Blue November colours Brazzaville
On 22 November, the Fund Transfer Regulation Agency, better known by its French acronym ARTF, swapped desks for trainers and led employees on a brisk public walk through Brazzaville, turning the city’s morning traffic into a rolling message about male cancers and lifesaving check-ups.
Blue November follows the widely observed October Rose campaign for women’s cancers; management said matching events ensure health advice reaches every colleague and their families, without making gender an obstacle.
The agency handed out sky-blue T-shirts and wristbands at dawn, so even latecomers merged into a single block of colour, while small placards carried terse messages such as “Screen, Treat, Live” in both French and Lingala to reach passers-by of every age.
A ten-kilometre city loop
The 10-kilometre route started at ARTF headquarters in the Sapins-Pompiers district, skirted the national university hospital, swept past Patte d’Oie, circled Alphonse-Massamba-Débat Stadium, brushed the presidential compound and the Finance Ministry, before bringing the panting cortege back to its starting line.
Commuters smiled, taxi drivers honked and market vendors waved as blue-shirted walkers filed by, creating an impromptu awareness ribbon across the capital’s arteries.
A support van cruised beside the group with bottles of water and first-aid supplies, although organisers later said no incident heavier than a loose shoelace was recorded, proof that moderate exercise remains within reach for most office workers.
Team spirit beats hierarchy
From directors to interns, the cohort moved at the same pace, phones tucked away, chatting over water breaks about football, food prices and, inevitably, health fears they rarely raise in a formal office setting.
Human resources chief Epenit Kazaband Rostand said the outing aimed to ‘flatten our organisational chart for a morning’ so that messages about screening would travel faster than emails.
He insisted health promotion inside the workplace is now part of the agency’s performance indicators, just like customer satisfaction or budget control.
Many noticed supervisors and drivers trading jokes, an unusual sight in a sector where strict confidentiality often keeps departments apart; observers described the morning as a walking corridor meeting without notes or laptops.
Doctors underline early testing
After cooling down, staff gathered in the auditorium for a frank talk with urologist Dr Moubie Stéphane Siméon, who outlined the silent course of prostate cancer and reminded the audience that early-stage tumours often produce no pain.
He urged men over forty to book annual blood tests and digital exams, stressing that waiting for symptoms can cost precious treatment options.
Questions flew about local screening costs, insurance coverage and dietary myths; the physician patiently separated science from hearsay, concluding that ‘knowledge is the most affordable medicine’.
Dr Siméon also touched on testicular and colorectal cancers, warning that urban lifestyles marked by long sitting hours, alcohol and smoking can magnify risks; he emphasised that prevention still costs less than hospital stays.
March echoes October Rose model
Last month ARTF employees walked in pink to support breast-cancer awareness; repeating the model for men seals a culture where staff expect their employer to champion health beyond salary day.
Director General Basile Jean Claude Bazebi, who completed the entire circuit, told colleagues the agency will keep mixing sports and prevention because ‘a healthy organisation begins with healthy people’.
The dual-colour calendar, pink then blue, is gradually turning into an internal tradition that staff already nickname ‘the rainbow of care’, a term Bazebi welcomed because, he said, it reminds everyone that health has many shades.
What lies ahead for participants
Organisers plan to maintain momentum with lunchtime stretching sessions and a quarterly health newsletter that translates medical jargon into simple steps, from hydration reminders to advice on cutting back salt.
For walkers still catching their breath, the takeaway was clear: a ten-kilometre chat with colleagues can open doors to a lifetime of earlier consultations and, potentially, higher survival rates.
ARTF intends to replay the walk next year with partners from other ministries, hoping the spectacle will spill beyond the agency and make regular screenings as routine as paying utility bills.
Male health conversation still fragile
Although communities often discuss women’s health in October, conversations about men’s intimate diseases remain trickier, health educators acknowledge, making November’s blue campaign a vital counterbalance in workplaces, in markets and even inside households where silence can delay doctor visits.
ARTF managers say a regulator that moves billions of francs daily cannot ignore the wellbeing of the people making those transfers, especially when a preventable illness might sideline talent and hurt service continuity during peak remittance seasons of December.
By placing health at the heart of its corporate agenda, the agency hopes to set an example for other Congolese institutions eager to modernise their human-resource policies while contributing to national development goals.
Internal surveys after earlier campaigns showed staff retention rose when wellbeing programmes were visible, a correlation Bazebi says encourages further investment in preventive days like Blue November across all departments.
