Cancer affected children get tabs for online classes

400 Tabs with Jio SIM connectivity Distributed across Pan India to Cancer affected Kids

New Delhi, January 20, 2021: 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 the 17 Hospitals during the official launch of their Online Classes, so that they can pursue their education online.

CankidsKidscan believes in Right to Education for the Child with cancer, that brings normalcy to the life of kids suffering through 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.

The Covid-19 pandemic has severely affected our educational system as the government lockdown regulations led to temporarily closing of school Canshala and the Learning Clinics in Hospitals. Cankids has ensured continuous support and learning to children and thus promoted at home or at hospital learning during lockdown through student engagement program 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 organization Ms. Poonam Bagai endorsed the plan of disbursing tablets amongst the young cancer patients without a second thought “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.” 

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 4 years of schooling because of my cancer treatment. I had also relapsed. I am now in 5thclass; I would have been in 10th. 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 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.

Along with this Cankids provides non-formal education through Learning Activity Clinics in OPD’s, wards or School rooms in Hospitals (Currently CANKIDS has a presence in 106 Hospitals across Pan India).

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