Most of the previously mentioned activities are focused on the children and their families, and all are carried out at the various treatment centres around the country. There are some activities which happen at a national level, since they affect all of the country equally. These include:

Social Workers: The psychosocial support for the children and their families is recognised as one aspect that can make a great difference to the family, in helping them to cope with the many stresses that they encounter once their child has been diagnosed with cancer.

Social workers can play a key role in providing this support, but unfortunately there are too few of them in the government hospitals, and there are many other demands on their time. We have embarked on a project to develop training courses for “social workers” in childhood cancer. They will undergo a period of formal, supervised training, and who will work under the supervision of a trained and qualified social worker. These staff would be able to provide first line support for the parents and families, especially for those from less advantaged backgrounds, and will take a great load off the medical and nursing staff in the treatment centres.

Warning Signs Project: Some 700 children are diagnosed each year with cancer, but this is estimated to be less than half of the number that actually develop the illnesses. Of those that are diagnosed, many of them only appear for treatment at late stages of the illness, with a poorer prognosis for successful treatment. The local specialist paediatric oncologists in the SA Children’s Cancer Study Group developed a set of warning signs for childhood cancer, which have also been adopted internationally. CHOC supported the printing of posters, and travel by one of the medical consultants, to get these warning signs disseminated into primary health care clinics, and make the staff there aware of the symptoms, so that all the children can be diagnosed early enough for effective treatment.  See the page on this web site for more details - Click here >>.

Registry project: Reliable statistics on childhood cancer are essential for ensuring that adequate capacity exists for treatment. We have provided some funding to assist the SACCSG in the collection of the data for some of the centres in the country, to aim to improve the quality and completeness of the information available.

Back-to-school project: This sponsored the development of material to facilitate the return of children to school, after periods of treatment.

Advocacy: in order to try to ensure that the policies of government, medical aids, etc are in place and appropriate to provide the best treatment possible for all children with cancer.

Local conferences and meetings: We have organised national conferences (in 1997, 2000, 2003, and 2005) to enable parents, and the medical, nursing and other staff involved in the treatment and support of the children, to come together, share experiences and learn from each other. Another conference is being planned for April 2008 and information is available on the website under news items..

International connections and conferences: CHOC is a member of the International Confederation of Childhood Cancer Parent Organisations (ICCCPO), which brings together similar parent groups from around the world. From our involvement, our attendance at their conferences, and the election of members of CHOC to their Executive Committee, we have learned many things of practical benefit regarding the operation of parent organisations such as ourselves, and have contributed to them a better understanding of the specific problems in developing countries.