Help Poor Children with Cancer to Access Treatment

This Report is to highlight the enormous benefit of the relationship with GlobalGiving and our wonderful donors that has enabled us to raise funds to continue to help children with cancer in Uganda access to oncology treatment. We are extremely grateful for your support for the children with cancer who are doing it tough.

Overview

In Uganda over 3,000 children annually get cancer with only 50% surviving.

In 2016, Kawempe Home Care (KHC) opened the New Hope Children’s Hostel (NHCH) to provide a home for the poor and vulnerable children with cancer whilst getting treatment from the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI). The programsupports vulnerable children with cancer from the rural areas who are under treatment or are undergoing diagnostic investigations for their cancer.

Since inception, the New Hope Children’s Hostel has cared for 629 children of whom 172 completed treatments, sadly 180 passed away, and 12 are receiving palliative care and 202 are still on treatment.

Ochom tells his story on the journey he has had to make.

‘I am 17years old and from Kumi District in Eastern Uganda. I am the only child from my mother but I have half brothers and sisters. My parents are peasant farmers and struggle to support the family.  In February 2019, I noticed a small but painless lump on my left chin, which gradually increased in size, causing neck pain and headaches. I took pain killers which didn’t help much. My parents took me to a clinic in Kumi, where I was treated and later sent to Kumi hospital and was operated on due the enlargement of the tumor.

I felt better and was discharged. However, a few months later the lump re-occurred. I had to go back to the hospital for a second operation. A small tissue was removed and sent to Mulago National Hospital for examination.

The results showed thatI was suffering from cancer of the Lymohnodes. I can’t express how hopeless I felt at that time.  I did not know if my father could or would pay my medical bills.’

In November 2019, Ochom was referred to UCIand his step mother accompanied him and he began receiving chemotherapy. She stayed with him for his first cycle and then left him there after the husband ordered them both to return claiming that cancer was incurable and they were wasting time and resources at UCI.

‘I decided to stay at UCI so as I could continue with the cancer treatment as if I went back home,I would not have medical support. I had no money for food or accommodation and relied on good Samaritans to help me.I felt desperate and alone until one day a social worker at UCI referred me to New Hope Children’s Hostel.

How New Hope Hostel helped Ochom to look forward to a future.

Ochom was provided at the hostel with meals, medicines, accommodation, emotional support, care and he also could relate with the other children who were in a similar situation to him. He finished his chemotherapyand radiotherapytreatment and he will have a review in a months’ time. The hostel also provided him with transport to go home to see his family.

There is still a long way to go for Ochom but New Hope and UCI are committed to helping him to receive his full treatment.

How Your Contribution Has Helped

KHC and the children who have benefitted from your support, say thank you.

During our 12-month relationship with GlobalGiving, KHC received over US$12,522 in donations from 92 donors.These funds have enabled KHC, during a very difficult time worldwide with Covid19, to continue to provide assistance to those amazing children.

How the Funds Were Used.

55% on food for the children and caregivers

18% on transport to and from UCI for treatment

10% on additional medicines for the children

12% Personal protective equipment (PPE) and cleaning and washing materials

5% on transport home for the families after treatment.

Without this support the New Hope Children’s hostel would have found it very difficult to continue to provide this service. Your contribution has made a difference and we are extremely grateful for your support.

Links:

• https://kawempehomecare.org/
• https://newhopechildrenshostel.org/
• https://www.globalgiving.org/dy/cart/view/gg.html?cmd=addItem&projid=46815&frequency=ONCE&vo_id=220158&vo=30

• Services_at_the_hostel.docx (DOCX)

Dear friend of New Hope Children’s Hostel at Kawempe Home Care,

 Warm greetings to you all, we hope you’re are having a healthier year with your families and friends.

Kawempe Home Care continues to deliver quality healthcare to people living with HIV, TB, Cancer and other health related issues through community based holistic care models, and thanks to you all for making this possible. Amidst all strangles of health issues, political and other factors, Kawempe Hope care is still committed to service and ‘moved by love’ as our statement of faith goes. So many wonderful stories come up each day to inspire and keep us in great service. In this report, we are excited to share with you a story of one of the children battling cancer in our care hoping that you will be inspired too.

Slage is one of the beneficiaries of your support through GlobalGiving since we joined the platform in June 2020. She is 9 years old from a family of five, and her family lives in Mbale District in the Eastern part of Uganda. Slage’s mother noticed that her child was not well in March 2019 when she started complaining about the body weakness, and had on and off fevers with body swelling. She was taken to different health centers in their district but no accurate diagnosis was given and treatment attempts remained unsuccessful. Her mother was distress, felt anxiety and helplessness during that time because she could not understand her child’s health status, and had no financial support from family especially her polygamous husband. Slage’s mother was courageous enough to gather some money from her religious community for transport to Kampala to seek treatment from a National Referral Hospital in November 2019 with suspicion of cancer from one of the hospitals she visited. Slage was able to reach Uganda Cancer Institute at Mulago National Referral Hospital where several tests were carried out and was diagnosed with Wilms’s Tumor(cancer of the kidney). She was very ill, with on and off fevers and had lost so much weight. Slage was admitted for five days and later referred to New Hope Children’s Hostel at Kawempe Home Care. This hostel supports poor children diagnosed with cancer from far regions of Uganda to start and complete their treatment by offering food, accommodation, transport to and from hospital, counseling, play and music therapies among others. At Uganda Cancer Institute her affected kidney was removed, and underwent both chemotherapy and radiotherapy as treatment while she stayed at New Hope Children’s Hostel. Slage and her mother were able to find friends at the hostel who shared a lot like laughter, hospital experience which gave them a big relief of the burden they had before. It is always hard for such families with poor financial status like Slage’s to survive in the city because of the high cost of food, accommodation, prescribed medicines and more. This family was supported with all these expenses at the hostel and they are grateful. Slage has stayed at the hostel until she completed her treatment cycles. She has started coming to hospital for her quarterly reviews and her family is grateful. “A home like environment at New Hope Children’s Hostel helped to quicken my child’s healing process because she was able to play with her fellow children, get all the medicines prescribed by the Uganda Cancer Institute and she was given transport to go back home after her treatment cycles, to me this is a great support to my family” Slage’s mother narrates.

Our dream is to see many more children supported, however much difficulties they may find that come along with the cancer treatment, we want to give them hope where it is almost lost. Our support of 3 meals a day, transport to and from hospital and rent for accommodation to the 30 children and their care takers is much needed. Slage still needs transport for her quarterly hospital reviews and this is still a burden to her mother who has no income and was abandoned by her husband.

We are so grateful to all our donors through GlobaGiving who with your kind donations have supported 152 children like Slage since we joined this platform in June 2020. Your participation in the campaigns has helped us raise $10,838 from 123 donations giving us hope of hitting our goal of $45,000 by end of 2023 Little by Little campaign is underway in March and we counting on your support, please join us!

There is a lot more to see how your support, our work and achievements are making a difference. Please go to News on our website https://kawempehomecare.org, and social media: https://www.facebook.com/KawempeHomeCare and https://twitter.com/KawempeCare

We thank you so much for your continued support.