By Tadas Armonas | Representative
No Summer Break for Children in Treatment
Rugute Foundation — project report, June–August 2026
Childhood summers can seem endless. They are usually measured in swims, ice creams, trips, long evenings outdoors, and days when there is no need to hurry to school.
But children diagnosed with cancer do not get a summer break. Their days are shaped by treatment protocols — courses of chemotherapy, tests, procedures, hospital stays, and waiting for their bodies to be ready for the next stage of treatment.
Through our daily cooperation with the pediatric oncology and hematology centers in Vilnius and Kaunas, we see that the wards are almost completely full and that the number of children arriving for treatment continues to grow. This year, we are seeing an unusually high number of new diagnoses — a level we have not witnessed in more than 20 years of working alongside children with cancer and their families. As a result, there are also more situations in which families urgently need medicines that are not reimbursed by the state or are unavailable in Lithuania, genetic testing, medical and nursing care supplies, or financial assistance.
A child’s cancer diagnosis fundamentally changes the daily life of the entire family. No family is prepared for one parent to leave work for an extended period and spend days and nights at the hospital with their child. Income falls at the very moment when expenses rise. During this period, we therefore provide families with financial assistance, easing at least some of their everyday concerns so that parents can give more of their attention to their child.
Between June and August, EUR 2,323.95 was donated to this project through GlobalGiving. We allocated all of it to five families. These funds helped them meet everyday needs while their children were receiving treatment in the hospital. Sometimes this means something as simple as buying food that a child is able to eat at that particular time: chemotherapy can change how food tastes and make eating painful, and children may refuse their usual meals or the food provided by the hospital.
Financial assistance for families, however, is only one part of Rugute’s work. It is equally important that doctors can provide the treatment a child needs without delay, carry out the necessary tests, and use medical supplies that make treatment safer and less painful.
The scale of these needs varies greatly. An oral care product that helps relieve pain caused by chemotherapy-related mouth sores costs around EUR 15. A central venous catheter, which spares a child repeated needle sticks throughout treatment, costs around EUR 380. A genetic test, whose results may help guide an individualized treatment plan, costs between EUR 2,000 and EUR 6,500, while some essential medicines that are not reimbursed by the state or are unavailable in Lithuania cost EUR 9,000 or more.
So far in 2026, Rugute has allocated EUR 289,952 in total:
Behind each of these amounts is a specific need of a particular child. For one child, the most important thing at that moment is a medicine prescribed by their doctor. For another, it is a test whose results will guide the next treatment decision. For a third, it is a supply that reduces pain or the risk of infection.
We never know what request for help will reach us tomorrow. But we do know how important it is to be able to respond when it does.
Thank you for making this work possible.
If you are able to, we warmly invite you to continue standing with children in Lithuania who are being treated for cancer. Even a small donation becomes something very concrete — an oral care product, a needle for a central venous catheter, a contribution toward a genetic test, or part of the cost of an essential medicine. Regular monthly donations are especially valuable because they help us respond quickly when an urgent need arises.
Together, we can help a child’s greatest wish come true — to get well.
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
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