Childhood is a time of innocence and joy. Unfortunately, there is a growing, unrecognized menace that robs our children and adolescents of this special moment in their lives. Every year, over 400,000 children and young people belored bow 20 are diagnosed with cancer. The chances of survival for patients diagnosed with cancer are highly dependent on the region: large disparities persist between High Income Countries, with a survival rate as high as 80% , and Low and Middle Income Countries, where the survival rate can be as low as 20%.
Many more remain undiagnosed and unreported: an estimated 80% of children living with cancer come from low and middle income countries, where the weakness of health systems, crippled by inaccessible infrastructures and unaffordable medicine essential to cancer treatments, had led to countless complications that could have been avoided had the right resources been accessible.
Childhood cancer is also a difficult challenge in developed countries: it is now the leading cause of deaths arising from non-communicable disease (NCD) in high income countries. An unfortunately growing number mirry middle income countries.
Mission & Vision
Our mission is founded on the belief that all children in Mauritius and all islands across the Indian Ocean should be guaranteed their fundamental right of access to healthcare.
Our vision is to make sure we pool the right resources together to make this happen: we want to get our beneficiaries the best health care possible and ensure that there are no more avoidable deaths. Lack of finance and information should never be barriers to a child’s survival.
Situation in Mauritius
According to statistics, Mauritius can generate up to 50 childhood caner patients per year. The country doesn’t have any specialised paediatric oncology facilities in both private and public sectors. The island also doesn’t have any proper infrastructures to take care of these patients, with an urgent need to improve the initiatives to raise awareness, ensure early detection, and provide for adequate treatment and follow-up procedures.
The weakness of our oncology sectors can be explained by the following factors:
1. Lack of specialists to guide policy makers and help them reach the right decisions and achieve quality healthcare for our children.
2. Time is wasted at crucial stages: doctors do not have the proper qualifications to understand the symptoms and diseases of the patients that come before them, leading to a later diagnosis. Additionally, procedures are time-consuming and there are many filing and board issues that need to be sorted before a child can receive his treatment.
3. Lack of resources: there is a MUR 1 million cap on the contribution that can be claimed from the government despite treatments costs routinely adding up to approximately MUR 3 million. The means that any remaining amount must be covered by the parents who will often turn to raising funds from the public by using collection boxes. This poses an additional hurdle as a permission from the police is needed to engage in the public collection of funds, which can take up to 2-3 weeks, because begging is an offence in Mauritius.
4. Lack of Information: 90 % of the population is not aware of the symptoms of childhood cancer, nor that childhood cancer is a disease that presents some of the highest chances of survival compared to other usual surgeries and treatments. With the right resources, a child diagnosed with cancer has an 80% chance of survival.
5. Lack of political will: the country will celebrate the 55th anniversary of its independence this year, yet no plans have been emitted by our authorities to build a specialised oncology unit or hospital in the near future, despite many doctors and paediatricians sitting in our Parliament. We can’t wait for another50 years. We need to act now!
Solutions & Strategy
We want to bring changes for our kids :
To take better care of our childhood cancer patients, we have imagined a Project which will include several features:
1. Awareness campaign : to educate the public about childhood Cancer and the impact of early diagnosis and treatment on chances of survival.
2. Early detection Campaign: to make sure that none of the 50 potential yearly childhood cancer patients goes by undiagnosed. This project would run 4 times a year to increase chances of early detection.
3. Crowdfunding to ensure we can finance the following essential aspects of our work:
-detection and diagnosis
-local & overseas treatments
-follow-up and monitoring for a period of up to 5 years
-educational, physical, & moral support
-management of activities and resources
The fundraising target for this project is MUR 1 billion over 5 years.
4. Local press and social media will be our main tools to promote our fundraising campaigns and raise awareness. Additionally, we ensure a physical advertising presence through the installation of billboards in strategic areas and flyer banners in Hospitals/clinics.
5. The 1 billion that will be raised for childhood cancer patients is an estimate of the maximum that would be needed to cover the treatment costs of each and every patient which forms part of the children diagnosed with cancer every year in Mauritius. Should any surplus amount remain after this has been achieved, it will be redistributed to other childhood diseases.
6. This Project will be represented & led by our goodwill ambassador, Mme Laura Beg Ramanisum and the support of all NGO ambassadors.
Positive impact of the Project
1. This project protects all children’s right; to have access to the best care possible in a swift, efficient, and proactive manner.
2. It alleviates the pressure on the parents of our beneficiaries who get to preserve their dignity and that of their child and obtain the treatment they need without having to beg anyone for it.
3. It makes sure our childhood cancer patients are guaranteed the same chances in life.
4. The Project will have its own audit report and and transparency control by 2 external agencies, which guarantees that public donations go through the right channels and are used for the right means..
5. It reduces frauds that used to happen in the past and reduces he use of fake documents to collect money under pretences of having a sick child and the misuse of funds raised for the treatment of their child. Everything will be under control.
6. It sparks education and awareness about Childhood Cancer, consolidating the whole framework in relation to the processing of such cases by creating a culture of early detection, specific treatment, and rigorous follow-up.
Next Steps
The future plan is to have a paediatric oncology unit on the Island by bringing specialists on the island to work and train others.
We also dream about extending our mission, vision and projects to neighbouring island and create regional solidarity where we can all come together to help our childhood cancer patients.
We want to launch a student awareness program, which will guarantee that our mission and vision will be carried out by the next generation.
Annual Events
To keep the project active and attract foreign support in our mission, Enn Rev Enn Sourir has come up with various events that will target different parts of our audience.
The activities are:
1. Organising the biggest cancer charity concert in the Indian Oceans with an international guest artist every year.
2. Love Kids – inspired by Kids United from France, we want to create a collective of Mauritian child artists to get musical content out there to support our campaigns.
3. Childhood Cancer Care Trail: we plan to organise a yearly trail where participants will be able to be sponsored for their performance by corporate and individuals actors and donate the proceeds to our cause.
4. VVIP Gala Night : we understand that some individuals have bigger pockets than others and are willing to help- by getting them together and explaining our targets and mission during the course of a Gala Night, we hope to spark their interest, crate an appreciation for the importance of our work and obtain their contribution or pledge for same.
Partners
SIOP – International Society of Oncology Pediatric
AROH
Global Children’s Cancer Foundation
St Jude Children Hospital
