This paper is intended to portray the capacity of Environmental Literacy Education towards cancer prevention in Nigeria, particularly among the country’s rural communities. Reliable data from the World Health Organization show that about 1 in 6 deaths is due to cancer globally. For Nigeria, information from the Global Cancer Observatory affirms that cancer is responsible for about 72,000 deaths annually in the country. The rural communities in Nigeria have been shown in this paper to be very much vulnerable to cancer from various sources due to a host of social and economic deprivations, unfavourable environmental factors as well as mass illiteracy and cancer unawareness. Nigeria’s cancer prevention and care framework is an advocacy/awareness creation strategy which, unfortunately, lacks some vital content and delivery format. Following detailed analysis of the content, process and outcomes of Environmental Literacy Education (ELE) and its great potential to adequately inform/educate the rural community members about the nature and incidence of cancer and their individual/collective roles towards cancer prevention within their environment, the paper concludes and also recommends that ELE should occupy the pride of place in cancer prevention within Nigeria’s rural communities. The paper also suggests and expatiates on the various modes (Formal, Non-Formal and Informal) through which the required ELE could be effectively implemented.
Caroline Lewechi Eheazu and Ifeoma Felicia Uzoagu (2021) The Place of Environmental Literacy Education in Cancer Prevention among Rural Nigerian Communities, International Journal of Cancer, Clinical Inventions and Experimental Oncology, Vol.3, No.1, pp.1-23
Keywords: Cancer, Education, Nigeria’s rural communities, Prevention, environmental literacy, vulnerability to cancer.
