if they have breast cancer, we want them to take the steps to be able to live the best life ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Kayla Ingraham does not have breast cancer, it has been in her family for years. Furthermore, the diagnosis for her co-worker, Lakeisha Bastian, brought the reality that much closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel it\u2019s my duty to support my friend. I feel I\u2019m obligated to support her. It could have been me who was diagnosed and she would want support. I have to support people because I don\u2019t know when it could be my time,\u201d said the loyal friend.<\/p>\n
Hence, Ms. Bethel is convinced that giving is a part of learning. She said BTVI\u2019s Student Affairs\u2019 team will continue to push for activities that motivate students to become more community-minded.<\/p>\n
\u201cA mandate of BTVI is to build good citizens. We want them to value giving back. It builds character and model citizens,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI)<\/p>\n
Photos by Shantique Longley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For the past five years, the Sister Sister Breast Cancer Support Group has received a helping hand from the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI) in the fight against breast cancer, and this year the institution is turning it up a notch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":172758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[204,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}