Buy an Ambulance 4 Children with Cancer (Zimbabwe)

Taking cognisance that the centralisation of cancer services is greatly affecting children fighting cancer, Kidzcan is working frantically to decentralise its services and mostly to give information away. This is with the realisation that early detection of childhood cancer saves lives, and reduces the morbility and mortality rate. Almost 440 km away from Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals' children cancer ward, Mpilo Central Paediatric hospital is treating children with cancer with the assistance that Kidzcan is giving. However, the cancer care that children get is not comprehensive enough, as part of the treatment and care is between 400-800 km away. The children commute between the two cities as and when they need the part that is not available.

Nothing much has changed, children are still being transferred to the specialist hospital and not all of them are able to go. For those who come, not all of them get around services efficiently. Kidzcan with one vehicle cannot do all. The need for bringing care to the children is getting bigger. As the organisation continues with the outreach programme for community education on childhood cancer, more children are seeking services. Unfortunately more children come at late stages of cancer and get discharged on palliative care. The health delivery system still registers the highlighted challenges:

• Lack of Standardised Cancer Management Guidelines.
• Lack of Childhood Cancer Services.
• Lack of Evidence Based Data (cancer is not a notifiable disease, data that is collected nationally is not accurately representing the prevalence rate against the country’s population).
• Lack of childhood Cancer Management Drugs within the public health system.
• The National Health Strategy (2016-2020) generalised NCD management (save for mental health).
• There is gross centralisation of specialised cancer management services.
• No integration of cancer control services in health programmes.
• Cultural, mythical, traditional and scientific medicine interface.
• Many Cancer causing agents being produced and handled.

 With all the highlighted challenges, the need to assist the children with cancer get to services and care cannot be over emphasised. The ambulance is a requirement, so that the delay between point of need and point of care is reduced. Cummulatively Kidzcan has registred 2416, 489 have deceased, 5 are on remission and only 800 are active in the data base. The above statistics indiated a high number of children lost to follow up. The is due inaffordability of transportation between services. Kidzcan has been assisting children with the following types of cancer:

• Blood Cancers 29%
• Wilms’s Tumour 13%
• Retinoblastoma 12%
• Brain/CNS Tumours 10%
• Soft Tissue Cancer 9%
• Lymphomas 7%
• Other Cancer 17%
• Haemophilia 3%

Only 29% of children requirng cancer services are from local and 71% require transport assistance.