Pakistan has found an unusual ally in its fight against breast cancer – the waxing lady. GharPar, Pakistan’s leading mobile app for at-home beauty services, recently trained their beauticians to offer customers breast self-exam tutorials.
The insight for the powerful campaign comes from the social convention that Pakistani women often hesitate to discuss breast cancer, or agree to get checked, even around their doctors or husbands. But there is one person whom they have a very intimate connection with and are especially open with when it comes to their bodies – their waxing ladies.
In a country as conservative as Pakistan, GharPar’s new initiative smartly navigates around social taboos that prevent open discussions of Breast Cancer, not only spreading much-needed awareness about the topic, but actually finding a way to teach women how to self-examine.
Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer globally, and Pakistan has the highest number of cases in Asia. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 26,000 women in Pakistan were diagnosed with breast cancer, and over 13,500 women died of the disease in 2020.
Sahar Suleman, Marketing Manager at Indus Hospital, the institution that trained the beauticians, said,
“We are glad to play a part in this initiative as healthcare partners to promote early detection of Breast Cancer in an effort to save precious lives of women in Pakistan.”
Early detection is key in the treatment of breast cancer. Experts recommend that women below the age of 40 should perform regular self-examinations and women above 40 should undergo regular mammography screenings. As a personal-care service provider, GharPar recognized its unique position as a brand that engages with women in a safe space and turned it into an educational tool. The brand tied up with Indus hospital to train its beauticians so that they could pass on this valuable knowledge. Waxing ladies are often booked on a monthly basis, which now serves as a timely reminder to self-examine.
Shameelah Ismail, CEO GharPar Technologies Pvt. Ltd., said, “Checkup GharPar is extremely close to my heart because we have a history of breast cancer in my own family. And despite having a history, many female family members refuse to get themselves tested. What I love about this campaign is that our beauticians have been trained by Indus Hospital to guide our clients on how to perform a breast self-exam. The app will have an option for female clients to opt in for this service. I hope that every time our clients call us for services, they are reminded to check themselves for a self-examination.”
With hundreds of bookings per day, across 6 cities in Pakistan, GharPar is hoping to remove the ignorance and stigma around breast cancer and make breast self-exam an integral part of self-care for women in Pakistan.
