Health Partnership for Childhood Cancer, Myanmar (Burma)

Country: Myanmar (Burma)

Key Contact: Professor Tim Eden

World Child Cancer works to improve services for children with cancer and their families in low-middle income countries, including Myanmar. World Child Cancer builds and sustains partnerships between paediatric oncology units in low-middle income countries with those in high-income countries whose staff are able to volunteer to provide training and mentorship in skills that are essential to care for children with cancer.

The two main hospitals that are able to treat childhood cancer, Yangon Children’s Hospital (YCH) and Mandalay Children’s Hospital (MCH) are partnered with the Guy’s and St Thomas Hospital in London to improve childhood cancer treatment through mentorship and workshops as well as delivering pathology training to improve diagnostic techniques. Dr Robert Carr, who has been conducting training visits for over 17 years, is leading this partnership. YCH is also partnered with Dana/Farber Boston Children’s Hospital in the US to focus on improving the capacity of nursing care and nutritional support for children with cancer. This partnership is led by nurse Lisa Morrisey. The project lead for this work in Myanmar is Prof Aye Aye Khaing.

Support has been expanded to MCH as part of efforts to develop the shared care network of childhood cancer services in Myanmar and the creation of a coherent national service for paediatric oncology.

With the help of volunteers from Evelina Children’s Hospital and CLIC Sargent, WCC have improved psycho-social support available to patients and families and set up a hospital school, Heroes School, in YCH. In addition, World Child Cancer are working in partnership with the charity, Please Take Me There, to support transport costs for children and their families travelling to and from the hospital to reduce the rate of abandonment.

In Myanmar we have continued supporting YCH and, more recently, the outpatient services at MCH . We are mainly supporting them with funds for families (transport, drugs and diagnostic) and the hospitals with funds to procure the drugs with a remote twinning with Boston Children’s Hospital. Of course they are working in very difficult times.

World Child Cancer welcome expressions of interest from volunteers trained in a variety of disciplines from medicine and nursing to play therapy and physiotherapy.