Cancer is a blight to childhood, which should be spent playing outside, laughing out loud, making friends and memories, and squeezing every ounce of joy out of life.
And while Kythe Foundation may not have a miracle cure for the dreaded disease, it can provide supportive care to children with cancer and their families through child life services.
Cofounded by Maria Fatima Garcia-Lorenzo with Icar Castro while they were finishing their master’s degrees in psychology at the Ateneo de Manila University in 1992, the nonprofit organization aims to improve the quality of life of hospitalized children suffering from cancer and other chronic illnesses.
Garcia-Lorenzo said they saw the need for continuous psychosocial care while working with the children at the Tumor Clinic in East Avenue Medical Center. They recruited volunteers from Ateneo to play with children once a week, and around 30 graduate and undergraduate students registered. They now have approximately 500 volunteers per year and have expanded to 11 partner hospitals.
Kythe is composed of trained professionals providing child life services, which help the children cope with the hospital experience and increase compliance with medical procedures.
Digital infrastructure
Prior to the pandemic, Kythe was already establishing its digital infrastructure. “As a result, when the pandemic struck, we were able to assist our patients and their families through online donations,” Garcia-Lorenzo said.
“We ran online campaigns for the medical team and patients. We also had personal activity kits for children to use as bedtime activities because in-person volunteer activities were not permitted. We were able to smoothly transition from in-person volunteerism to online volunteer activities with the children and families,” she added.
Kythe Foundation also welcomes monetary donations for their Adopt A Patient program, which assists the children with their medical and financial needs.
The foundation has been providing holistic care to chronically ill children for the past three decades.
“We have cancer survivors and have assisted these young survivors in completing their education. They are now employed and live very productive lives. One cancer survivor even works as a child life coordinator for Kythe,” Garcia-Lorenzo said.
“We anticipate that Kythe will expand to more hospitals as we assist hospital teams in increasing their capacity to implement child life services,” she added. INQ
