Puerto Vallarta, Mexico – A child diagnosed with cancer impacts an entire family. Not only does a cancer diagnosis turn a child’s entire world upside down, but overwhelming medical expenses can add an enormous amount of financial stress on families with minimal income.
Aid to Families of Children With Cancer (AFCC) is an organization that supports families who have a child diagnosed with cancer in the Puerto Vallarta region. The organization receives no government funding so relies solely on donations from private donors, community organizations, and fundraisers.
The pandemic has made this past year especially difficult for these families but, thanks to all of you, the AFCC is continuing to make a difference. Here’s the latest from the AFCC:
We are now well into the second month of 2021 and we are doing our best to make sure the families still have their despensas as well as helping out with their treatments and getting laptops and iPads to keep the kid’s schoolwork up to date.
The despensas were held a bit differently yesterday since we are still in the shutdown. Aurora and I are now both banned from Costco (as well as other stores) thanks to being in “a certain age group”. We managed to get Walmart gift cards to give to the families who all came at separate times and shopped on their own. One of the mothers went to Sam’s Club for Pedisure, Ensure, Lactose-free and regular milk. The whole process went very fast and the mothers enjoyed shopping for their needs.
Some families couldn’t join yesterday so they will get their despensas when they return to Vallarta later this month.
Several of the children are still making weekly visits to hospitals in Guadalajara for treatments. One of our little girls, Regina, 8 years old, has been in the hospital for several months over the last year with a tumor on her head. She came home in early January. Her father came to pick up their despensas and was surprised with a laptop for Regina. She hasn’t been able to keep up with her schoolwork so she was extremely excited to receive it since she’s ready to do some homework. Regina has a tween sister and a younger brother so the laptop will get lots of use in their family.
Another little one, Alanna, was in the hospital in Guadalajara four times in January. She just left last Tuesday and is hoping to be back this week. She loves her iPad and watches children’s TV programs to pass the time. She wants to learn English so some of the programs she watches are in English. She and her family continue to need help.
The family of a child with cancer needs continuous help and support from medical, other professionals, relatives, friends and community from the very moment of making a diagnosis and throughout the treatment. We are now providing assistance for 19 families and they depend on us to continue with that support. We need your help to keep giving these families the care that they need. Help us continue our support to each of the families by donating through GoGetFunding.com.
