35th IIUM Convocation Programme book

32 35th IIUM Convocation Ceremony Majlis Konvokesyen IIUM ke-35 History For two decades now, MAKNA has kept the torch alight for those fighting for their lives against cancer. Throughout this time, theorganisationhasundergonevarious transformations and achieved significant milestones by placing cancer central in its focus. What holds the key to MAKNA’s future very much depends on the degree or level of support received from the public. MAKNA sees itself playing a continued and undiminished role for the next two decades in reaching out to cancer patients and the public wherever they may be. International Initiatives For the past several years, MAKNA has established ties with healthcare and charitableorganisations in other countries. The efforts have been more of competency building and training as well as sharing of expertise and knowledge with these parties. The learning curve in achieving our goal has been slightly steeper due to environments that are governed by different set of laws and general practices. MAKNA will continue to try making meaningful inroads in the coming years and to expand its operations into more countries with the right potential, given time. Our current collaborations will go on as we have our sights set on helping poor cancer patients not only in Malaysia but elsewhere as well. On the international front, we have been working with the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) as a full- fledged member of the organisation. Our position has been to align ourselves and participate in programmes that are aimed at raising awareness of cancer and accelerating the fight against the disease. The International Division of MAKNA was established in May 2008 with the objective of increasing our presence in Southeast Asia and to reach more cancer patients in need. The Division is intent on collaborating with other NGOs across the region in as many ways as possible to increase patients’ understanding of cancer and their abilities to cope with the disease.