Help Poor Children with Cancer to Access Treatment

Dear friend of Kawempe Home Care!

 We greet you and hope you and your families are healthy.

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. Working amidst COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenge to both the organization and the community that we serve. We are glad that despite these challenges we can still see some great and inspiring stories arise. In this report we have a story of one of the children battling cancer in our care.

 Odo (short form of his real name) is one of the beneficiaries of your donations this year. He is 16 years old from a family of seven, he lives with his father who serves as a policeman and his mother a peasant farmer with unstable financial status. Odo was attending school and had joined senior two when he developed a rare condition with on and off fevers in September 2019, and drastically lost weight and always had a headache. He was taken to a regional referral hospital where he was suspected of having cancer and referred to Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI). At UCI, after tests, scans and biopsy he was diagnosed with cancer of the blood (Acute Leukemia). The doctor recommended that Odo start treatment immediately and informed him and his mother that treatment would take a long time and so they couldn’t stay at the cancer ward for all that time. New Hope Children’s Hostel (NHCH) helps families who come from regional communities in Uganda and many are poor and unable to pay the costs associated with cancer treatment. He was referred to New Hope Children’s Hostel and is able to access treatment as he gets food, accommodation, and transport to and from hospital. The hostel is supported by friends and well-wishers but during the lock down many of these people were finding it difficult to get food for their families and so the hostel was not receiving food donations. This was not good news for children like Odo who solely depended on the hostel. Some partners came to the rescue and we are proud to have joined the GlobalGiving platform and our June accelerator and September Little by Little campaigns were successful in raising donations form 99 donors. The hostel children and their care givers have enough food for the next three months.

Despite the side effects of chemotherapy like low and high appetite, craving for different foods and vomiting among others, it is important that the children have 3 meals a day to ensure they build up their strength. Odo and his family are grateful for the support they are receiving at the hostel. The burden of expenses on food, accommodation, prescribed medicines, and transport to hospital are reduced and Odo is happier. He is very appreciative to the staff at NHCH for the love, care and encouragement and happy moments with his friends at the hostel like playing games, watching television and music sessions. With your continued support many more children like Odo will be able to start and complete cancer treatment with much hope for survival.

Our New Hope Children’s hostel project is permanently on GlobalGiving and we hope you will be able to participate in the coming Giving Tuesday on December 1 2020. Please follow us to see how your support,our work and achievements are making a difference. You can 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.

Links:

• Find more information on how we care for children with cancer.