Nongovernment sector fighting cancer in romania

Adela Elena Popa; Ionela Vlase; Felicia Morandau

Adela Elena Popa orresponding author, Associate Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania
Ionela Vlase PhD, Lecturer, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania
Felicia Morandau PhD, Lecturer, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania

Keywords: nongovernment organisations, cancer, survivorship, return to work

Abstract

The burden of cancer is increasingly affecting patients in all European countries. The paper draws a landscape of the Romanian non-profit sector involved in tackling cancer. A descriptive analysis was done on two databases (the national registries of associations and foundations in Romania), for delineating the extent and the type of the NGOs’ involvement in the cancer fight. Results show a cancer civil society still in its infancy stage, displaying an imbalanced situation in terms of goals’ orientation and territorial distribution. Financially helping patients is a prevailing orientation, whilst there is not enough focus on prevention, education, rehabilitation and palliation. The paper raises concern for policy-makers to include NGOs as partners in national-cancer control programmes.