Due to lack of basic information and awareness about early signs and prevention of cancer in the Indonesian community, JCF prioritizes programs aimed to improve people's knowledge through public information.

Information material consists of:

• Information about cancer in general and on healthy life style to prevent cancer
• Ways and means of breast self examination
• Seven early signs of cancer
• Introduction to Pap test and encouragement for having tests conducted
• Information on the ten most common types of cancer in Indonesia on which ICF concentrates the prevention program.

ICF head office publishes related brochures, booklets and slides as handouts which are disseminated throughout Indonesia, and uses the electronic media, personal approach, lectures and seminars. To improve the quality of human resources which have a direct impact on ICF's public information, a seminar on System and Public Education Media was held for advisors from all ICF chapters in 1992 to improve all information programs.

To enhance the knowledge of advisors throughout Indonesia, ICF continues to explore various possibilities. In collaboration with PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health), ICF volunteers, medical, and non-medical staff produced a book entitled Basic Information on Cancer in 1993.

Based on this handbook, the ICE improved the existing information matenal, leaflets, slides, and flip charts and developed new ones.

To ensure the maximum quality of information, the course Training for Trainers was set up in Jakarta in 1995 for medical as well as non-medical advisors recruited by ICF chapters throughout Indonesia.

As pediatric cancer is very specific considenng the parts of a body it affects during childhood, ICE published the handbook entitled Basic Information on Pediatric Cancer. This handbook is to be used only by medical staff.

Accordingly, the Training for Trainers course is set up for medical professionals onlly.

Each ICF chapter is fully authorized to carry out its own style of information service, and is supplied with handouts and other information material from ICF's head office. Some chapters have taken the initiative to translate vanous information material from the Indonesian language into local dialects.

Considenng the strong relationship between smoking and cancer, ICE also set up anti-smoking campaigns. The Foundation organized a competition in designing posters and essay writing about the danger of smoking. Through those activities, ICE tries to increase people's awareness of the danger of smoking, not to start smoking at an early age, and to quit smoking as soon as possible.

On May31, 1990, ICF received the Commemorative Certificate and Medal on World No Tobacco Day awarded by WHO, as well as the Tobacco or Health Medal 1990 from the WHO South East Asia Region.

Based on a suggestion by the WHO to its members to be more attentive to the hazards of smoking, the ICF and some NGOs (such as the 'Indonesian Heart Foundation', the 'Indonesian Asthma Foundation', the 'Indonesian Stroke Society', and 'Indonesian Women Without Tobacco') established the National Committee Against Smoking in October 1998. ICE has also its own anti-smoking unit.

ICF's means of information are developed according to state-of-the-art technologies such as interactive dialogues through the electronic media, using the internet to build up a network with related NGOs.