By Pablo Allard | Coordinator of Quality of Life and Development
When a child is diagnosed with cancer, the entire family’s life changes. For families who live outside Santiago, Chile, the situation can become even more difficult. Cancer treatment often requires children to travel long distances and remain in Santiago for extended periods, separating them from their homes, communities, schools, and sometimes even from one of their parents.
At Fundación Camino, we believe that no child should have to face cancer without their family by their side.
Through our Every Child Deserves Their Parents Through Cancer program, we provide families with a safe and welcoming place to stay while their child receives cancer treatment in Santiago. By offering accommodation, emotional support, and a caring community, we help reduce one of the most painful burdens families experience during treatment: separation.
Keeping Families Together
For many families, traveling to Santiago means leaving behind their homes, jobs, other children, extended family, and support networks. The financial and emotional costs of this journey can be overwhelming.
Fundación Camino provides a home away from home where children and their caregivers can stay together throughout their treatment. Our house offers a safe environment where families can rest, share meals, receive emotional support, and connect with other families who are going through similar experiences.
Our goal is not only to provide a place to sleep. We create a community where families feel accompanied, understood, and cared for.
Psychosocial Support
Cancer treatment affects much more than a child’s physical health. It can generate fear, uncertainty, loneliness, anxiety, and significant changes in family dynamics.
For this reason, Fundación Camino complements accommodation with psychosocial support. Our team provides emotional accompaniment, individual and family support, group activities, recreational experiences, and spaces where children and caregivers can express their emotions and strengthen their coping strategies.
These interventions help families navigate the emotional challenges of cancer while maintaining a sense of connection, belonging, and hope.
A Home Away From Home
During treatment, families should be able to focus on what matters most: caring for their child.
By providing accommodation and essential support, Fundación Camino helps reduce the additional burden associated with finding and paying for temporary housing in Santiago. Families can remain together in a stable environment close to the healthcare centers where their children receive treatment.
The Foundation can accommodate up to 14 families at the same time, allowing children and their caregivers to live together in a supportive community.
Each year, approximately 20 new families arrive at Fundación Camino from different regions of Chile, and around 80 children and caregivers benefit from our programs and services.
The Impact of Your Support
Every contribution to this project helps make it possible for a child to have their parents close during cancer treatment.
Your support contributes to:
Providing safe accommodation for children and their caregivers.
Helping families remain together during prolonged treatment periods.
Reducing the financial burden associated with traveling and staying in Santiago.
Providing psychosocial and emotional support to children and caregivers.
Creating opportunities for families to connect with others who understand what they are experiencing.
Creating a safe, caring environment where children can continue to experience moments of childhood despite the challenges of cancer.
For families facing childhood cancer, being together is not a luxury. It is part of their support system, their strength, and their ability to face treatment together.
Looking Ahead
Fundación Camino is committed to ensuring that no family has to choose between being close to their child and being able to afford a place to stay during cancer treatment.
However, the need continues to grow, and maintaining a home capable of welcoming families throughout their treatment requires sustainable support.
With the support of the GlobalGiving community, we can continue providing a safe home, psychosocial support, and a community for children and their caregivers when they need it most.
Every child deserves to have their parents by their side through cancer. Together, we can help make that possible.
Thank you
We are deeply grateful to every donor who helps Fundación Camino keep families together. Your generosity does more than provide accommodation—it gives families the opportunity to face cancer together, surrounded by care, dignity, and hope.
Thank you for helping us ensure that no child has to face cancer alone.
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