5 March
Dăruiește Aripi Association – certified charity of public service – has been visiting 52 children with cancer at their homes in Bucharest and 7 neighboring counties, for treatments that can be performed outside of the hospital, under maximum safety conditions. This program is the result of a partnership with the Oncological Institute of Bucharest (IOB). In the six months since its launch, from September 2022 to date, almost 170 visits have been made and medical staff have traveled more than 8,000 kilometers.
The youngest patient included in the program is only 4 months old.
Services offered at children’s homes include: assessment and monitoring between chemotherapy sessions, blood sampling, administration of supportive therapies, psychological counseling, quality of life assessment, training of family members to care for the child and, if needed, palliative care.
The medical team consists of 5 doctors and 6 nurses, staff of the Bucharest Oncological Institute, as well as a public health expert, a psychologist, a dispatch coordinator and a driver.
Founder and president of Dăruiește Aripi, Alina Pătrăhău: “We go where it hurts the most. The home care program, currently offered in Muntenia and Dobrogea, has the potential to be expanded nationally.
In Romania there are only 13 pediatric oncology centers, located in 8 counties. Children with cancer are everywhere, in many small towns and in many villages. We want all children in the country to benefit from this program.”
Dăruiește Aripi aims to develop, in Bucharest, partnerships with the Fundeni Clinical Institute and the Marie Curie Children’s Hospital in the near future. In its 10 years of activity, Dăruiește Aripi has developed and implemented more than 40 projects – innovative medical services, but also reconstruction and modernization of wards in public hospitals.