Public education in East Java, comprehensively incorporated into the Family Welfare Program

The establishment of a voluntary Cancer Society in East Java in 1969 has enabled the development of a program of public education, a counseling service, and a cervical cytology program. More recently the Cancer Society has begun to channel its work through the government-sponsored Family Welfare Program. That program includes a system of education directed to the needs and potential of the family as a unit. The Cancer Society plans to incorporate aspects of cancer control into all ten sections of the program. This paper describes these and the local organization of key people to promote and support the program in three pilot areas. In the long run it is hoped that through promoting changes in life-style, environmental factors/hygiene, and so forth, some carcinogenic factors may be eliminated, resulting in primary prevention.