THE CONTEXT : 

Cancer in children is highly curable if diagnosed early and treated appropriately. A large portion of these children come from economically stressed homes. They face a lot of challenges when it comes to treatment, accommodation, food, etc. Hospitals in India see thousands of children visiting them for cancer treatment. Majority of these children are from low-income homes.

Among the biggest challenges faced by these children and one of the biggest unmet needs is the provision of good nutritional support during the aggressive treatment of cancer.  

THE SOLUTION AND THE INITIATIVE:

This campaign of mine is being done in partnership with the NGO -Cuddles Foundation and aims to fight hunger and malnutrition in children from low-income homes by giving them a MONTHLY RATION BASKET. This improves their chance of survival by 70% and ultimately does save lives. The baskets are given to children at cancer hospitals across India.

This costs just INR 4500 per month.

What goes into the Monthly Ration Basket?

The monthly ration basket feeds a family of four. Each basket contains 33-34 items, including cereals, pulses, millets, nuts and oilseeds, ghee, oil, spices, milk, condiments, and essential personal hygiene products like soaps etc.

Image: Shows the Ration Basket that is given to them. 

Ration baskets and consequently good food make the medicine work, keep families in treatment, keep parents home, ensure reduced risks to the child, and give better immunity to fight cancer. 

IMPACT STORIES OF HOPE:

All funding has 80G tax benefits. 

ABOUT ME AND THIS CAMPAIGN:

My name is Shiv. I am 16 years old and a Grade 12th student at Jayshree Periwal Intl School, Jaipur.

I have undertaken this campaign to support children who have cancer and their families with a monthly ration basket.

This cause is incredibly close to my heart. I’ve lost several close family members to cancer, including my uncle and my mother. I’ve seen up close how devastating the illness is not just physically, but emotionally and financially. For low-income families, the struggle is even harder. While treatment might be sponsored, food often isn’t. Yet, nutrition is just as essential as medicine.

Children from underprivileged backgrounds are often malnourished, and this severely impacts their recovery. Malnourished patients respond poorly to chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery. They experience more side effects, delays in treatment, and often have to abandon therapy altogether. In fact, malnutrition can double the chances of a child dying from cancer.

This is why I’ve taken up this campaign to fill a gap that is often overlooked. Just ₹4500 can support a child and their family with nutritious food for an entire month. It can help them regain the strength to continue their treatment and improve their chances of recovery.

Through this campaign, I hope to make a small but meaningful difference in the lives of these young fighters. I’m doing this not only in memory of my loved ones, but for every child still holding on to hope.

PARTNER HOSPITALS:

THE LOCATION MAP:

ABOUT THE NGO: 

Cuddles Foundation brings holistic food and nutrition to underprivileged children fighting cancer. They work through partnerships with government and charitable hospitals that treat underprivileged children for cancer. Their nutritionists, trained specifically for pediatric cancer nutrition, are placed in government hospitals and monitor the child’s progress, create diet plans and nutritional charts, counsel their parents, and educate them in home-based nutrition. They provide children undergoing treatment with food, hot meals, nutritional supplements, and ration baskets as per their requirements so that the kids have the strength to fight their cancer. To date, they have partnered with 35 hospitals in 20 cities. In 2017, with the help of individual donors, volunteers, and the Cuddles Advisory Board, they were able to develop an app that would standardize the delivery of nutritional support across all the hospitals where they work. The Cuddles FoodHeals app is the first-of-its-kind platform that helps automate mathematical functions for a nutritionist - like calculating the grade of malnourishment, BMI, calorie deficiency, etc. The app also aids her in counseling, diet planning, and mapping the progress of the child through the course of the treatment.

TAX BENEFITS

Funding for this campaign is eligible for tax breaks as Cuddles Foundation is a registered trust and you can avail of benefits under section 80G of the IT Act. Cuddles Foundation will generate 10BE receipts which can be used to avail tax benefits. Foreign funding is NOT accepted.