Suggestion to provide food and accommodation to parents of terminally ill children

There are many situations where children from very poor families in Sri Lanka suffer from serious illnesses. The mother of the child usually stays beside the childrens bed in hospital for months. The father of the child has not visited the hospital as he is unable to find the bus fare to do so. (As they come from far away villages in Sri Lanka). I cannot imagine the amount of pain these parents go through when the child is terminally ill. On top of this their poor financial condition creates more sadness.

I have come up with a few proposals to help such parents of children in the lady Ridgeway Hospital Borella and the Cancer Hospital Childrens ward Maharagama.

Proposal 1

When a Child is admitted to the hospital the admissions area will provide food coupons (Say initially for a one week period). We need to seek Sri Lankan employers (Private Sector Organisations) who are willing to sponsor the cost of providing one meal a month (lunch). The company needs to arrange lunch packets for one given day each month and transport the lunch packets to the hospital along with a responsible employee who is willing to distribute them between 12.00 Noon and 2 PM at the hospital premises. (There are approximately around 1300 beds at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital and 100 beds in the children’s ward at Cancer Hospital). These correct numbers can be found out through the hospital director.

Most mothers in the hospital cannot afford to buy a lunch packet. They eat a mouth or two from the child’s food provided by the hospital, to keep from starvation. Providing them a good meal will be a blessing. If we are able to find 30/31 companies who are willing to sponsor one day’s lunch per month its going to make a very big difference to these innocent mothers who are going through a very tough time.

Proposal 2

The next suggestion is to provide a rest area to the mothers who spend sleepless nights on a chair beside the sick child’s bed or on the floor. In most hospitals there are store rooms which are used to stack up chairs and old beds etc. Private sector organisations could initiate a scheme where these rooms are cleaned up and basic mattresses could be provided to create rest areas for the mothers. These rest areas can be used by mothers to have a couple of hours of sleep during the lunch interval when a friend or a relation volunteers to sit beside the child while the mother gets some rest.

This is not a very capital intensive proposal as we only need to clean up the existing unused rooms and purchase basic type of mattresses. This will be a blessing to the poor mother who never gets proper sleep/rest sitting on the floor or a chair beside the child’s bed for months.

Proposal 3

Providing accommodation and food for children who do not need to stay in hospital permanently but are expected to visit the hospital 3 or 4 times a week to get their treatment for cancer or other serious illnesses. The problem arises when the child lives quite far away. It becomes very hard for the child and the mother to find suitable accommodation closer to the hospital cause majority of people who come to Lady Ridgeway and Cancer Hospital are from very poor families. Most of them do not have any one known to them living in Colombo to seek shelter and the other problem is to find the bus fare to travel on a regular basis.

In Australia there is a charitable home by the name of “Ronald McDonald House” which is sponsored by McDonalds fast food chain. This is a home which provides a decent meal and basic accommodation for families who have to visit hospital quite regularly for a given period of time for treatment. I am providing the link to the Ronlad Mc Donalds House for your further reference.

http://www.rmhc.org.au/home/default.asp

If private sector companies sponsor the 3 meals and other volunteer organisations could help pay the water/electricity bills to keep the house functioning the major concern would be to find out a suitable house with several rooms (Or it could be a large hall with mattresses on the floor with a couple of toilets). This house needs to be closer to the Cancer Hospital or the Lady Ridgeway Hospital.

If you have further queries regarding these plans or need more information I am more than ready to help you. My email address is niromi.maligaspe@axa.com.au

Thanking You
Yours Faithfully

Niromi Maligaspe
Melbourne - Australia