Support migrant cancer affected children with monthly rations by Cuddles Foundation

Be a caregiver and make a difference in the lives of young kids

Childhood cancer is mostly curable. But in India, with up to 40% of children with cancer being severely malnourished at diagnosis, survival is a problem. Our mission is to change that with our FoodHeals Program. Here’s how we do it:

1. Place nutritionists in government cancer hospitals- We partner with government hospitals that need nutritional support for a large number of pediatric patients. We carefully select and train a team that has both the heart and the skill to counsel children with cancer nutritionally.
2. Provide food aid to patients- We support children and their families with free food and nutrition like nutritional supplements, hot meals, in-meals, eggs, bananas, and monthly ration baskets for a family of four.
3. Provide nutritional knowledge to caregivers

Our FoodHeals program is customised to a child’s medical condition to provide holistic nutrition to her until she finishes her treatment at the hospital. It is done as follows-

● Assess: Screening and assessment of the nutritional status of every child seeking treatment for cancer in the hospital ● Diagnose: Identification of treatment complications with nutritional implications ● Prescribe: Nutrition intervention and prescribing a customized diet plan ● Provide: Provision of food and nutrition like nutritional supplements, hot meals, in-meals, eggs, bananas, monthly ration baskets ● Monitor: Continuous nutrition monitoring and reassessment ● Support: Supporting patient families with the knowledge to make healthier food choices

By sponsoring the FoodHeals program, children experience

1. Lesser side-effects and treatment complications
2. Fewer breaks or delays in treatment
3. Improved chances for survival
4. Better immunity against infection
5. A feeling of being supported and cared for

Whats in a Ration Basket - The ration basket is designed to feed a family of Four and provides food for all-round nutritional support. It consists of 30 less perishable, dry ingredients required by a mother to make a variety of foods for the child. The food products are branded and consist of regional staple cereals, pulses, millets, nuts, seeds, ghee, oil, spices and condiments, salt, jaggery, sugar, and basic personal hygiene products. Along with the staple cereals and pulses, certain other cereals, pulses, and millets that are nutritionally beneficial for the child’s health and relevant to the region she comes from are also included. Like moth beans (matki), nachni, satva, sorghum (jowar) flour for children from the western part of the country; urad dal, nachni, satva from south; and so on.

Food heals!

Two new hospitals were catered to in the last quarter BHU Cancer Hospital in Varanasi and SRCC hosital in Mumbai. We continued our projected Ration Distribution to these Children and their families. We also arranged puppet shows during diwali and christmas celebrations for the children in the hospital. During Nov, we were featured in Kaun Banega crorepati with Amitabh Bacchan for Children Fighting cancer. All was going well as planned till March, when we were all hit by the Covid Pandemic. The Covid pandemic at the end of the quarter brought about a bigger need for ration distribution.The initial days saw us discussing on how to tackle this new situation and we quickly got our act together. We have started doing Nutritional counselling on the phone as parents are unable to travel to Hospitals.

Program Update

50,000 children are diagnosed with cancer every year in India, of which only 22% make it to hospitals for treatment 40% of the children seeking treatment are malnourished. 90% of the pediatric oncology patients come from a low socio-economic background & 45% of these children come from BPL families. 60% of these children are from the villages and smaller towns and not from the main metropolitan cities. Their parents earn meagre incomes, so they either end up living on footpaths or dharamshalas (shelter homes) 8 out of 10 children of them lose the fight against cancer because of lack of proper nutrition and guidance on nutrition. One of the reasons is that malnourished children are 5 times more likely to develop chemotherapy intolerance leading to refusal or abandonment of treatment, and resulting in death On most days, parents go without all 3 meals and sometimes so do the children. Since most of the families migrate to urban centers seeking treatment for the children, they do not have access to any source of income during treatment. They typically come to the city with meagre savings which get depleted quickly. Hence, they have no means of fulfilling the nutritional requirement of the children which is much needed to complete treatment. To help in this we provide ration to the families who have the cooking facility to ensure that they have one less thing to worry about and focus on ensuring the treatment of the child.

Story from the field

Jay (Name Changed) is a 5.9 years old child diagnosed with Pre B cell ALL and is undergoing Chemotherapy from last five months. He is an extremely naughty and stubborn boy. Generally, all boys are ‘Mumma’s Boys’ but our Jay wants his father around for everything - from eating food to taking medicines and also for playing or colouring. His father, a farmer has been unable to work for the last 5 months due to Jay’s illness. Jay has an elder sister also.
We at Cuddles are supporting Jay and his family with ration and nutritional supplements. Initially Jay suffered with lots of side- effects after first chemotherapy and he was unable to hear due to some infection in the ears, mouth ulcers, loose- stools and persistent fever. Everyone was scared but his parents fought a long way and he has improved clinically. With the monthly ration taken care of by us, his family could totally concentrate on Jay and gave him proper nutritious food with the help of counselling of our nutritionists. Recently Jay was admitted for his 2nd high dose of chemotherapy and this time he completed it without any severe side-effects. He was always seen with his favourite Oranges. He was either seen eating Oranges or clicking pictures with the “Click” of his Orange Peels. Thanks to Donors like you Children Like Jay have not forgotten to remain naughty and lively all through the treatment. A Big Thanks to YOU

Program Update

Whats in a Ration Basket - The ration basket is designed to feed a family of three and provides food for all-round nutritional support. It consists of 30 less perishable, dry ingredients required by a mother to make a variety of foods for her sick child. The food products are branded and consist of regional staple cereals, pulses, millets, nuts and oilseeds, ghee, oil, spices and condiments, salt, jaggery, sugar and basic personal hygiene products. Along with the staple cereals and pulses, certain other cereals, pulses and millets that are nutritionally more beneficial for the child’s health and relevant to the region he comes from are also included. Like moth beans (matki), nachni satva, sorghum (jowar) flour for kids from the west; urad dal, nachni, satva for the south; and so on.

Story from the field

This is the story of a family of a 9-year-old boy, Jaggu, who is diagnosed with Wilm’s Tumor (Kidney tumor). His disease relapsed 6 months back and his family came to Delhi for further investigations and treatment and since his disease is progressive his whole family is residing near the hospital on the footpath in a tent. Jaggu’s father is employed as a labour and is earning Rs. 6,000 per month, mother is a house wife and financially, the family isn’t doing well as the monthly income of the father is not enough to feed 6 members of the family (4 children and parents). When Jaggus’s mother was aware of the ration Program of Cuddles foundation,she thought it to be of no use since she had no cooking facility. But during the counselling sessions, our nutritionists explained the importance of clean home-made cooked food throughout the treatment and the importance of nutrition. Post this the family somehow made an arrangement for the stove in their tent and was enrolled in our ration program as the father’s income wasn’t sufficient to carry out all the treatment related expenses, which included everything from the medicines cost to the food cost. In the last two months Jaggu has gained about 3 kgs in weight. At present his anthropometric measurements are as follows: Height=100.5cm, Weight=14.8kg and MUAC=12.5cm which makes him fall under the category of SAM (Severely Acute Malnutrition). According to Jaggu’s mother, her family now didn't have to worry about the food related expenses. Even though the bundle is meant for 3-4 members of a family. The first thing Jaggu wants to do is “go to school” after he gets cured. he wants to be a “policeman” once he grows up. We are sure that with supporters like you he will achieve his dream. Thanks for stepping in to support his family with ration.