Sadiki

By Darryl Mitteldorf, LCSW
How does Malecare provide prostate cancer support to more people worldwide than organizations with more funding, employees, and brand recognition? This essay explains how we earned and maintain that honor.

Sadiki
The Swahili word sadiki encapsulates “believe” and “trust.”
In Malecare’s prostate cancer support groups, sadiki is the bedrock upon which hope is built and shared. Belief and trust are the guiding light for how communities come together to heal. Prostate cancer patients can choose to believe in the possibility of survival and trust in those who stand with them.

Sadiki metaphorically, concretely, and culturally forms the spine of Malecare’s work. Our modalities leverage belief and trust to build and scale supportive communities, especially among underserved and minority populations.

Sadiki does not come from branding, advertising, or awareness events.
Sadiki is one-to-one and all-for-one.

Sadiki does not come when an organization is in front of the room.
Sadiki is when the organization is the room.

Sadiki and Its Relevance to Healing
The word sadiki signifies confidence, faith, and acceptance of truth. In many African and global traditions, to “sadiki” someone or something means to give your trust wholeheartedly.
Sadiki can mean the difference between isolation and communal strength.

Belief and trust create safe spaces where individuals feel understood and supported. Cancer injures our beliefs and degrades our capacity to trust. Malecare’s support groups are a construct of social healing rooted in trust and mutual belief. Malecare is the institution that holds prostate cancer patients together.

Sadiki as the Cornerstone of Communities
Malecare’s decades of integrity and uncorrupted advocacy create the collective truth that guides our group leaders. Malecare support group members enter an unwritten pact of empathy and mutual respect. Everyone in a Malecare group knows that their stories and fears meet with communal understanding.

Sadiki is the bridge connecting patients, particularly for underserved communities.

Sadiki and our Mission
Helping men “live longer and happier lives” by making health services safe, accessible, understandable, and sustainable is Malecare’s founding mission. In 2004, Malecare declared, “We commit to contextual, culturally competent care wherever the need exists.”

Malecare’s mission-driven emphasis on trust is a strategy to close the gap in prostate cancer outcomes by bringing those traditionally left out into a circle of care they can believe in.

Malecare fosters trust and improved outcomes in diverse communities, with men and transgender women experiencing better knowledge, preparedness, and health behaviors because of the support they receive. Trust becomes the antidote in communities where misinformation or fatalism can take root.

Sadiki and Culturally Competence
Innovative trust-building strategies validate Malecare far beyond tokenism and lip service. Trust is earned by showing genuine cultural understanding, peer solidarity, and having “skin in the game.” We shared the spilled blood of those whom we serve.

Some of Malecare’s landmark strategies include Pioneering Inclusive Support Groups. Malecare founded the world’s first prostate cancer support groups for gay and bisexual men and transgender women, as well as the first national cancer support program for the LGBTQ+ community. Soon after, Malecare pioneered the African American Prostate Cancer Research Project, the Twice as Many programs, and the Black Prostate Cancer Alliance.
Malecare’s early research studies on adjustment disorder in cancer patients helped us improve support group models from the bottom up.

Sadiki and Peer to Peer Support
Malecare trains survivors as mentors and Patient Action Leaders so that each man has a trustworthy guide. Peer mentorship builds a deep trust – patients know the advice comes from someone who genuinely understands their struggle from their heart. “Truth from Experience” is the living embodiment of Sadiki, building comradery within Malecare’s programs.
Men and transgender women from all walks of life see themselves reflected in Malecare’s programs.

By tailoring programs to cultural needs, leveraging peer support, and communicating with integrity, Malecare builds the trust that holds our community together. By nurturing a supportive brotherhood, Malecare turns fearful patients into empowered survivors who help themselves and reach back to help others.

From Sadiki to Survivorship

The impact of Malecare’s trust-centered advocacy is evidence that bridging cultural divides and earning community trust is not a brand note but a fundamental requirement for effective health outreach. When men trust an organization enough to speak up, learn, and lead, stigma, fear, and fatalism crumble. Malecare’s supportive communities are massive and powerful – they also amplify their voices in calling for better research and equitable healthcare.

Sadiki captures the heart of Malecare’s advocacy practice: believing in truth and trusting in the community’s collective power to heal. Armed with the faith that they are not alone – that they are heard, valued, and supported –Malecare’s support group members are forging a legacy of survivorship.