Giving ‘The Gift of Growing Up’ to children with cancer in Bangladesh: Project Completion

In September 2023, we completed our three-year program in Bangladesh, working to support children with cancer and their families. The funding is a direct result of our ‘Give the Gift of Growing Up’ appeal in 2020, which raised over £1 million thanks to the UK Aid Match scheme and Gift Aid. This included £492,597 of matched funds from the UK government.

For a little while, these children were not patients anymore. They were athletes, teammates, and friends, having fun playing sports outside. This event let them forget about being sick and reminded everyone that these children are more than just their illnesses.

Over 6,000 children in Bangladesh are expected to develop cancer per year, however only a quarter of those receive an accurate diagnosis. This can be attributed to low levels of & late diagnosis – a result of low levels of public awareness- inadequate access to healthcare and a lack of diagnostic equipment. World Child Cancer’s three-year program sought to improve this.

We are very pleased to share that the project has transformed the lives of 8,505 children with cancer across Bangladesh by improving treatment, care and quality of life and access for those most vulnerable, improving on our target of supporting 7,800 children. During our project, we have worked towards achieving long term change by focusing on the improvement of nursing to strengthen the healthcare system.

Jewel Ahmed, World Child Cancer Program Coordinator for Bangladesh said;

“The partnership program in Bangladesh has been a great step forward in cancer care for children. Over these three years, we have built the foundations to support greater long-term impact on childhood cancer care in Bangladesh. By working so closely with our partners in-country, they feel empowered to continue developing and sharing their knowledge meaning that they can offer life-changing care for more children and their families”  

Our focus during this project has been on long-term impact, ensuring that all programs have in-built sustainability, supporting a system that allows the hard work of our colleagues, associates and partners to continue beyond the three-year span of the project. The working groups involved in the program have been locally led by those involved in the pediatric oncology community who are for the most part in government salaried roles, meaning they will remain in post past the end of this project. Additionally, the Training of Trainers nursing working group are helping to ensure that there are nurse educators able to train a greater number of nurses in each hospital, widening the total group of nurses using new techniques. Training on nursing development, supportive care guideline, leadership and management, psychosocial support and early warning signs were given to 339 nurses. Of these at least 110 nurses had received more than one type of training meaning that a total of about 229 nurses were trained during the project period. These are just two aspects of the improved measures that have been implemented to ensure the long-term sustainability of the program.

With over 400,000 children expected to develop cancer worldwide each year, the importance of programs like this in Bangladesh cannot be understated. We at World Child Cancer want to live in a world where all children, regardless of situation, have equal and proper access to quality cancer care; with your continued support we can move one step closer to making that a reality.

Keep up to date with all the latest news by signing up to our newsletter or following us on social media 

DONATE

[survivors posts_per_page=”6″]