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KIDSCAN Can YOU?
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Kids can teach you a lot. See through their eyes for a change, suggests ANJANA RAJAN.
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Emotional support is a key factor in Cankids' work. Photos: Avinash Pasricha.
YOU HAVE seen their delighted smiles. Noticed their tiny hands strapped with the canula for intravenous medication. Watched as their hair thins and disappears as a result of the treatment. And wondered, perhaps, at how their eyes shine with anticipation and sheer joy.
Now here's a chance not just to look into their eyes, but through their eyes at the world. This coming Tuesday, Ansal Plaza becomes more than a shopping centre when from 5 p.m., Through My Eyes, an exhibition of photographs taken by children with cancer, opens to the public.
Organised by Cankids... Kidscan, a non-governmental organisation under the umbrella of the Indian Cancer Society, the exhibition is part of a continuous efforts towards awareness raising, funding and social support.
Poonam Bagai, President of Cankids, underlines the group's two main messages: Cancer is curable. And cancer treatment is prohibitively expensive, so it is the duty of those who can give to help fund the treatment of those who can't afford it.
"Childhood cancer is 70 to 75 per cent curable. But in India, 80 per cent die because it costs so much. Sometimes parents think if they have to spend Rs.five or six lakhs on a single child, what will happen to the rest? So they abandon treatment. There are even doctors who turn them away. When the cure rate is so high, yet 80 per cent are dying, then it's a real tragedy," says Poonam, a cancer survivor who calls herself "passionate" about the subject. "We need to give simply because it is curable."
The Government is already coping with so many other priorities that cancer is near the bottom of the list. "But we can do it without the Government," she declares.
International effort
Over one lakh deaths could be prevented annually with equal and proper access to diagnosis and treatment. - CANKIDS DATA
The idea of giving cameras to the children came up through Cankids' association with ICCCPO (International Confederation of Childhood Cancer Parents Organisations), and a few selected photographs will be sent to the international exhibition being organised. Asked to be part of the project, Cankids volunteers realised their members mostly didn't earn enough to own cameras, so they decided to arrange them.
"It started as a germ of an idea," relates Poonam, "but it grew and grew. Finally we gave away 290."
"It was exactly the work we do. It was therapeutic for the children, and we got to know what the kids feel." One child, says Poonam, declared her first picture would be of the Metro rail, since that was what she saw from the hospital where she went for treatment, and that was what brought her papa quickly to her.
The other bonus was that the children and parents got to think about something other than the treatment and the disease.
Of the recipients, 110 came back with photographs, and Cankids selected five from each to put up at the exhibition, which continues through Wednesday.
The display is rounded off with the work of professional photographers Avinash Pasricha, Urvashi Talwar and Tom Roach who have documented the children's lives.
Though Cankids... is just over a year old, its members have been working with related organisations for much longer.
Fulfilling needs
An estimated 30-40,000 new childhood cancer cases occur in India each year. - CANKIDS DATA
Explains Sonal Sharma, one of the founder members, the different organisations came up in response to various needs.
First came Cancer Sahyog, an emotional support group, about 13 years ago. "Then, Poonam, I and others thought of doing something for children." The children are selected in consultation with doctors who tell the volunteers about patients with a good prognosis in need of financial aid.
Cankids not only funds treatment but also helps children back to normal living. Thus education is an important segment. A national database and resource centre are also being readied.
Since it was founded in January 2004, Cankids has organised outings for child cancer patients to fun places like Appu Ghar, besides activities like painting.
The group hopes to raise funds through selling these paintings too.
Recently, Sonal and her friend Anuradha started Sangini, which tries to provide earning opportunities for the parents.
"They all belong to the lower, lower income level of society. Some of them are farmers who have sold off their lands to pay for the treatment," says Sonal. Therefore, she and Anuradha decided to start selling kurtas. So far one father and two mothers have been employed in stitching, embroidering, and other tasks.
Cankids, whose members have all battled cancer in their own ways, has till now relied on friends and relatives for funding, explains Sonal, but now it is time to widen the family. Cankids shows every day that kids can do it. Can you?
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