Children Affected By Cancer : Here Comes Another School Year!

“Our objective was to raise awareness that every child – including the sick – has a right to education, culture and leisure. It was also to reconnect the children with their educational environment by preventing ruptures in their schooling because of ill health.  Ill health hampers children from being in school, which is what our special classes seek to address,” explained Ruth Grace Ngo Nyobe, the Chair and Founder of Mori’s Child, a humanitarian charity.

Why Choice Of Reopening Day?
“We chose to undertake the outreach on school reopening day in Cameroon so that sick children will not be left behind. Especially as in our Cameroonian context, cancer tends to be associated with the mystical. It was therefore an opportunity for Mori’s Child to restate the need to stop marginalizing children suffering from cancer. They have the same rights like other children. This is why they began the new school year on the same day as all other children in Cameroon,” Ngo Nyobe pointed out.
The humanitarian charity, Mori’s Child on September 9, 2024 in the Chantal Biya Foundation, Yaounde organized an outreach to hospitalized children affected by cancer. The event was timed to coincide with school reopening in Cameroon on the same day, as Mori’s Child has been organizing classes for the children. 

Plentiful Gifts
The occasion saw the presentation to the sick children and their parents/carers of the teachers who will teach them this academic year in nursery, primary, secondary and high school. A priest also came along to encourage and pray for the children. “Despite your condition, your dignity as human beings remains. Jesus cares about the sick at all times,” the priest said. 

According To Their Pace
Prof. Angele Pondy, the Service Head for Haemato-oncology in the Chantal Biya Foundation commended Mori’s Child for the initiative, saying all children have the right to education. She added that the special classes cancer-affected children attend in hospital are tailored to go at their pace, given their health challenges. 

Success Stories
Mori’s Child officials later distributed school sacks, books, stationery and other school equipment to the children. As well as food, mineral water and soft drinks to the sick children and their parents/carers. Two children who succeeded in certificate examinations last academic year were presented and given awards. They are Nnanga Nnanga Magdalene who passed the BEPC examination and Eyinga Olle Bouqouet Lovelyne who passed the Baccalaureate and will later this month sit the entrance examination into medical school.   

For All Childhood Cancer Patients 
“Classes for children suffering from cancer are peculiar because they go on at the children’s pace, given their health situation. It is for this reason that their lessons tend to be short because their health situation can change at any time. The classes are not only for hospitalized children, but all children in Cameroon suffering from cancer. 

Plan B
“Unfortunately, we cannot cover children in other regions in the first phase of our project. But for those in Yaounde – whether hospitalized or receiving treatment from home - we will try to attend to them. If need be, we will transport them in buses to and from classes just like it is done for healthy children,” Ruth Grace said.

Other Parts Of The Country Envisaged 
“In the coming years, we hope to organize these classes in the other cancer treatment centres in Cameroon...