Let's Help More Than 100 Children with Cancer

Report (September, October and November of 2018)

During the months of September, October and November of 2018, Rugute continued its activities and provided various support to children with oncological diseases and families who raise them. Fund also supported the major medical centers where these children are treated.

Within the past three months, the Fundprovided monthly and non-recurring charity to the families who had submitted their requests based on the importance of their needs. Families used this money to purchase necessary medical care and food supplies and to cover other costs that they could not have avoided due to their child’s disease (for example, travelling costs). The money also helped the families to improve the psychological well-being of the children. Fund provided 11,677.03 Eur in monetary form and 2,442.4 Eur worth of food products to such families.

The Fund also purchased the most commonly used mouthwash solution GUM® AftaClear, Caphosol for 2,025.06 Eur. This solution helps the little patients to get over the most common side effect of chemotherapy – mouth ulcerations that are known to worsen both physical and psychological condition of the sick child. Thanks to these solutions, children are able to eat without suffering too much pain.

The Fund has donated 2,000.00 Eur to the Lithuanian Children's oncology and Haematology Therapists Fellowship.

The Fund paid 12,100.00 Eur for genetic screening of 3 children. The genetic screening and testing of young cancer patients in one of the most modern laboratories of Europe, is a continued project, launched by the Fund in 2015. It‘s aim is to help Lithuanian doctors to detect the hystology of the tumor, to foresee the progress of the disease and to individualize the treatment.

Fund bought some supplies and covered some other necessary costs of Children‘s Oncohaematology Center of Santara Clinics (Children‘s Hospital):

• air conditioners (2 units) for procedure rooms – 3,650.00 Eur;
• equipment for children psychologist office – 240.00 Eur;
• toys for children play rooms – 324,91 Eur;

In order for the sick children’s bodies and souls to get better, it is crucial to provide them with both active and passive recreation, new experiences, joyful adventures and new friends. Back in 2015, we received an invitation from Jurga and Fredrik Gotlund, who offered us to implement a project Rehabilitation and Recreation of Childhood Cancer Patients together, by bringing our children to Mallorca, Spain, for a week of vacation. On the 22-29^rd of September, 2018, nine children who had oncological diseases, and their family members, enjoyed warm Mediterranean seawater and impressive nature of Mallorca. This rehabilitation gave them lots of benefits for their emotional and physical well-being. The total cost of this trip, including airfare, insurance, catering and visiting places of interest, was 7,297.93 Eur.

For the past three months, Rugute was also covering the maintenance costs of Rugute’s Home, the rented premises (200 m²) with two bedrooms, a kitchen, two bathrooms and a cozy area for games, resting and meetings, and a small yard, not far from the Vilnius Children’s Hospital. It is the only facility in Lithuania that provides temporary accommodation to the young cancer patients and their family members, free of charge. Having found shelter in these premises, children with oncological diseases are able to have a break from their treatment and from being in the hospital. Rugute’s Home allows their family members to get a temporary accommodation while visiting children in the hospital. The total maintenance cost of Rugute's Home in September, October and November of 2018 was 5,562.81 Eur.

A few years back, our Fund contributed to the project by Eugenijus Maciukas (a dad of a little patient), which involved setting up fish tanks in the hallways of Children’s Disease Clinic of LSMU. The hospital environment may be quite stressful to children (who spend long months in there) and depressing to their parents, therefore it is important to create a peaceful and emotionally rewarding environment. We helped to renew the aquariums and allocated 43.80Eur for this particular project.

On the 1th of December, Fund Rugute  and Nacionalinis kraujo centras invited everybody to the voluntary blood drive Share a Droplet, which was a nice event to commemorate the 14^th birthday of Rugute. It is a wonderful and positive blood donation campaign, where one can give some sincere attention to a sick human being and to save his/her life in an easy and rewarding way.

Christmas is right on our doorstep and we are sitting down to take a look at what we have done, and what we wouldn’t have done without your help. THANK YOU. May the Christmas Spirit prevail in your hearts and homes. May you be always well and healthy.

Links:

• http://www.rugute.lt/en/