World Child Cancer was awarded a UK Aid Match appeal allowing us to start work in Nepal in conjunction with Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, UK, who have been working with Kanti Hospital across several specialisms for over 20 years. The overall aim of the project is to improve childhood cancer survival rates in Nepal.
7%
1,250
The number of children who will develop cancer each year in Nepal.
Programme Information
Programme
Centre
Twinning
Centre
Partner
Organisations
Together Against Childhood Cancer
Ramesh Gupta Memorial Trust
Contact
samrat.rayamajhi@worldchildcancer.org
Nepal Programme Coordinator
Start Date
October 2020
Background
The overall aim of the project is to improve childhood cancer survival rates in Nepal. Currently we estimate survival rates for children with common cancers treated at Kanti Hospital to be around 40%. Over the next three years we aim to raise them to 50%.
The work we will do will also ensure a better quality of life for all 815 children who are expected to present with cancer at Kanti over the course of the three-year project, as well as those already in treatment at the point the project starts. This is our first project in Nepal, but it aims to lay the foundations for a larger programme. We will work in partnership with two registered not-for-profit organisations, Together Against Childhood Cancer and Ramesh Gupta Memorial Trust in order to ensure project funds reach Kanti Hospital and are used in accordance with the project’s activities and goals.

Key Activities
- Training and protocol development
- Capacity building – working with the hospital to recruit essential staff, especially in pathology.
- Providing essential equipment
- Improving data collection
- Developing psychosocial support
- Improving access and developing sustainable services

Problems
- Limited number of healthcare professionals with adequate training and experience
- Large numbers of families abandoning treatment
- Limited facilities to care for childhood cancer
- Lack of awareness amongst healthcare professionals and communities around childhood cancer symptoms and potential curability
- Little or no accommodation facilities for families staying at hospital
- Families living on limited income cannot afford to pay for treatment or even travel to hospital
