Sad Day

Tuesday the 25th May, 2010, was a very sad and emotionally draining day for me. By evening, the hubby wanted to know whether I was ill – my usual loud self was away, my responses to my ever so energetic daughter were all rather on auto pilot.
Just to put you in the picture, I am in charge of publicity and fundraising for Hope for Cancer Kids, a charitable organization that looks to ‘wholistically’ take care of children with cancer and their families. Our job is to raise both awareness and funds, at the same time fight the stigma that comes attached with childhood cancer so parents are on the look out so as to arrest the cancers before they become incurable. Our long term goal is to have 80% child cancer survival rater, in line with the developed world statistics, as opposed to the current 10%.
My director, whose child was diagnosed with cancer 3 years ago when he was only 3 years old, had lost his son two weeks ago. On 25th was the first day I spoke to him one on one about the death of his son Lee. He, always strong, narrated how he held his son’s hand as he took his last breadth. Not an easy thing even for the strongest of the strong. He did not once cry as he told me about it, I suppose he has done all the crying while his son was ill – it was almost a relief when he passed on, as it had become obvious that he was not going to get better, but his pain was unbearable.
Just after he finished narrating his story, a woman we both know walked into the office. Her son, 5 years old, has been a ‘resident’ of KNH children cancer ward for the last two years. He, sadly, had lost his battle about the same time with Lee – they had been friends. Unfortunately for the woman who stood in front of us, she has not been able to burry her son. In the two years he has been at the hospital, his hospital bill had risen to Kshs600,000. Unfortunately, and you cannot blame them really, KNH requires her to settle at least half of the bill before the body is released. This, for a woman who received the sad news of his son’s demise while she was at a burial site burying her father, whose body had been held hostage at City Mortuary because they could not raise about Ksh50,000 to settle mortuary bills.
I have never met a woman more resigned to fate than the woman who stood in front of us.
It frustrated me and I could not help feeling partly responsible that her mourning period was being extended. If I was doing my job right, surely her son would not be at the mortuary accumulating bills! I know it is silly to feel like that, but I still feel terrible.
On the 18th June, we are holding a fundraising dinner at the Panafric Hotel. The aim of the dinner is to raise at least Ksh1.5 million. Not anywhere near what we require, as currently, we have over 120 children at the wards with bills ranging from Ksh20,000 to Ksh700,000, totaling to about Ksh15million. The Ksh1.5million however will help us take NHIF covers for every child at the ward currently, and in the future. We will need more money as it is a continuous process, but we have to start somewhere.
The idea of the insurance scheme is to involve both NHIF and KNH, who have both agreed to join our bid, NHIF especially as a part of their social responsibility. We have several other corporate like Safaricom, Magnate Venures,NMG already on board, and others interested and we can only hope they will join us. Individuals are welcome as well, either as volunteers or donors, and donations do not have to come in cash, there is always use for clothes, books, old fridges, heaters etc, get in touch with me I will be happy to help.
Back to the dinner, any corporate willing to join will pay Ksh50,000 for 7 people, individuals Ksh 10,000 but this is for two people. If you like flying solo, Ksh5,000 is enough. The money is just enough to pay for the dinner and insurance for 1 ½ families. Please join us so we can tell you why we so desperately need your help.
As for the woman who came to the office , we only promised to try, but cannot make any concrete promises. We shall present her case to the KNH but we are not holding our breadths – only last week, they offset a bill for another patient of Kshs500,000.
We need financial help especially. If you cannot join us for the dinner, we can still use your donations, whatever amount it is. We have an M-pesa account, 511100, you can send through bill section, or alternatively inbox me (ciku@hope4cancerkids.org) and I can direct you how to help, financially or otherwise.
Please visit our website www.hope4cancerkids.org and get to know us better and get acquainted with our projects.
Thank you