Three new Soleterre shelters arrive, in the month dedicated to child oncology

Every year in the world About 300,000 children get cancer. A condition aggravated by the pandemic that has made the lives of young patients even more difficult, forcing them to long periods of isolation in hospital with the fear of contracting the virus. Added to this are the psychological and economic effects of the pandemic.

Childhood Cancer International – network of over 170 associations of parents and survivors of which the Soleterre Foundation – has proposed and obtained devote the entire month of September to raising awareness on pediatric oncology, in order to make known to as many people as possible the challenges, problems and needs that families with sick children face every day. Greater awareness means more emotional support for children, ever more timely diagnosis and greater help in research: it means saving lives.

This year, September will be a more special month than usual. Soleterre is preparing to open 3 new shelters: in Italy a Taranto, in Morocco a Marrakesh e in Burkina Faso a Ouagadougou. The 3 box they can accommodate up to 30 families at the same time and are added to 3 already existing in Ukraine, Ivory Coast and Uganda, where since 2009 Soleterre has welcomed over 2,300 children with their parents. The shelters help to discourage the abandonment of therapeutic paths because they relieve parents from worries and travel and accommodation costs. In addition, they are intimate and protected places that protect the psychological well-being of the entire family: a sick child but aware of his emotions will face the therapeutic path with less stress and will have a better chance to survive and heal.

“A great achievement to be able to open 3 new homes in months as difficult as those of the pandemic – he says Damiano Rizzi, President of Soleterre Foundation and Clinical Psychologist at the Pediatric Onco-Hematology of the Policlinico San Matteo in Pavia. In particular, in Taranto, we will be able to guarantee for the next few years the presence of a shelter for families who come from outside the province or region to look after their child and who make up about 30% of the total hospitalizations “.

In the past two years, due to the pandemic, many parents have lost their jobs because the company has closed or reduced staff, as well as having experienced a general increase in the cost of living and healthcare costs, such as transport to reach the hospital and the introduction of the obligatory tampon to access the oncological wards, which is most of the time totally borne by the families. Only in Italy the families that have seen a worsening of their economic conditions due to the pandemic constitute 30% of the total (Source: ISTAT, May 2021).
To meet this need, Soleterre, in 2020, has strengthened its intervention for destitute families, guaranteeing economic support for all expenses related to care to 394 families in Italy and in the world, compared to 278 in 2019, recording an increase in the number of families assisted by + 41%.

The psychological consequences resulting from the emergency situation have had a greater impact on children with cancer, above all in terms of concern for the future and fear of contagion, intensifying pre-existing mental disorders. In every context of intervention, from Italy to Uganda, passing through Ukraine, Morocco and the Ivory Coast, the 19 psychologists of Soleterre have increased the number of hours of work reaching, in 2020, to guarantee 6,224 psychological sessions for children and parents, against 4,417 in 2019, registering an increase of + 40%.

The pandemic has also exacerbated the already existing inequalities in access to treatment and diagnosis: if in countries like Italy on average 8 out of 10 children survive, in low-income ones only 2 out of 10 children make it. The causes of this strong inequity are to be found in health structures lacking adequately trained personnel to recognize and treat cancer, in the lack of medicines and equipment in the wards, in the poverty of families for which it is impossible to sustain medical expenses and in the general disinformation around the cancer, the consequence of which is arriving at the hospital when it is too late. Soleterre with its “Grande Against Cancer” program active in 6 countries has been intervening for over 10 years on the causes of this disparity through direct support to hospitals, medical training programs and awareness-raising programs for the population and economic, psychological and residential for families with children in care.

To join the awareness month, you can get your support to sick children and their families by making a donation on sostieni.soleterre.org/