We work four times a week at Kidwai Memorial Hospital’s paedriatic oncology ward (the Kapur Ward) to provide formal education and bring the children up to speed with their schooling. Our teachers (both Foundation staff and volunteers) provide one-on-one instruction for the older students and group teaching for the younger ones, so that they can continue their education while in the ward. Both the structured teaching and the provided textbooks follow the prescribed state and national curricula, and the teaching schedule aligns with the school year. There are around 110 students in this education program at any given time. Since June 2009, over 7500 children have benefited from our program and activities, and over 5000 children treated in the wards have gone back home and returned to school. This data is based on feedback received from the children, their families and friends, and from the doctors at the treating hospitals.

Our thanks go to our teachers and librarians Ms. Vidyavathy and Ms. Parvathi, as well as to our volunteers, for their hard work and sincere efforts. We also thank the authorities at Kidwai Memorial for their cooperation, especially Dr. Janet Parameshwar, retired Head of the Social Work Department, current and retired Directors of KMIO and the Pediatric Oncologists at KMIO for this success.

At the Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Center at NH, over 500 children have benefited to date and we are working on a more focused tutoring program for older children. The duration of stay of the children here is shorter than at KMIO. Thanks to Rhea Daruwala and Dr.Sunil Bhat who are closely monitoring the program on site.

The cost of education of one child-seat is Rs. 2200/- per month. (A child-seat indicates one child being supported at a given point of time: the total number of child-seats remains mostly constant in each ward at a given time, although the individual children being supported will vary over time.) This cost covers books, materials, and volunteers’ travel costs.

Please donate here to support our education program.

In light of COVID-19, we continue to support the children through online lessons and digitising our educational material. Please contact valli@samikshafoundation.org or teachers@samikshafoundation.org to find out more.