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

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.

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. 

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.

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.

"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.

Children receiving nutritious meals

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.

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.