No fewer than 8, 886 women have been screened for breast and cervical cancer by LEAH Charity Foundation, a pet project of wife of Kwara State Governor, Mrs. Omolewa Ahmed.

The screening was conducted at 29 screening centres established across the 16 local government areas of the state where women can go for screening at a cost of N200.

The governor's wife disclosed this at the grand finale of a special empowerment programme organised by the foundation to support women and girl child in the state.

The empowerment which took the First Lady to the 16 LGs had over 3, 500 women empowered with different tools of trade while more than 200,000 widows were given relief materials.

Items distributed included deep freezers, grinding machines, sewing machines and hair-drying machine while non-indigenes from South-south and South-East were given N2.7 million as empowerment.

The governor's wife said the gesture was aimed at ensuring the welfare of women "as an important requirement for the wellbeing of our families". She said the danger of the deadly disease could be checkmated through regular check-up and screening.

Other health interventions by the first lady are the safe motherhood initiative, clinic on wheels initiative attended by 1,038,000, among others.

Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed who declared the empowerment closed endorsed LEAH Foundation's approach "to empowerment that involves teaching people to fish and look after themselves rather than providing stipends that can only take them so far."