With the start of the new academic year, a new year of service came through. Yet as for me, I decided to continue with the service program that I was in since Grade 10, known as Hope for Kids. Hope for Kids is a charitable initiative that primarily focuses on assisting younglings suffering from cancer. I am continuing with Hope for Kids, as I thoroughly enjoyed working alongside my peers and developed a strong desire to assist cancer patients in resuming their lives normally. We have done about 5 service sessions since the start of the academic year. We started our first-ever lesson by introducing our service group to all the new members, followed by a new set of rules and setting our future goals and plans. Finally, we also reflected on our past events, such as the cricket match, the ration food drives, and the Maharagama cancer house visits, etc. to understand where we can make modifications.
The second lesson was entirely focused on creating the setting for a childhood cancer awareness day. As September was Childhood Cancer Awareness month, our service group, Hope for Kids, has established a date (27th of Sep, 2023) for the school to participate in this month by wearing yellow (Yellow is the symbolic colour of Childhood Cancer Awareness). We created an eye-catching poster to submit to the daily bulletin and sent out emails with a brief background on Childhood Cancer. It was proven to be very successful as almost everyone in the school including staff members participated throughout the day. They wore yellow as a way of sending a message of support to children with cancer and their families and letting them know that they are not alone. However, we noted our mistakes for future reference such as the delay in promoting, the lack of yellow clothes or accessories for some members and the insufficient organisation for the primary section of the school.
During the 3rd lesson, the members from the previous year went to ‘Suwa Arana’ (by a non-profit organisation, Indira Cancer Trust), built to accommodate cancer patients visiting the neighbouring Apeksha Hospital. It is also the first-ever Palliative Care Centre in Sri Lanka. Suwa Arana focuses solely on accommodating the patients rather than providing treatment. It is composed of 5 floors and a rooftop, mainly used as a play area. The first floor is where the reception and dining rooms are, followed by the kitchen. The second floor is for the rooms for patients in need of immediate treatment, for easier access. The fourth and fifth floor is composed of rooms that are quite luxurious for the patients. In addition to accommodation, Suwa Arana also makes personalised wigs for their patients. They mentioned that providing the wigs cures the patients to some extent, as they are mentally stable about their looks, causing an increase in platelets.
By visiting Suwa Arana, we were able to understand and brainstorm ideas regarding the actions we can take to effectively accomplish our goal of ensuring that children afflicted with cancer have a normal life. Thus, during an advisory session, we were able to conduct a small presentation about breast cancer awareness, followed by an introduction to Suwa Arana and its services. Towards the end of the session, we were able to carry out a discussion with our grade level to gather ideas and feedback on what we could do to help this organisation. Some of these ideas were toys and necessities drives, fundraising events, awareness days and voluntary services, etc.
As October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we organised a day towards the end of the month to wear pink as a way of spreading awareness about breast cancer. So, the 4th service lesson was primarily focused on planning and preparing for the “On Wednesdays We Wear Pink” program, introduced by the Indira Cancer Trust (one of the many organisations we collaborate with). By reflecting on the previous childhood cancer awareness day, we were able to prepare pink ribbons for those who were unable to wear pink during the day. Furthermore, we were also able to include the primary students in the event, but the email was sent late, lowering the participation, and will be addressed in future events. Overall, the event was conducted very well, as almost the whole school participated by wearing pink or the ribbon provided, expressing the effectiveness of the improvements from the aforementioned childhood cancer awareness day.
