Running to Bridge the Academic Gap

Sometimes the most powerful ideas begin with a simple question: What happens to a child’s education when they are admitted to a hospital for long periods of treatment?

For many children receiving cancer care, hospital stays can stretch for weeks or even months. While their priority is healing, their education often pauses, leaving them feeling behind their classmates and disconnected from everyday life.

Last year, we decided to do something about it, and we had Aaron step forward to support our vision.

Thanks to the generous support of our donors, including the Running to Bridge the Academic Gap initiative led by Aaron from Phoenix, Arizona, which raised USD 10,000, we are now moving closer to launching this pilot program. This contribution has directly supported the development of the program, helping us prepare the tools, resources, and partnerships necessary to make learning possible for children in the ward.

Faraja has secured strong support from the leadership and clinical teams of the public hospital where the project will be implemented. Successful implementation of the project is solely dependent on this. The oncology nursing teams in the pilot wards, recognizing the importance of addressing the education gap faced by hospitalized children have also been very supportive.  To provide a structured learning experience, we have established a dedicated program email address, a Google Classroom platform, and a centralized repository of curriculum materials. Volunteer teachers will be available to guide lessons, answer questions, and create a learning routine that works alongside each child’s treatment schedule.

We are sourcing tablets that will allow children to access educational content while in the ward, giving them the opportunity to continue learning despite their medical treatment. For many children, this will be more than just schoolwork, it will be moments of normalcy, curiosity, and the joy of learning during a challenging time.

We hope to launch the program in May, during the second school term, and if successful, this initiative could serve as a model for hospital-based learning programs across the country. Aaron’s contribution and the support of our donors remind us that healing is not only about medicine, it is also about nurturing the mind, protecting dreams, and ensuring that every child can keep moving forward, one lesson at a time.

Faraja is grateful to all our supporters who make this work possible. Your generosity helps us bring education, joy, and hope to children navigating cancer treatment, ensuring that even in hospital, learning and dreams continue.

For many children, this will mean more than just catching up with schoolwork. It will mean moments of normalcy in the middle of treatment. It will mean curiosity and the joy of learning again.

Aaron’s initiative reminds us that healing is not only about medicine. It is also about nurturing the mind, protecting dreams, and ensuring that every child can keep moving forward, one lesson at a time.

And this is just the beginning.

Faraja Cancer Support Trust provides financial support, emotional, practical and healing support to children and their families on their cancer journey. We provide psychosocial support to children with cancer at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), Kenyatta University Teaching Referral & Research Hospital (KUTRRH) and The Shoe4Africa Children Hospital within Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH). 

Every support counts! Your donations are changing the world for the better, one child at a time