Sunder, a 2 year old kid was playing in a hospital yard. He was unaware of his past, present or future ahead of him. He was not even aware why he was at hospital from long time. The only thing he was concerned as to what to play and with whom to play. He was suffering from retinoblastoma, a childhood cancer of the eye for which he was being treated in City’s Cancer Hospital. Like Sunder, this hospital is also a home of many children suffering from many childhood malignancies.
On diagnosis of a child with cancer, the trauma the parents undergo is just unexplainable. It has emotional and economical stresses attached to it. Various volunteers and organisations are involved in helping the child and the parents to cope with the new burden.
Sheel Soneji, a student of India International School pursuing International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum had just finished his 11th standard. Unlike his peers he was not involved in social media, girl friends or gadget crazy world. He had a vision for the country. He dedicated his summer vacation this year to raise funds for Samiksha Foundation – caring for children with cancer, the same place where he also volunteer‘s as spoken English teacher during vacation. He says he proudly supports Samiksha Foundation’s cause.
He named his fund raiser as Cheesy Neurons and on Facebook he created an event page through which he raises funds from friends and family.
As a part of which he organised a football tournament at PLaY on 25th this month in which the first 16 teams to register will participate and proceeds will go to Samiksha Foundation.
This is what he says about the foundation “One of the most traumatic experiences that a family can face is the diagnosis of a child with a life threatening illness. From that point on, their lives are never the same again. Parents face many new stresses and challenges: these may be emotional, financial, spiritual or just the practical problems of coping with the situation and continuing to live in as normal a way as possible.
This is where Samiksha comes in. Samiksha is a Creative Learning Initiative for children with cancer and their caregivers”.
“They provide non-medical support for these children in distress, through educational support, spiritual support, and managed play and activity” he added.
From past 30 days he has raised upwards of Rs. 185,000 for the NGO.
Those wishing help can contact:
Sheel Soneji – +91.9036024067
https://www.facebook.com/events/864108700270867/?fref=ts
www.samikshafoundation.org
