The Golden Butterflies Nutri Bowl

2.5 million children worldwide die every year, requiring palliation, of whom more than 98% are from developing regions (The Lancet, 2017). Furthermore, 7 to 9 million children in the world, ranging from neonates to 18-21 years, could benefit from palliative care. A lot of children with life-threatening and life-limiting conditions require palliative care, including children suffering from cancer, irreversible organ failures of heart, liver and/or kidney, cystic fibrosis, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, HIV/AIDS, neuromuscular or neurodegenerative disorders, severe cerebral palsy, and multiple disabilities such as following brain or spinal cord injury. Palliative care itself is a poorly understood concept in India, and paediatric palliative care an even rarer subset. Children undergo various physiological and psychological changes during their growth, which leads to their unique treatment requirements.

Golden Butterflies has Memoranda of Understanding with YRG CARE, Kanchi Kamakoti Child Trust Hospital and Sri Ramachandra Medical College, all in Chennai, for referral of child patients and their families/caregivers, for counselling and providing support for medicines and nutrition. As our beneficiaries hail from low socio-economic circumstances, assistance in cash or kind for food is essential and contributes towards the continuation of ongoing treatment as well as a better quality of life. Further, a few low doses of palliative chemotherapy or palliative radiation are proven to be useful in allowing the patient to live longer and pain-free, in instances such as obstructions due to tumour growth, etc. Golden Butterflies, under this project, intends to comfort its child patients by financially supporting the costs of palliative chemotherapy or palliative radiation and nutrition.

1. 10 child patients will be able to undergo palliative chemotherapy or palliative radiation to reduce pain arising from tumour growth. 10 child patients x 50,000 per treatment = 500,000

2. 30 child patients will be provided nutrition, including supplements, in cash or kind, for a period of one year. 30 child patients x 15,000 per year = 450,000