It being the beginning of another year, we thought that we would just remind everyone exactly what it is that the Little Fighters Cancer Trust actually does apart from posting on this blog and on our Facebook Page….
The Little Fighters Cancer Trust (LFCT) is a South African Non-Profit Organisation that offers various types of support to Children with Cancer and their Families throughout South Africa. We are the VOICE of Childhood Cancer Awareness and the HANDS of Childhood Cancer Support!
LFCT is committed to providing support in a holistic manner, treating each Child with Cancer and his/her Family as individuals, as we understand and respect the uniqueness of each situation. It is also our mission to preserve the dignity and pride of each individual.
We undertake to promote and advocate National Childhood Cancer Awareness in an effort to increase the amount of diagnosed Childhood Cancer cases in South Africa. Childhood Cancer Awareness will translate into an increase in earlier diagnosis, which will result in a higher survival rate for Children with Cancer in South Africa.
You will find a list of the projects that LFCT is still currently undertaking further down in this post:
The Little Fighters Cancer Trust’s work is divided into two main sections:
- Support to Children with Cancer and their Families
- Advocating and promoting Childhood Cancer Awareness
Support to Children with Cancer and their Families is in turn divided into three main priorities, which ensures that our reach is as wide as our resources can manage:
- Support to Individual Childhood Cancer affected Families
- Support to Paediatric Oncology Hospital Wards
- Support to Children with Cancer housed in Places of Safety
Advocating and promoting Childhood Cancer Awareness
- September is International Childhood cancer Awareness Month, a fact which our organisation brought under the attention of the South African Government, and since 2012, Childhood Cancer Awareness Month is also listed on the Government’s National Awareness Calendar.
However, Children are not only diagnosed with cancer in September, so the Little Fighters Cancer Trust is fully committed to spreading Awareness and Childhood Cancer Education every day of the year.
Our Support and Awareness Projects are born either from opportunity or out of needs arising.
The Little Fighters Cancer Trust operates nationally and our Projects are implemented across South Africa.
Detailed in the following sections, you will find more information on our long-term Projects, but please note, we also have short and medium-term projects, and, with the right corporate partners on board, can specifically design Projects for companies as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility Portfolios, encouraging more than just financial contributions.
We appreciate the following from our Partnerships and Sponsors:
- Staff Involvement
- Hands on work time with the LFCT Team
- Long term Partnerships
- Using more than just your financial resources, for example; expertise, product, marketing and promotional networks and services
In return, we offer:
- The customary taxation and BEE score benefits. (Donations received accrue to over 80% South African Black beneficiaries as per the BEE Codes of Good Practice.)
- Visual feedback by means of a photographic or audio-visual Project Report
- Open line of communication with LFCT
- Open access to our latest annual audited financial report, our Constitution, Trust Deeds and any other relevant Organizational Documentation
- Prompt and timely issuance and provision of Benefit Documentation and Project Reports
Please click on the sub-pages under “Projects” or the links hereunder for more information on each project
Bags of Hope Project
The LFCT BAG OF HOPE Project was initiated in 2010, when it became very clear, after numerous visits to paediatric Oncology Wards, that there is a desperate need for support to the Child with Cancer AND the bedside care-giver, which is usually, the child’s Mother. The LFCT BAG oF HOPE Project was conceived to provide Children with Cancer in Hospitals and their Bedside Carers with the basics like toiletries, snacks, toys, food, personal hygiene products, and more.
For the Barefoot for a Day Project, we ask you to go barefoot on 1st March and to pledge the purchase of a new pair of children’s shoes. We rarely distribute second-hand goods to Children with Cancer as their immune systems are depleted due to their treatments. Shoes should be posted or delivered to various drop-off points, to reach us before April 1st.
The Christmas Elf Project provides Children with Cancer with Christmas presents that many of them would not have otherwise. For many children this will be the only Christmas presents they will get. Apart from supporting Individual Children with Cancer, their siblings also get Christmas Gifts and many of these destitute Families are also gifted with a full month’s worth of groceries so that they too can share in the Festive Season without having to worry about where the next meal will come from.
emBRACE Project
The emBRACE Project is a job-creation and self-earning Project, which means that, even while sitting in hospital, caring for their Child with Cancer, these Mommies can still earn a small income; enough for them to be able to provide the basics for themselves, maybe have a bit spare for treats for their Little Fighters.
Get WRAPPED Project
The Little Fighters Cancer Trust Get Wrapped Project was born out of our visits to Paediatric Oncology Hospital wards across South Africa. During these visits, we realised that even though some hospitals are better equipped than others, there was a dire shortage of and need for decent bedding at most of the hospitals. The Little Fighters Cancer Trust Get Wrapped Project entails asking for donations of new single bed blankets, preferably soft blankets due to the children’s sensitive skins due to some of the treatment regimens, and distributing them to Little Fighters in Hospitals throughout South Africa.
The idea of Mandela Day was inspired by Nelson Mandela at his 90th birthday celebrations in London’s Hyde Park in 2008 when he said: “It is time for new hands to lift the burdens. It is in your hands now.” The Little Fighters Cancer Trust does Mandela Day 365 days every year. However, on Mr. Mandela’s Birthday, we encourage companies and individuals to join us in some grassroots work, getting their hands dirty, walking the walk with us, and giving of themselves.
Snug as a Bug Project
The LFCT Snug as a Bug Project was born early winter of 2013, due to the increasing requests to our organization to provide Children with Cancer with clothing.
The Snug as a Bug Project collects and distributes clothing for and to Little Fighters in Hospitals all over South Africa twice annually; at the start of Summer and at the start of Winter.
Special Celebrations and Events
The Little Fighters Cancer Trust focuses on a diverse and wide range of support and as the preservation of dignity is the main objective of the work it does, immense effort goes into preventing Children with Cancer and their Families from feeling alienated and forgotten. Special celebrations that the Little Fighters Cancer Trust takes special care to provide for include but are not limited to: Birthdays; Fun Outings; Mother’s Day; Christmas; Funerals
Swim for Hope Project
The Little Fighters Cancer Trust Swim for Hope project began in 2013 when South African musician and veteran marathon swimmer Carina Bruwer returned to the ocean after a 6-year break with an impressive open water swim around Cape Point, in extreme conditions, to raise funds and awareness for the Little Fighters Cancer Trust. Since then it has become an Annual Invitational Event.
The Little Fighters Cancer Trust PANTRY
The Little Fighters Cancer Trust recognises and assists with the Nutritional needs of Children with Cancer and their Families through various projects because a Child with Cancer requires special food and extra nutrition which most families can ill afford over and above the already soaring cost of Cancer.
1. Festive Season Food Hampers
The Festive Season Food Hampers put together by LFCT benefit Children with Cancer housed at Places of Safety. These children are referred to Places of Safety by their treating oncologist, as their home circumstances are not conducive to them getting well at home. These Little Fighters can often only go home once a year; sometimes already financially strained families do not arrive to collect their children for the Holidays as there are just no resources at home to care for a Child with Cancer. In order to ensure that these children have the opportunity to be with their friends and family over the Festive Season, the Little Fighters Cancer Trust provides comprehensive, non-perishable food hampers for the child to take home, ensuring that both the Child with Cancer and the family have healthy and nutritious food over the holiday period.
2. Feeding Our Families
In excess of 50% of the individual Childhood Cancer-affected families that are supported by the Little Fighters Cancer Trust have lost one income due to the child’s diagnosis.
Children with Cancer have to follow a nutritionally specific diet, which is often impossible for families to follow due to lack of funds. With one parent in the hospital for months, sometimes years on end, the sole breadwinner struggles to make ends meet at home. The Little Fighters Cancer Trust ensures that these families have food in the home while the Child with Cancer is in and out of hospital.
How YOU can Help
The Little Fighters Cancer Trust offers varied, individualised and targeted Support to in excess of 100 Individual Childhood Cancer-affected Families on a regular basis as well as doing regular National Hospital Ward and Place of Safety Projects which include up to 2,000 Children with Cancer PER project.
LFCT receives minimal Corporate Support, NO Government funding, International grants, or Lotto Funding, so is 100% dependent on public funding.
We pride ourselves on NEVER turning ANYONE away but never make any promises that we may not be able to fulfill. From the very first conversation with Parents, we make it clear that we might not be able to do anything for them at all, as what we do and the regularity of any support we can offer depends completely on available resources.
LFCT works very hard to fundraise and spends NO money on Fancy Events, Marketing, Branding, or Corporate Gifting. Our Auditors, Lawyer, and other Service Providers gift their professional services as donations so that every cent that we fundraise can go to those who need it most.
If you or your company would like to make a contribution to helping us spread our support to even more Little Fighters and their families, we will collect donations within a 100 kilometer radius of Paarl.
Please note that we are always in need of the following:
- Children’s clothing, sizes 3 months to 14 years
- Non- perishable foods
- Blankets and other bedding
- Any products and articles that we can use for auctioning to the public as a way to generate funding
- Financial Donations towards petrol, medical bills and medical equipment.
Please reference your name if payments are made directly into the Little Fighters Cancer Trust bank account, we would love to thank you for your donations.
Cash donations can be given as well, for which you will receive a receipt.
The Little Fighters Cancer Trust cannot continue any of our projects without your full and continued support. We ask of you any involvement that you would be able to offer.
Please take into consideration that these Little Fighters can only stand a fighting chance at victory with YOU in their corner.
Please contact us should you have any queries.
For more information as to how YOU can help us to help all our Little Fighters & their Families, please check our Wishlist Page as well as our Volunteering Page.
