tag-iconNeeds 5 more donors to be fully funded

Support a child suffering from cancer with monthly rations by St Jude India Childcare Centres

Needs 5 more donors to be fully funded

Support a child suffering from cancer with monthly rations

Impact

Samyek's strength in his fight with cancer

Samyek is a young boy who suffers from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system. He is from a poor family and did not have proper food to eat.

When he was brought to St. Jude India’s Child Care Centre, he was rapidly losing weight because of malnutrition and the illness. He was shy and kept to himself.

Over time at the center, Samyek began to come out of his shell. He started opening up and making friends. The educational sessions got him more involved in his studies.

The center also helped his family cope through the difficult time. His parents got deeply involved with the activities at the center. They learnt more about their son’s disease which helped them move past wrong ideas that they had about it.

The food he got at the center helped Samyek stabilize his weight and continue his treatment. He is now undergoing his second chemotherapy and his treatment so far has been free of complications.

It is important to provide children battling with cancer a good environment and a healthy lifestyle. Mental well being and physical strength is crucial to a child who is undergoing treatment.

Your contribution will help provide food for children with cancer who cannot afford a meal. You can give with confidence because every program on our platform is GIVEASSURED. Contribute now to give a child like Samyek a fighting chance at life.

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Giveassured

By donating to this program

You will be sponsoring the benefits for different beneficiaries every month


About The Program

What the beneficiary gets
Rations
Nutrition
What you get
Tax Exemption
Periodic Reports
Program Description

Every year, hundreds of cancer-affected children travel to Mumbai along with their parents for treatment. With no place to stay in the course of the treatment, they usually end up staying on the streets, thus living at a risk of contracting secondary infections. Many of them even abandon therapy.

St. Jude India Child Care Centre works for the alleviation of such conditions for children undergoing cancer treatment. St. Jude India provides these families with a sanitized and secure environment where the patients and their families are provided the necessary nutritional and emotional support to endure the treatment. Through counseling, educational and recreational sessions they ensure the families are free of all myths surrounding their child's condition.

As for the patients themselves, they ensure a sense of normalcy is maintained for the children and they continue with activities they would pursue in a normal set up, like drawing or painting.

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About The NGO

St Jude India Childcare Centres
St Jude India Childcare Centres Logo
St Jude India Childcare Centres

St. Jude India Child Care Centers (St. Jude's) was founded to ensure that every child suffering from cancer, irrespective of their economic status, have access to the best possible treatment available and stand a chance to fight the disease and live a healthy, happy life. To this effect, the team of 140 staff members at St. Jude's provides cost-free and holistic care to patients and their families during the child's treatment.

In close to 33 centers across India, St. Jude's provides such families with free housing, the necessary nutritional intake, free transportation to and from the hospitals, counseling, art-based therapy, music therapy and yoga for the patients, and skill training activities for the families to open up new avenues for income generation. The organization has admitted 11,180 children so far across its 33 centers.

The fundamental mission at St. Jude's is to provide a clean, safe and cost-free environment and holistic care to needy children affected by the illness and their accommodating parents.

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founders
Founded in 1991
NGO Leadership

Usha Banerji

areas of operation
Area of Operation
Area of Operation

Cancer | children

location of work
Location of Work
Location of Work

Maharashtra

awards
Awards And Recognitions
Awards And Recognitions

2012: NGO Excellence Award

2014: Lifetime Achievement Award

2014: Award for Best "Samarth Project"

last audited
Last Audited
Periodic Compliance Checks by GiveIndia

Renewals FY 19-20

Program Updates

Program Updates

22 September, 2023

An update on the program you are supporting

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Activities and work undertaken in the last 5-6 months

Total number of beneficiaries impacted was 435 in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur with 32.64% being females


Challenges faced and next steps

Families were provided with weekly ration and nutritional supplements. The provision of weekly ration to families ensures healthy nutritious meals for children as well as parents. This builds the immune system of the children, increase in blood count, weight and height gain and ultimately, completion of the treatment without any delays.


Stories from the ground

Manjit Das, a 7-year-old from rural Bengal, was diagnosed with B ALL, a type of blood cancer. He's being treated with chemotherapy at St. Jude's hospital with the support of his self-employed mother and father, who works as a private driver. Despite his illness, Manjit excels in studies, dance, and art, and dreams of joining the Indian Army. He's always polite and respectful to others. The family is grateful for the support from St. Jude's during their difficult time.


3 June, 2022

"Right nutrition first step to healing with hope..."

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Activities and work undertaken in the last 5-6 months

Children under treatment for cancer experience low immunity, low blood count, and weight loss. They need healthy, balanced, and nutritious meals to be able to withstand the harsh, long-drawn treatment. In addition, we found out that children prefer home-cooked food made by their mothers. Coming from economically backward families, these children are often malnourished. To begin with, the rigours of treatment make matters worse, so the nutritional aspect of the stay period forms an important aspect of the essentials. Your support enabled us to provide weekly rations and nutritional supplements to 173 children and their two parents, i.e., 519 beneficiaries from July to December. Dedicated kitchen spaces and utensils, along with cooking facilities at our centers, helped the mothers cook all three meals for the family. The facility helped nurture the children, resulting in better immunity, a lower risk of infections during treatment, more strength, and energy to withstand treatment and ultimately heal. The treatment periods are long and may stretch from as short as 6 months to a year. Being focused all along on the child’s treatment remains a challenge for the families. Going back home after completion of treatment and trying to match the conducive facilities the family received at St. Jude given the meager earnings of the family remains a challenge. To mitigate this risk, we provided children going back home after treatment with exit nutrition kits and need-based relief kits were sent to the doorsteps of extremely needy families. The support ensured families got balanced, nutritious 3 meals a day so that children could keep good health during cancer treatment, leading to the timely completion of treatment. This ultimately reduces the abandonment rate, leading to lower morbidity and mortality and a better survival rate.


Challenges faced and next steps

The second wave had brought in new challenges, and the speed at which cases were going up around us in all cities was of great concern to us. COVID fatigue was something we had to address regularly, as we couldn’t afford to let off our guard in the slightest. July saw a reduction in COVID-19 cases in most cities across India. Our teams continued to work non-stop to ensure the safety of our children, parents, staff, and volunteers. We continued with strict protocols at all our centres. Update on COVID Management at Our Centres: The coronavirus pandemic has changed the world in an unprecedented way. Even as we come to terms with the new normal, our teams have been working non-stop to ensure the safety of our children, parents, staff, and volunteers. On-campus care: Amid the lockdown, our partner hospitals had advised all children to stay away from hospitals as much as possible because of their special vulnerability to secondary infections. To help, Tata Memorial Hospital set up an OPD unit to screen children on our Cotton Green campus itself. Stocking up on essentials: In addition to the ration that is provided by us, St. Judes has also been offering provisions such as eggs, fresh fruits and vegetables to our young residents and their families. Procuring and delivering medicine: Our children who may have to return for follow-up treatments have been advised to stay home unless there is an emergency. Some families have been calling us in distress as they are not getting essential medicines in their rural towns and villages. We have been dispatching medicine to them through different resources. As is the need of the hour, all activities at our centres have become virtual – from teachers conducting education sessions on WhatsApp to online tutoring for older children. Our virtual volunteering programme allows anyone willing to spend some time with the children remotely. Our counsellors are now conducting online sessions for families. Staff welfare: While all the non-essential staff, visitors, and volunteers have been prohibited from entering the centres, we have made special transport arrangements for our centre staff, housekeeping team, and security personnel to ensure they are being picked up and dropped off at and from their homes to the centres. Hygiene and safety: We are making sure families are more vigilant and aware of good hygiene practices and are providing them with all the essentials for personal care. The use of masks by all children, parents, and staff has been made mandatory. Regular use of sanitisers, PPE suits, soaps, and disinfectants has also gone up. We have been arranging for train tickets, travel permits, and private vehicles to send some of our children, and their families, back to their hometowns. These children were discharged by the hospital and were in our centres during the lockdown. Vaccination for Families: Our families visit hospitals for their children’s treatment, which are overcrowded, so as a measure of protection, vaccinating them becomes very important. 


Stories from the ground

The third wave seems to be behind us, and our children are continuing with the treatment as per hospital protocols. The families could understand the importance of the protocols we had put in place all along and became ambassadors of COVID-appropriate behaviours for new families. We are continuing with all the safeguards put in place during the last quarter and are not leaving anything to chance.


23 March, 2021

Ration Support

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To provide needy children suffering from cancer who are brought to city hospitals by their parents for treatment, with free accommodation and holistic care, St. Judes Centres are set up to provide them with a clean, safe, comfortable, caring and cost free place to stay when they are not admitted as inpatients at the treating hospital. Large hospitals providing low cost high quality treatment for cancer are unable to provide inpatient facilities for the entire duration of treatment. In order to utilize hospital beds optimally patients are treated on an OPD basis as far as possible. When they are not admitted, St. Judes Centres provide for their physical needs (shelter, safety, hygiene, nutrition and transport), and their emotional needs (education, art and music therapy, yoga, counselling and a range of activities that generate a feeling of being cared for, a positive mind set, and a spirit of sharing).
Coming from economically backward sections of society these children are often malnourished to begin with, the rigors of treatment make matters worse, so the nutritional aspect of the stay period forms an important aspect of the essentials.


The support has helped 151 children and their parents during the last one year during the various visits made by them at our Jaipur Location.



5 August, 2020

"Good Nutrition is key to sustainable Health"

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"Good Nutrition is key to sustainable Health"




 We are happy to tell you about recent developments at our end. We have been able to increase our footprint and outreach to more children in the reporting period. We are now having Centres in 9 cities with facilities for 475 children and their families.
 Our latest two Centres at Varanasi, a facility for 16 families at any given point in time was inaugurated in the last week of February.
 St. Jude India ChildCare Centres have been awarded a Crisil rating of VO 1A, the highest possible. The rating indicates the organization’s "Very Strong Delivery Capability and High Financial Proficiency".
 We have been recognized among India's Top 10 NGOs to Work For.
 We got recognized as Best workplace for Women - 2019 by Great Place to Work Institute.
 As our go -green initiative we have installed 15 solar panels at our Cotton Green location which would help us in reducing cost of energy by 50 % and help in reducing carbon footprint on the planet.
 As a skill development initiative for fathers we have undertaken a seven-week workshop module on mobile repairing at the end of which successful candidates will get certificates from NSDC.



19 November, 2019

Children receiving nutritious meals

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Children receiving nutritious meals








22 July, 2019

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Program Update


Needy families with cancer affected children are forced to stay on streets and eat unhygienic food due to lack of funds to support themselves in big cities. Most often, in desperation, they abandon treatment. We help by providing safe, hygienic accommodation and holistic support and care vital for completion of child’s treatment.
Children under treatment for cancer experience low immunity, low blood count and weight loss. They need healthy, balanced and nutritious meals to be able to withstand harsh long drawn treatment. In addition, we found out, children prefer home cooked food, made by their mothers. St. Jude provides weekly ration and nutritional supplements to families; and utensils and cooking facility for mothers to cook all 3 meals for the family, and a dining facility for families to eat together in a dedicated area.


Story from the field


Hemika is a cute 3.7 years old girl child came to Jaipur centre from Village Indiwali, Bhiwani District of Haryana state for her treatment of B Cell ALL.
When she came at the centre she took a few more days than usual to settle down at the centre, she was missing her joint family members and did not like to interact with other children, families and centre staff, but gradually she realized that this centre is not hospital, and other families and staff love her. After that she started to open up and slowly started interacting with all. Now every day she waits for the centre staff to come so that she can wish them “good morning”, and if any staff is on leave she misses them and asks about them constantly. She likes to dress up and look beautiful. She has a dream for her future, she says, she wants to work like St. Jude staff once she grows up.
Her father also is a very well behaved man. He is very supportive and understands the values and importance of the rules and disciplinary system. From the first day itself he is constantly supporting the St. Jude system and guides other family too to keep centre clean and hygienic. He actively participates in our activities and engages other fathers too. We wish her dream comes true and pray to God to give her strength for a speedy recovery.


What is the expected total number of beneficiaries in this program for FY18-19?480
What is the number of beneficiaries/ benefits provided in this program, Year-To-Date563
Village/City/State where project is locatedJaipur/Rajasthan,Vellore/Tamilnadu
Total Budget for the project for FY18-191227600
Total Expenses for the project YTD690000

23 May, 2019

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Program Update


St. Jude India ChildCare Centers is a “home-away-from-home” for needy families with children under treatment for cancer. St. Jude’s mission is to provide clean, safe and free-of-cost accommodation to children (and their accompanying parents) who are undergoing treatment for chronic diseases like cancer in Mumbai and other cities and facilitate their recovery.
To that end, St.Jude’s provides safe, secure, hygienic accommodation and holistic support and care to needy, out-station families with cancer affected children under treatment in big cities.
Children under treatment for cancer experience low immunity, low blood count and weight loss. They need healthy, balanced and nutritious meals to be able to withstand harsh long drawn treatment. In addition, we found out, children prefer home cooked food, made by their mothers. St. Jude provides weekly ration and nutritional supplements to families; and utensils and cooking facility for mothers to cook all 3 meals for the family, and a dining facility for families to eat together in a dedicated area.


Story from the field


Sumit, Ratan and his grandparents came to Jaipur from their small town in Jhunjhunu district. They came to J K Lon for treatment of their grandchild Sumit for cancer. It was a new city and a trying time. Managing a safe place to live, supporting each other and giving Sumit the best care possible was a huge responsibility.
Sumit had lost his parents in an accident when he was 2 years old and has been living with his grandparents ever since. The grandparents were very protective of Sumit and wanted the best life for their child so when Sumit was diagnosed, they were determined, gathered courage and strength to move to the city for him.
While it was a long haul to find their ground in the new city, they were introduced about St. Jude India ChildCare Centres, Jaipur at the hospital. The grandparents had a huge sigh of relief when they visited the center and could sense the care and healing that it provided. A warm bed, clean and safe space to stay with activities to nurture Sumit and the grandparents slowly turned the family healthier to go through the treatment, physically and emotionally. The nutrition support helped Sumit get healthier and the transport made it easy for the grandparents to keep up with their appointments at the hospital.
Sumit and his grandparents made friends, took each other’s help and became part of the supportive community at our centers.
As grandparents, most of us would ideally want to retire and enjoy the slower moments of life but it is heartening to see how care can move mountains! Sumit and his grandparents are inspirational.


What is the number of beneficiaries/ benefits provided in this program, Year-To-Date981
Village/City/State where project is locatedJaipur/Rajasthan, Vellore/Tamilnadu
Total Budget for the project for FY18-191227600
Total Expenses for the project YTD507993

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