The Faraja Medical Support Fund

Faraja means comfort in Swahili but what does comfort mean to a child who has cancer? Could it be easing their emotional or physical pain so that they can get back to being a child and playing? Or is it supporting and strengthening their families to provide a loving and reassuring presence while their child goes through endless tests, surgery and treatment? When we started Faraja 11 years ago, our aim was to be a community that provides support, life-saving assistance and hope to anyone with cancer and we quickly realised that children needed special attention.

We needed to provide comfort at their level of understanding so that they could not only cope but thrive. For this reason, our crafts for cure program was started in 2015 with the aim of providing support to children through therapeutic art and play. Since then, Crafts for Cure has gone from strength to strength, impacting the lives of over 5,000 children with cancer and their caregivers. We started in one paediatric ward at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) seeing about 50 children once a week and now, we serve over 600 children in 8 wards at KNH and Moi Teaching Referral Hospital (MTRH) in Eldoret. We have, to date, paid for treatment (chemotherapy, radiotherapy and in some instances anaesthesia) for 111 children below the age of 18 at a total cost of Kshs11,197,547.

Helping children overcome cancer is close to our hearts as the statistics of paediatric cancer in Kenya are alarming. Just 1 in 10 children with cancer survives compared to 8 in 10 in developed countries. There are only 32 registered oncologists and three state-run radiotherapy machines located in Nairobi and Eldoret amongst a population of 45 million Kenyans. Combine this with private health care costs, misdiagnosis and cultural stigma associated with children who have tumours; the majority of diagnosed kids and their families have little hope.

This is why we are impassioned to being bold and going GOLD this September during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. #BeBoldGoGold for the kids in Nairobi.

We planned a fun day for the children at KNH on Friday 17th September, where we celebrated with the 30 or so children at paediatric oncology ward 1e. There was face painting, a puppet show and a golden cake to celebrate our golden heroes.

#BeBoldGoGold also took place for the kids in Eldoret. We organised some activities for the children including a bouncing castle. 

We are extremely grateful and inspired by the generous individual fundraising efforts of our supporters, who show compassion, courage, commitment and creativity in their initiatives to support people affected by cancer. Here are a few:

Gemma, a good friend and supporter of Faraja, has organised a month-long cycle/run challenge to help raise funds for children with cancer. We love that she is involving her children who will help create awareness among their friends.

Dr. Mokoh's child had kidney cancer and is a member of a socially conscious group called Subie Queens. During the month of September, her group organised a fundraising car wash for our benefit.

Esther sadly lost her son to leukaemia in February this year. To cope with her loss, she started hiking and found it very therapeutic. In loving memory of her son Al, she trekked 155Km from Gilgil to Narok with the Bobong camels and raised about Kshs 250,000 for cancer. This month she is advocating for early detection and screening through her social media, follow her on @theteacherwhohikesandtreks. 

The journey to recovery for a child with cancer is difficult. Once again thank you for being a true friend of faraja. Without our supporters, our work would not be possible. We look forward to updating you on our other programs when we will send our end-of-year newsletter. 

 
BE BOLD! GO GOLD!
 

It has been a while since we sent you an update on our services. We know the times are strange, to say the least, but we are optimistic about better days.

This optimism is fuelled by the courage of brave men, women and children who continue to defy the odds every day to beat cancer. They are the true heroes in our story of hope, help and life and we salute each and every one of them for staying the course especially now when it is more challenging than ever to do so.

When we temporarily closed our doors in July 2020 due to the current pandemic, our resolve to adapt and move on came from the messages received from our patients and caregivers who desperately needed some form of comfort amid the terrifying Coronavirus infection and mortality numbers.

For this reason, we shifted most of our programs online and only allowed some to take place physically with strict adherence to Covid-19 rules. 

It is during these challenging moments that we appreciate supporters like Ann Kamau who has gone above and beyond to raise funds for people with colon cancer in Kenya. Hike for Hope aims to raise $10,000 to support this cause. Ann had planned to climb Mt. Kenya on April 5th 2021 but the Kenyan government declared a County to County lockdown, making it difficult to travel. In the interim, she organised a series of hikes within Nairobi and has so far raised $5,000. 

She has not yet marked a date for her Mt. Kenya climb but is determined to reach her goal and set up the Frank Kamau Fund that will support men and women with colon cancer in Kenya, give nutritional supplements and colostomy bags to those who need them. 

We are grateful for her support and enthusiasm in standing in the gap for the most vulnerable. Keep climbing, Ann. Keep hitting those milestones! 

Links:

• Faraja's main website