Cancer affected children get tabs for online classes

New Delhi, January 20

As classrooms across the country remain closed due to Covid-19 pandemic, CanKidsKidsCan (National Society for Change for Childhood Cancer in India) distributed tabs to 400 cancer-affected children across the country in 17 hospitals during the official launch of their Online Classes, so that they can pursue their education online.

 CankidsKidscan believes in the Right to Education for the Child with cancer, which brings normalcy to the life of kids suffering from this life-threatening disease by connecting them to formal education, non-formal education and therapeutic activities along with tutoring and mentoring to children with cancer and survivorship.

Cankids has ensured continuous support and learning to children and thus promoted at home or at hospital learning during the lockdown through student engagement programme with nationwide distribution of 15000+ DIY kits (topic related learning activity kits designed by its experienced education team) through their 106 partner hospitals.

 Speaking on the launch of Online Canshala Meena Abrol, Head Education at Cankids said “We are dedicated to educate, encourage and motivate young Childhood Cancer warriors to take challenges coming their way with a positive attitude. For quite some time, the panel of experienced teachers at Canshala was brainstorming the best ways to replenish the link between kids and their classes so that their academic progress does not come to a halt because of Covid-induced lockdowns and other restrictions.

 We have provided a Tab with in-built content and applications like Diksha, other state government educational app and our own Non-Formal & Therapeutic Education Curriculum, as well as GoogleMeet, Google classroom, Google drive, Zoom video conferencing App, MS office and a lot more with one year of Internet connectivity.”

 Chairman of Cankids organisation Poonam Bagai endorsed the plan of disbursing tablets amongst the young cancer patients. “It was the need of the hour. We revised our scholarship policy to include these tablets. The universal push towards online education has provided our kids with cancer a huge opportunity to be able to learn even during treatment,” she said.

 Poonam was visibly unhappy with the current situation as she knew what these kids might be going through, she further added “Distributing 400 tabs is just a pilot run. Our teachers will also experience online education dynamics to run Canshalaonline more effectively and from next year we aim to ensure that any child with cancer has access to a device that enables his ongoing education through the cancer treatment wherever he may be.”

 Happy to get the tab, Gaurav Garg, a Blood Cancer Survivor from Faridabad said, “I have lost four years of schooling because of my cancer treatment. I had also relapsed. I am now in Class V; I would have been in Class X. With no device at home, I was missing online classes and getting poor marks. I don’t want to miss even one day of school now.”

 CanKidsKidscan also runs Canshala, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) school in South Mumbai's Parel area, where cancer kids receive formal education and are taught by regular teachers, two of whom are provided by the civic agency and the remaining by CanKids. This special school has come about thanks to a public-private partnership between the BMC and CanKids, which also has a family support group for children with cancer.

 Since November 2012, the society has been imparting education to Braveheart in 30 hospitals, at its 9 Homes away from homes and CanShalaSchools to give access to education to children who are forced to pull out of schools to undergo treatment. TNS

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