Children and parents living at Plumstead CHOC House were in for a treat last week when hip hop group Driemanskap dropped by for a visit.
To commemorate International Children’s Book Day (Sunday 2 April) and provide young patients suffering from cancer with some respite, DKMS Africa, working with CHOC (Childhood Cancer Foundation of South Africa), Nal’iBali and Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital, brought a day of literature, creativity and fun to the CHOC House residents.
The prolific crew from Gugulethu “headlined” the event held on Tuesday 4 April, hosting a reading session and sharing the positivity and warmth they are known for with the young patients.
Rhyming in Spaza, a dialect of isiXhosa, Driemanskap has been spreading its social upliftment message since 2001. Group member Dla says their newly founded partnership with DKMS is in line with what the group members stand for as community development practitioners.
DKMS is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to the fight against blood cancer and blood disorders.
Their mission is to create awareness about blood stem cell donation and to maintain a global registry of donors, representative of the world’s diversity and ethnic backgrounds.
Dla says his first introduction to the NPO was earlier this year when he came across a mention of them in a Twitter feed.
He says that the work that DKMS do is in line with their own.
“We heal through music, they are fighting the stigma around cancer so we were like, cool, let’s jump on board.”
After having done research on the organisation, the group reached out to the NPO and a partnership was formed.
Group member Redondo says last week’s event was Driemanskap’s first activation with DKMS.
“We have been in talks, and engaging, having meetings and collaborating on how we should fight this serious battle. This was the first installation, so to speak.”
Driemanskap’s future plans include taking their music and message to outlying rural areas.
“We already have a following there, they are hungry for entertainment. Even this partnership, in the near future we want to drive it to them because they feel forgotten, segregated.”
Group member Ma-B adds that the important information never reaches the rural areas.
“So if we physically do something there, we can make a lot of impact. Our communities are mute. They have a lot to say but they are not saying it. Given the platform that we have, we choose to use the platform to speak for those who can’t speak for themselves.”
DKMS spokesperson Palesa Mokomele says as part of their journey as a patient, children often spend a lot of time alone or in the hospital. She says books and reading play a crucial role.
“After patients have gotten their stem cell transplant, they have to spend up to 100 days in isolation. So this is where books come in. For a lot of families, the stigma around cancer is huge so you can imagine kids are often by themselves. So books become an escape for them just because of the nature of the kind of illness that they have.”
Mokomele says children need to explore, but when diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, their world can become limited.
At present, CHOC Western Cape region plays host to two CHOC Houses and a Lodge. The CHOC Lodge Tygerberg can accommodate five families receiving treatment at Tygerberg Hospital. The Plumstead CHOC House can accommodate 13 parents and 13 children and the Sybrand Park CHOC House can accommodate four parents and four children.
Families accommodated at the Plumstead and Sybrand Park CHOC houses receive treatment at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, Rondebosch Medical Centre, Life Vincent Pallotti Hospital and Groote Schuur Hospital.
These homes-away-from-home accommodate out-of-town patients and a parent during the lengthy cancer treatment phase at no cost to the families. CHOC also provides nutritional meals and a clean and safe, homely environment with caring staff.
Lynette Muthuray, CHOC regional manager, says the parents and children are often faced with enormous challenges.
“Financially, emotionally, also the feeling of isolation when they are far from their loved ones.”
She explains that many of the moms leave their husbands or their partners and their other children back at home to be at the CHOC home with their sick child for a long period of time.
“Sometimes parents have resigned from full-time employment in order to be with the sick patient here in Cape Town. So you find that the household then has one salary less than they need to feed their family with and it’s tough economic times.”
But, she says, the parents and the children just keep on keeping on.
The process of registering to become a stem cell donor is easy and pain-free. South Africans between the ages of 18 and 55 years old can visit the DKMS Africa site where they will answer a brief questionnaire to determine whether they can safely donate.
- To register, go to https://www.dkms-africa.org/register-now
