Child Protection Bangladesh Project #22022

Bringing children's palliative care to Bangladesh

by International Children's Palliative Care Network

Bringing children's palliative care to Bangladesh

Project Report | Jan 19, 2016
We almost won the Global Giving challenge!

By Sue Boucher | Project Leader

Photo credit: World Child Cancer UK

Dear Friends

We came so close to winning the 2015 Global Giving Winter Gateway challenge! In fact we were sitting in first place for most of the final day of the challenge but in the last, nailbiting five minutes other competing charities added substantial amounts to their total. This meant we finished the challenge in fourth place with a very respectable total of £5,880 in donations but sadly just missed out on earning any extra prize money. We cannot thank you enough for coming on this journey with us and so generously donating to this very worthwhile cause and helping us do as well as we did.

ICPCN believes that every child with a life-limiting or life-threating illness or condition has a right to palliative care and that this should never be seen as a privilege. Sadly, access to children's palliative care is something of a global 'lottery' in that availability of services is entirely dependent on where a child happens to be born. While very encouraged by what is already happening in the country, it is still unacceptable to us that less than 1% of children in Bangladesh who need it can access such care. We are so grateful to have your support in our efforts to improve this appalling situation.

As we previously reported we have already funded the first training of 36 doctors and nurses in Chittagong and our CEO, Joan Marston, has planned a side trip to Bangladesh after attending the Indian Association of Palliative Care conference in February. She will meet with Drs Jameela Khan and Megan Doherty as well as representatives of World Child Cancer and the ASHIC Foundation to identify the most urgent needs and to strategise the best way forward to bring relief to the thousands of children throughout Bangladesh presently without access to palliative care or the necessary medicines to properly control their pain.

As the scope of this project has grown beyond what we could ever have hoped for, we made the decision to raise our target and continue our fundraising efforts into the new year with a new target of £7,714 (US$11,000). Our shortfall at this time is just £1,834, which we hope we can raise in the coming weeks. We would of course be delighted if you would consider another donation to help us reach this new target and if you would be willing to use your own networks to share this information with other possible donors.

Our most sincere thanks once again to each one of you for helping us get this far. We undertake to keep you fully informed of all further developments in this project as they continue to unfold.

You are all champions for children's palliative care!

Sue Boucher
Project Leader

Links:

Find out more about ICPCN

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Dec 21, 2015
One final push to reach our total

By Sue Boucher | Project Leader

Dear Friends

ICPCN would like to thank each one of you for so generously donating to our Global GIving Challenge project which will fund the develpment of children's palliative care in Bangladesh through strategic training of doctors and nurses. We are incredibly grateful and have been quite overwhelmed by your generosity and your willingness to help us. Please be assured that your money will help to make an invaluable difference to the lives of thousands of children in this country who have such limited access to the comfort, relief from pain and emotional support that palliative care can provide.

Since our last report there has been even further progress in our plans to develop children's palliative care programmes in Bangladesh in partnership with Drs Megan Doherty and Zohora Jameela Khan, based at the BSMMU Hospital in Dhaka and World Child Cancer. Our Chief Executive plans to visit Bangladesh in February 2016 to work on a strategic plan to make this happen, based on a similar project undertaken in the Maharashtra district of India. We have also been in contact with the founders of the ASHIC foundation which has been working to improve the quality of life of children affected by cancer in Dhaka since 1994.

Our position in the challenge
We are just £1,380 from our hoped for target of £5,000 with only 2 days to go to the end of the challenge. ICPCN is presently lying in 9th place on the Global Giving Gateway Challenge leader board with a total of £3,620 from 52 unique donors. We could still win this, with your help!

We would love you to join us in this final push to reach our target. Please consider encouraging someone to donate who you know understands the amazing difference that palliative care can make in the lives of children and families when facing a life-threatening or life-limiting diagnosis. I know we can get there!

Thank you again for your support and generosity from all of us at ICPCN, but mostly from the thousands of affected childen of Bangladesh.

The ICPCN Team

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Dec 8, 2015
Bringing children's palliative care to Bangladesh

By Sue Boucher | Project Leader

Doctors attending Chittagong symposium

THANK YOU so much for generously donating to our campaign to bring children's palliative care to Bangladesh. We know that there are so many great causes out there so we really do appreciate your support for what we believe to be an important and underestimated problem.

There are at least 29 000 children in Bangladesh who are in urgent need of specialised palliative care to relieve both their physical and emotional suffering with only 2 doctors, based in Dhaka, presently qualified to provide it.

Progress made
We are delighted to report that since we began this campaign we have already funded a 2 day symposium and workshop in Chittagong where 36 doctors and nurses could hear about the benefits of children's palliative care - and they are hungry to learn more. "It was a very helpful workshop for me, we came to know about the conception of use of morphine in the palliative care for children,” was the encouraging response of just one of the participants.

Another very exciting development is that we have been approached by World Child Cancer to provide input into the development of more children's palliative care initiatives in centres all around Bangladesh. We can't let this wonderful opportunity pass us by and are determined, with your help, to reach our target to be able to continue to support the training and mentoring of doctors and nurses in Chittagong.

Where are we in the Gateway Challenge?
We still need to raise another £793 by 21 December, which is only 13 days away. We also need to find another 10 unique donors to donate to bring our total to 50 donors in order to secure a permanent spot on the Global Giving platform.

We have dropped to 11th place on the Gateway Challenge Leaderboard, so our hopes of getting an additional prize of £1,500 or £500 are slowly fading ..... but we aren't ready to give up just yet! WIth your help, this is still possible.

Please could we prevail upon you once more to help us get to our goal amount by sharing this email with your friends and family and encouraging them to donate. Every small amount gets us closer to our goal.... and makes our dream of every child needing palliative care in Bangladesh receiving it.

Thank you once again for your generosity and your support for this campaign,

The ICPCN Team

Play therapy at BSMMU Hospital in Dhaka

Links:

First symposium and training workshop in Chittagong

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