THE BACKGROUND

In rural India, the survival rate is as low as 40%. The biggest challenge for many parents is funding the cost of treatment of their child. In a private hospital, the first month of treatment of blood cancer alone costs 3 Lakh rupees. If the child has an infection the costs increase twofold.

By the time the six months of treatment is completed, most families will have had to spend around 5 to 8 lakh rupees.  Families have to stay outside their hometown for close to 6 months. Many lose their jobs and are under tremendous stress. Adding to this, the treatment of blood cancers is for 2 years.  Many stop treatment midway unable to manage their livelihoods, home and repeat visits for treatment.  

Below, is the story of Sonia, whose family could not have afforded treatment if it weren't for timely support. 

THE SOLUTION

IMPACT (Improving Access To Care and Treatment) is a Hyderabad-based NGO that has been actively working with children like Sonia in Hyderabad for the last 13 years. They have started an initiative with Shivananda Trust to set up the KUMUDINI IMPACT PEDIATRIC CANCER CENTRE by JULY 2021 that will provide treatment, accommodation and transport free of cost to children. The centre plans to treat 50 children with blood cancer in the year 2021-22 and achieve a cure rate of 85%. 

INR 60000 WILL TAKE CARE OF A CHILD'S CHEMOTHERAPY FOR 6 MONTHS. THIS WILL SUPPORT THE INTENSIVE TREATMENT PHASE OF THE CHILD. 

ABOUT ME & THIS CAMPAIGN

My name is Ken I am 10 years old and in grade 4 at International School Hyderabad.

I want to help save children’s lives because I think all children should be treated equally and should get high-quality medication like my family does. I think everyone deserves to be treated well with respect. Taking part in this will also help with improving my own communication skills.

Blood cancer is a leading cause of death for children and adolescents in India. This initiative of mine aims to literally save the life of a child from low-income homes by taking care of their Chemotherapy treatment for 6-months. The cost of doing this usually runs into lakhs but this will be done for just INR 60000 only. This is done in Hyderabad in partnership with the non-profit IMPACT.

IMPACT has a tie-up with the Shivananda Trust, Hyderabad and the treatment will be done at the new “KUMUDINI IMPACT PEDIATRIC CANCER CENTRE". All funding has 80G tax benefits.

Let us come together and help these children. This will bring cheer to them and their families.

THE PROCESS INVOLVED

The below visual shows you the different elements involved in treating a child. We will be supporting the Intensive treatment element which involves the cost of chemotherapy, other medicines & accommodation and transport for families coming from outside Hyderabad.

The approximate cost to fund the intensive care treatment cost is only INR 60000. In other hospital's this cost is between 3 to 8L INR. 

PARTNER HOSPITALS

Sivananda Trust was founded as a charitable institution in 1958 by Rani Kumudini Devi in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India to serve the needs of people affected by leprosy. Since its founding, SRH has grown into a large well-known institute housing more than 500 patients. The mission of the home is to prevent disability, provide adequate medical care to destitute patients with leprosy and tuberculosis, as well as to reduce the occurrence of new cases through community education. SRH also provides patients with rehabilitation and occupational therapy necessary to integrate back into their community. As part of the institute, Ramdev Rao Hospital was established in 2002 on the SRH campus to provide quality care at an affordable cost.

Ramdev Rao Hospital, an 80-bed not-for-profit institution, was started in 2002 to provide quality care for indigent patients at an affordable cost. It is now a full-fledged general hospital with fully equipped laboratories, operation theatres, dialysis unit, physiotherapy department etc. It also runs a free clinic for the poor. The hospital provides dialysis, ophthalmological services at highly subsidized prices. 

Kumudini Devi Hospice was started in June 2013 to provide pain relief and palliative care services free of charge, by the Pain Relief & Palliative Care Society of MNJ Institute of Oncology and Regional Cancer Center, Hyderabad.

LOCATION MAP 

ABOUT IMPACT

IMPACT is an NGO that was established in the year 2008 to support children with cancer. For the past 12 years, the organisation has worked tirelessly along with government cancer centres in Hyderabad to improve the delivery of cancer care to children. It helped establish the current 100 bed pediatric unit (including a 12 bed ICU and a 10 bed Day Care Center) at MNJ Cancer Hospital in Hyderabad. 

With its partnerships with philanthropists in the city, IMPACT ensured that every child received counselling services at the hospital and also money for transport, food, accommodation, investigations on a need basis. IMPACT also supported the hospital by hiring extra nurses, hygiene workers, counsellors so that the ward could run smoothly. With this initiative, the cure rates for children increased from 1% to 40% and the treatment abandonment rate came down to less than 10%. 

TAX BENEFITS

Funding to this campaign is eligible for tax breaks as IMPACT is a registered NGO & you can avail of benefits under section 80G of the IT act 1961. Foreign funding is not accepted. 

FEEDBACK THAT YOU GET 

To ensure that there is complete transparency I shall get a report from IMPACT (this takes between 6 to 9 months usually after the funds are raised & transferred to them) telling me who benefitted from the funding. The details will then be posted on the UPDATES section of my campaign and will be in a format like the one below. As soon as an update is posted, the platform will send an SMS and EMAIL alert to all the funders - i.e to you. Click on the link on the email and you can read about which child benefitted. That's transparent right?

The below info is an example of the FEEDBACK FORMAT that we will be shared with all my funders.