The unseen link between climate change and cervical cancer

When Sudi Noor speaks about the women and girls in her community, her voice trembles with emotion. As the director of the Girl Power Action Initiative at Kakuma Refugee Camp, she confronts women’s health crises daily; from cervical cancer to the insidious ways climate change compounds their suffering. Delivering the Annual Lecture on Climate Change as Lived Experience: Women’s Health, Bodies, and Displacement at Aga Khan University, Noor highlighted a glaring data void: African women bearing the brunt of these intersecting crises remain uncounted. “Women and children are always invisible when it comes to data,” she said. “But in Kakuma, we know their names, we know their faces, and we know their stories, yet they are never captured in global statistics.” "There is a need for more research using direct population incidence data rather than modelling to better understand climate change impacts on cancer risk," the study concluded.