 Excellencies, Director-General, ladies and gentlemen. Do you present here in Vienna and to those who are following us online? Welcome to the IAEA World Cancer Day event. My name is Sophie Boutaud-Lacomb. I'm the Director of Communication for the IAEA and I will be your moderator for those events. This year marks the final year of the World Cancer Day campaign. Close the gap. This campaign echoes the objective of the IAEA Raise of Hope initiative, the agency's answer to the unequal distribution of cancer care resources. Cancer is one of the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. We've around 19 million new cases and close to 10 million deaths can say related every year. More than 60% of the world's total new annual cases occur in low and middle income countries. Countries that have only 5% of the resource dedicated to cancer care. As a consequence, the rising incidence of cancer is further straining the already scarce resource in many countries. Through Raise of Hope, we are mobilizing and channeling resources that support increased access to life-saving diagnosis and radiotherapy equipment to all patients. We are focusing support on countries that have little or no access to radiotherapy and we are providing the expertise to ensure facilities can run safely and securely into the future. We are raising hope for cancer care for all. Joining us today is Excellency Mrs. Kumbitze Kondodo-Shiponda, the Minister of Health of Malawi, her Excellency Mrs. Karina Rondo, the Minister of Health of Uruguay, who has provided us with a video-recorded message. Tedros Abdano Rebresous, Director General of the World Health Organization, he's also providing us with a video-recorded message. And we have Dr. Raul Doria, the head of the National Care Institute in Paraguay with us today. As a keynote speaker, we have Bianca Moniz. She's a singer, a songwriter, and a three-time cancer survivor. Finally, please join me in welcoming Director General Raphael Mariano-Grossi, who will giving us his opponent remarks for this World Cancer Day event. Digi, the floor is yours. Thank you very much. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Of course, as every year, World Cancer Day offers everybody a possibility to get together around this problem and to think about what we are doing and what needs to be done. Sophie just reminded us about some of these very gloomy statistics that we repeat every year, only that every year they are worse. In terms of cancer cases, death cases derived from those annual cancer cases and percentages of the world population, in particular in low and middle income countries, which do not have access to adequate cancer services and care. Listening and reading about those dismal statistics was the reason why two years ago, in fact, a little bit more than that, we decided to not only repeat yearly these statistics and make repeated calls for action or messages, but rather put together a program that would start delivering and would start changing this reality in the world and in particular in low and middle income countries. And this was, of course, building on many years of efforts here in Vienna, but also elsewhere, and we will soon hear from my good friend Dr. Tedros from WHO because this is, of course, an effort that has many partners and many people around the world working on this. But Race of Hope was trying and was inspired, and we are trying to do that to provide a very flexible, very adaptable instrument that would allow us to improve and doing it with a real added value. There are many partnerships in this area. We know it nationally, regionally. There are other institutions and countries working on this. The difference here is that the IEA has this global reach, has this universal understanding of where the needs are, has technical capacities, and has all this community in partnership with us. We are realizing, of course, the public sector in every country participating in the initiative and also quite decisively, and we hope in a much more impactful way in the future, the private sector as well. I can tell you and I can see that there is an increasing conviction that we need to work together and we need to work differently. Just an example. Just a few days ago, I was participating in this big, important international gathering in Davos, the World Economic Forum. This is a place where mainly very powerful people, politicians and people from the finance world and entrepreneurs get together. So it was very good that we could be there and getting a lot of attention when we were talking about Race of Hope and that we were able to start establishing partnerships and for the first time having big companies coming to us and wanted to know a little bit more. Of course, I would like that to be faster and that results be felt more immediately, but we see that the wheels are turning and Race of Hope is already delivering here from you, for example, from my colleagues in Paraguay, near to my own country. So we will see how this is happening. Race of Hope, as many other things about the IEA, it's not about talk. It's about doing things. It's about bringing concrete radiotherapy, the hardware and also the training so that we can have a better situation in every country. So this is why I want to thank you seeing a room like this full with people, ambassadors, permanent missions who are so important for this effort and also people from capitals getting together on this important day is really heartwarming. But this is just the beginning. You will see in the course of the program that we have that the needs are enormous globally and also in terms of Race of Hope. We have already, we are approaching 80 countries, 80 countries that have requested to be included and to benefit from Race of Hope in different ways. As you know, Race is a program that has an adaptable format with different offers, if I can put it like that, depending on the cancer situation in each country. The situation in Malawi is not like the situation in Paraguay, to only take the examples of the distinguished colleagues here on my right. So that requires different approaches and different solutions. But I want to give you this as an example of the enormous needs we have in front of us. So I thank you again for being here. I think this opportunity and I hope this opportunity will be very useful for all of us to get an update of where we are. As you know, we had a first batch of seven countries, including yours, in Africa and elsewhere. We are now working on the second, I would say, level through the anchor countries, and we will have representatives of them. And we will want to hear and we will have a discussion soon about this from donor countries, how they are working with us, and how we can do more. So really looking forward to that and thanking you again for being here with us. For now and for the future, we have to make Race of Hope a big, big success. Thank you very much. Thank you, D.G. Grossi. Before moving on to the keynote speaker, we will hear from the Director General of the World Health Organization. Director General Rafael Grossi, dear colleagues and friends. Two years ago, WHO and the International Atomic Energy Agency joined forces for the Race of Hope initiative to address long-standing inequities in radiotherapy. Of the 12 million people diagnosed with cancer in low and middle-income countries, only half have access to radiotherapy. This is just one of many powerful partnerships we have formed in the war on cancer. In 2022, with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, we launched the global platform to provide every child with cancer life-saving therapies in 50 countries. We engage the private sector to improve access to HPV vaccination and screening tests to eliminate cervical cancer. We have collaborated with the Islamic Development Bank on women's cancers. Yet partnerships only take us so far. Success relies on governments investing in cancer. Today, WHO is releasing a report showing that only 39% of countries finance priority cancer services in their health benefit package. This undermines universal health coverage and the sustainability of cancer care. Partnerships must empower governments to succeed in the journey towards UHC. Cancer does not need to be a death sentence or a cause of impoverishment. Let's work together with policy makers and other partners to keep cancer high on the health care agenda. I thank you. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to introduce you to our keynote speaker, Bianca Muniz. She is a singer, songwriter, and three-times cancer survivor. Her journey is a source of hope and inspiration, not only to patient patients, but also to all of us in our commitment to bring cancer care to those who need it the most. She's here today to share her unique experience. Bianca, you have the floor. Thank you so much. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for allowing me the privilege of standing before you today as a three-time cancer survivor and advocate. My name is Bianca Muniz. I was first diagnosed with ovarian cancer at 11 years old, then breast cancer at 22, and most recently lung cancer at 26. My journey through three cancers thus far has been both a testament to my resilience and a stark reminder of the inequalities that exist in cancer care. I carry with me the TP53 genetic mutation, also known as Leframini syndrome, a genetic predisposition that has made my battles more complicated. Yet here I am, a living testament to the power of early detection, advanced treatments, and a stroke of geographic privilege. I was born in a place where access to top-notch medical care was not a luxury but a given. Unfortunately, for many around the world, this is not the case. The theme of today's event, Bridging the Gap, resonates deeply within me. My survival story is intricately woven with the opportunities I had because of where I was born. It pains me to think that if another person with my mutation were born in a less fortunate place, their journey might have been cut short. Access to life-saving treatments, like the ones I received, should not be determined by the geographical lottery of birth, and I am here to share my story not just as a narrative of personal triumph but as a call to action. Cancer, as we all know, does not discriminate. It touches lives across borders, races, and socioeconomic statuses. It is a global challenge that requires a collective global response. The Raise of Hope initiative is a beacon of light in this collective effort. This initiative is not just about treating cancer, it's about bringing hope to those who are often left in the shadows of inadequate healthcare systems. It's about giving a fighting chance to the millions who face cancer with resilience but lack the means to combat it. It is a gap that transcends borders and speaks to the very essence of our shared humanity. I'm deeply moved by the commitment from Raise of Hope to help widen access to cancer care. Each patient diagnosed and treated are not just statistics, they are actual lives being transformed. As we celebrate World Cancer Day, let us not only acknowledge the progress made but also recognize the challenges that lie ahead. There's so much more work to be done and the future of cancer care should not be determined by where you live or the resources available to your country. I call upon each of you to join hands in this fight to contribute your efforts, your resources, and your voice to bridge the gap in cancer care. Let us stand together in our commitment to making cancer care accessible to all regardless of their place of birth or economic status. Thank you. Thank you, Bianca, for sharing your personal story with us. It expresses how cancer diagnosis and treatment are more than offering survival chances for cancer patients. It's also about how it shapes people's lives. We are incredibly grateful to have you with us today. We will now hear from recipient countries of the IEA Raise of Hope initiative. To begin, her Excellency, Mrs. Karina Rondo, Minister of Health of Uruguay, has provided us a pre-recorded message. Last December, DG Grossi announced that Uruguay will receive five mammography machines and a linear accelerator through the Traders of Hope initiative. Let's hear more. Good morning to everyone. It's a great honor for me to be part of this opening final of these forums on Raise of Hope. I am grateful for the invitation of the International Atomic Energy Agency Authorities. The Director General, Mr. Rafael Drossi, Mr. Lee, Deputy Director, Head of the Department of Technical Cooperation, Mr. Longoya, Director Division of Latin Americas and the Caribbean, Department of Technical Cooperation, Mr. Ben Da Wab, Director Division of Human Health, Mrs. Lisa Steven, Director Program of Action for Cancer Therapy, Pat. And while working towards cancer care for all, it's a paramount program that is aligned with the objectives of our ministry. The data obtained from our country from the impact project tool was important to evaluate the capacities and the needs related to cancer prevention, diagnosis and health. Low income countries and also some middle income countries like Uruguay may have a lot of difficulties to achieve the international standards. In our case, the lack of economies of scale is a big problem for their position of equipment, but not only one of the problems. There's also others. The impact review requested by Uruguay was very helpful on focusing the future efforts of this ministry. We could document the lots of quality of some diagnosis equipment like mammographies, the need of improved the quality of radiotherapy in different areas of the country, the necessity to develop palliative care in most of the providers, and the necessity to improve governance from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Energy. Even if we could deal with many of those problems, for example, today we have 75% of our providers that have palliative care, the governance was improved. Two new linear accelerators started to be used after update the maintenance of them and so on. Nevertheless, more cooperation is needed to be included with equipment and training in different areas. The University Hospital does not have a modern linear accelerator to train young doctors. Mammographs should be urgently changed to ensure a better sensitivity and specificity. Race of Hope is a program that brings light to all corners of the world, including Uruguay. To endure its sustainability and maximize its impact, the International Agency of Dermatology is mobilizing additional resources, advocacy, and partnership opportunities. Founding is needed to build facilities, purchase equipment, and train personnel. It is estimated that 50% of the cancer patients need bracket therapy treatments, and various mechanisms are required for the treatment of that cancer, including simulation units, cobalt machines, and linear accelerators. Significant resources are needed to improve global equity in access to life-saving cancer treatments, CES said Lisa Steven, director of the EAS Division of Program of Action for Cancer Therapy. The goal of Race of Hope is to bring together a global coalition of partners, including member states, the private sector, development agencies, and financial institutions to support countries to establish radiotherapy centers and scale up existing capacities. Through Race of Hope, the International Agency is integrating its expertise and its donor states to bring hope to minimize inequities among the countries and the populations. In the diagnosis and treatment of cancer using radiation medicine, have a wonderful meeting and thank you for giving a chance of hope. The IEA Race of Hope initiative officially began on World Cancer Day in 2022, as our director general pointed out, with seven first wave countries including Malawi. I would like to introduce Her Excellencies, Mrs. Kumbize Kondodo Shiponda, Minister of Health of Malawi, Mrs. Shiponda, the floor is yours. The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, your Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to extend my sincere gratitude to you on extending the invitation from Malawi and me personally to participate in the Race of Hope Forum that is indeed bringing Race of Hope to cancer patients in Malawi. I bring the word of appreciation and a gratitude from His Excellency, the president of Malawi, Dr. Lazarus McCarthy-Chakwira, and his assurance of our country's commitment and support towards this initiative. I assure you of my delegations, full support and cooperation. Let me also recognize Bianca who has spoken before me. Bianca, you represent the women in Malawi, you represent the children in Malawi, you represent the men in Malawi. Bianca, what you have said here represent the 400 Malawians patients who have been on a waiting list to go to be referred either to India or South Africa or Kenya for them to have access. Bianca, your word represent over 5,000 Malawians who are still waiting for radiotherapy services or bronchotherapy services in Malawi. So I really, really appreciate you coming here. You are our champion, you are a hero. Your voice represents the voices of so many globally who are waiting, waiting for the initiatives like the ones we are witnessing here. Raising the Race of Hope, what a name. Indeed, the Race of Hope is raising the hope of so many people, especially Malawians. I stand here with a heart filled with gratitude for the support which you have been receiving through IAEA but also through the Race of Hope. Our relationship began in 2006, it has been a long journey but at least now we can see the end at the end of the tunnel. We are so grateful for the technical cooperation and support which you have received so far. As Malawi as a country, we have a 10-year National Cancer Control Strategic Plan that encompasses prevention, also includes screening, treatment of common cancers and palliative care. Malawi appreciates the support that has been provided to us. And the International Atomic Agency has supported the sustainable development of Malawi in the areas of agriculture and food as well, but also human health and nutrition, but also water resource management and industrial development, but also radiation safety and waste management and human resource capacity building in the nuclear science and technology. Specifically, the International Atomic Energy Agency assisted our country to develop the bulkable document which was used for financial resource mobilization, for the construction of the National Cancer Center, the first National Cancer Center in Malawi. The bulkable document helped to secure funding from the government of Malawi and of feed. And through this program and the Rays of Hope initiative, Malawi has benefited from various technical expert missions that have assisted with provision of technical expertise towards the National Cancer Center project, the impact review among others. Malawi has also benefited from the procurement of radiotherapy and nuclear medicine equipment as well as fellowship training in cancer-related fields. Director Geno, your ex-SLSs and colleagues, presently Malawi, we are under construction of the radiotherapy bankers. Director Geno, today I bring you good news. We have finished the concrete quarry for the four radiotherapy and the two BRCA therapy bankers. And now we are waiting the curing stage and the later mechanical works and the final finishes to be done. Our projection, Director Geno, is that come much would have finished everything and then we'll send invitation so that you can come and personally be part of the official opening of the first National Cancer Center in Malawi. In terms of equipment, procurement of the radiotherapy and BRCA therapy equipment has already been completed with the support from the International Atomic Energy Agency team and we are so grateful for their steadfast support and guidance and we expect to launch the first lead, like I said before May this year. In this regard, we want to extend invitation not just to you, Director Geno, but also to your team. And on this note, Director Geno and colleagues, let me also really express our sincere support to your team, led by Dr. Shokat and his team. Director Geno, they have been through us, with us throughout the process. During this very sensitive stage of the construction of bankers, we are having weekly meetings with them, Zoom meetings, so that they are part of the everyday process of the construction of the bankers and we are so, so grateful. Dr. Shokat and your team for the support which have rendered to our country. Director Geno and their colleagues, in conclusion, Malawi reaffirms its support to the agencies' activities and we are grateful to the agency for the invaluable contribution towards expanding and promoting peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology for development, especially in enhancing access to cancer, diagnosis and indeed treatment. Finally, I would also like to register the country's deep appreciation for the support and I pledge my commitment to assure that the set targets are met and that the rays of hope to cancer patients in Malawi becomes a reality soon. Lastly, let me take this opportunity to make an appeal to all those donors who support the rays of hope. Your supported rays of hope, it is a support to Malawians. Your supported rays of hope gives hope to the women in Malawi. Your supported rays of hope gives hope to our children, who as we are talking now, they are still in the village. They are still in the world waiting for us to finish the banker so that at least they can receive chemotherapy. So we want to make an appeal. There are so many people suffering. If Malawi are talking about 5,000, I can imagine Africa, the whole region of Africa, how many are there? You can do the maths. One country I'm talking about over 5,000, so it means in Africa the need is there. So let us work together, let us hold hands. All of us, we have a vision, a vision of a better world. In Malawi we will have a vision of 2063, whereby we want to see our country to be self-reliant. We want to see our country having moved from low-income to middle-income. But for that to happen, we need Malawians who are health. We need Malawians when they are sick, they can have access to the services in the health sector. Thank you so much. God bless you all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Minister Kondodo-Shipondar, for shining a light on the progress surrounding cancer care in Malawi. As you mentioned, in the 10 millions of deaths around the world, 70% every year happened in low and middle-income countries around the world, 70%. So now we would like to introduce Dr. Raul Doria, the head of the National Cancer Institute in Paraguay. Paraguay is also a recipient country of Rays of Hope and received a linear accelerator for radiation treatment last year. Dr. Doria, the floor is yours. Good morning, you all. Wonderful evening. It is a pleasure to have been invited to this distinguished panel of persons. Thank you very much, General Director Rafael Grossi and his wonderful team to produce this extremely helpful program of Rays of Hope. I am the newly director of National Cancer Institute. I was fortunate enough to early in my career be trained in United States where I stayed for 20 years to practice Maze in there. 10 years ago, I decided to go back to my country to contribute, treat patients in this country. I witnessed firsthand the difference that exists in two systems. The developed country system in cancer care and the underdeveloped cancer care system in Paraguay. I can tell you that the difference is enormous. The gap that we have to bridge is a very challenging proposition. And with the new elected government in Paraguay, Mr. President Peña and Minister of Health, Dr. Baram, we are committed to bridge this gap. And the challenges are enormous. The resources are very limited. So we are going to need the help of large organizations such as AIEA. And today, we're here to thank the great support that AIEA and Director General Grossi has been supporting Paraguay for many years. And I briefly going to describe this support. We have the first impact mission in 10 years ago where the document that was developed in this mission helped SICAN. SICAN is a program that was developed by the UICC a year after the impact mission came to Paraguay. And we were fortunate enough that the UICC selected Asuncion as one of the learning cities for this program. Now, SICAN is a fully developed foundation. With the help of the document of impact, we formed a committee that worked in 20 projects for the progress and improvement of cancer care in Paraguay. One of the main project was to work in advocacy for government. And with this group and working very closely with the government and the Congress, we were able to pass the first comprehensive national cancer law in Paraguay, law 60266, that created, transformed the income from a specialized hospital to a program that was in charge of all the cancer care policies in the country. And with this formed three pillars. PRONAC is a program for early detection and prevention. The network for cancer care providers and the program for academic and research. With PRONAC now we are involved in transforming early prevention, early detection and prevention in breast cancer and cervical cancer. And with the network that was formed, we now have nine institutions that provide chemotherapy treatment locally. And we have more than 90% coverage in the country for free chemotherapy for rural areas. And also we are developing more programs with research and academic. With the help of the agency, we have many radiation therapies that are training in master program in different countries. One of them is going to return this year to Paraguay to lead the first program of radiation therapy in a rural area. So we are very thankful for all this. And also in terms of human capacity, but also in equipment, EIEA have provided the first high dose radiation breakey therapy machine that is now the only program that treats cervical cancer patients in our country. We also, this month, are ready to start treating patients with the radiation therapy linear accelerator machine that was donated by EIEA. And that will help reduce the waiting list from three months to zero in our patients. And later this year, we're going to receive the donation of two mammography units that is going to help our early detection breast cancer program be able to treat more breast cancer patients in early stage. Today, unfortunately, more than 50% of the patients that we see in our country are diagnosed in advanced stage. As you know, that's an uncurable condition. Our program is to bring that number to closer to what developed countries between 20 and 30%. For that, we're going to need not only more trained technicians, we're going to need more trained radiologists. We're going to need more mammography machines. And with this machine that was donated by the agency, it's going to help launch this program. We are currently doing 30,000 mammography a year. We want to do this year 600,000 mammographies. So the challenge is enormous. This is going to help. When you go from more than 50% to less than 50%, you're not only saving life because early detection means cure. We're also impacting tremendously financial economic impact in the country. So we are very helpful, very thankful to the agency director General Grossi and his wonderful team that I was able to meet during this visit. Deep from our heart, we thank you, and we challenge the partners of AIEA to continue to support Rays of Hope because you are not only helping life, you are saving life. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Doria. Dear Minister Kondo Doshi Punda, Dr. Doria and Bianca, thank you for sharing your personal and country's insight. Your experience are a testament that results can be achieved, and your call for action, I hope, is heard today. This concludes the high-level conversation on the first impact of Rays of Hope. Thank you all. As our distinguished speakers, we'll take their seats in the room. We will play a video on the Rays of Hope initiative. The IAEA's Rays of Hope initiative has made significant strides towards increasing access to cancer care in the two years since its launch. At the start, seven first wave countries were on board. Benin, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, and Senegal. All face substantial cancer burdens, and like most developing countries, do not have enough access to radiotherapy or medical imaging. Since the launch of Rays of Hope, more than 70 additional countries have requested to join. A number of these have already started receiving tangible support, from radiation therapy and diagnostic machines to training for doctors and technicians. The Democratic Republic of Congo in particular, a country with no radiation facilities, has received IAEA support towards building its first radiotherapy centre. Other countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean have also received equipment and training. A range of anchor centres are being set up as capacity building and knowledge hubs. The first five were announced at the IAEA's General Conference last year in Algeria, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan and Tokyo. Anchor centres will advance cancer care, research and innovation regionally and globally, and support the long-term sustainability of Rays of Hope. The next steps are to strengthen partnerships with traditional donors and private companies, add additional funding streams, buy more equipment, train more experts, build more facilities, strengthen anchor centres capacities and eventually reach cancer care for all. Progress requires leadership. Leaders set priorities, allocate resources and drive systemic changes. With your leadership, we can make the future healthier for everyone.