AFG: Projects: Children: Sick
International Assistance Fund For Children Suffering From Leukemia
Personal Observations from the Executive Director: In 2001, I met Manana Chubanidze and her husband Gocha Mikiashvili who had lost their 12-year-old daughter to Leukemia in 1999. They were devastated and decided they wanted to help other families who are going through what they went through. They took me to visit the main hospital in Georgia for children being treated with Leukemia. (All other types of children’s cancer are treated at the Children’s Department of the National Cancer Center.)
Manana and Gocha had managed to take their daughter to Germany for treatment and had come away impressed by the importance in the children’s treatment that the German doctors placed on keeping the parents in good spirits. With the help of two kind German women, Manana and Gocha fixed up the common room in the hospital so that they could throw parties on holidays to cheer the children and their families. Manana told me that in Georgia, the children with Leukemia sometimes stay in the hospital for a year for treatment and during this time they do not receive any schooling. She asked AFG for funds to pay for teacher salaries so that they could come regularly to the hospital to give instruction and relief to the children.
AFG Accomplishments: In 2004, AFG had finally raised enough funds to be able to help this project. AFG has:
- Covered one year of teacher salaries so that the children being treated for Leukemia for lengthy periods in the hospital can have instruction in clay modeling, painting, music, math, history and literature
- Called cancer hospitals in the U.S. to research whether there is any special instruction given to teachers here who teach very sick children in hospitals
Current Needs: AFG receives appeals from friends and relatives of young Georgian children suffering from Leukemia whose parents cannot afford the high cost of chemotherapy. We have tried to get help from organizations in the U.S. to bring these children here for treatment. We need international organizations willing to do this. The International Assistance Fund for Children Suffering from Leukemia needs funds to:
- Provide further funds to pay five teachers who are trained to work with very ill children who are receiving treatment in the hospital for long periods of time