Connect With Loved Ones Initiative
Cancer can quickly interfere with daily activities and work-related responsibilities. This is especially true for patients who cannot afford to purchase mobile credit to communicate with their families abroad.
This initiative will provide qualifying patients with mobile phones and SIM cards (a total of 50 SIM cards per year) to help them maintain relationships with families living overseas. This is something which is particularly important in times of illness when the support of family and friends is needed more than ever.
The provision of SIM cards will also enable patients to communicate with the QoL team who will then be able to follow up around the clock with the patient about their health. Additionally the SIM cards will provide patients with an opportunity to communicate with anyone, anywhere in the world, enabling them to feel free of the restrictions of a hospital or recovery environment.
Educational Initiative
Depending on the type of cancer and the patient’s academic year, children inevitably experience lengthy absences before and after their diagnosis and throughout their treatment journey. This might be due to an extended hospitalization period and/or repetitive hospital visits. Additionally, as chemotherapy suppresses the immune system, children are also more at risk of contracting acute infections. As a result many parents decide that the risk of infection is too great so they keep their child away from school until chemotherapy is complete and their child’s immune system has returned to normal. Additional school absences may occur because the child is unwell or tired.
It is however important for children to maintain their pre-illness level of academic achievement so they can develop into productive adults. To help them to do this, we have pulled together a group of brilliant student volunteers from (Sherbourne School, Doha) who are willing to help children suffering from cancer to achieve or maintain their previous academic level of achievement to make their re-entry to school once they feel better easier and less stressful.
Language Bank Initiative
This language initiative is a multi-language volunteer group willing to help patients needing help with translation to understand their disease and treatment plan. More than 60 percent of our patients are non-Arabic speakers with many coming from countries such as India and Nepal, and only speaking their own language.
Every patient has a right to know about their disease, treatment plan, the procedures involved and side effects, so this group’s members strive to help them enjoy this right and therefore improve their quality of life.
Support Group Initiative
A support group is two or more people who come together regularly and voluntarily to discuss shared experiences. Most group meetings are face-to-face, but they can also occur over the phone or online. Venues for face-to-face meetings fall into two broad categories:
- Those held in a community setting
- Those held in a hospital or healthcare setting
Groups can be arranged by healthcare professionals or non-healthcare professionals (such as a community member with a personal cancer experience).
Support groups provide people with the opportunity to share their experiences and feelings with others who are in a similar situation. The group leader or facilitator may lead a discussion about particular topics or experiences, such as ‘What it’s like to talk to your children about cancer.’
A meeting could involve laughter, tears, empathy, love, acceptance and/or learning new things. Groups can help participants to become more informed about cancer-related topics, such as treatment, side effects, exercise and nutrition, relationships and life beyond cancer. Most groups regularly invite speakers to present on related topics of interest and often include doctors, nurses, psychologists, dietitians, naturopaths and pharmacists.
SPOQ initiative
A Portable Computer (PC) or Mobile Application (MA) will be developed to connect donors (volunteers) to receivers (patients). This will enable volunteers to provide their support in a smooth and effective way to patients and their families. This support may include a wide range of services such as transportation, education, babysitting, as well as many other services.
