GO Team

TO mark the successful completion of the first anniversary of CanSurvive a webinar on “Surviving Cancer during the Time of Covid-19” was held on June 30 June, 2020. The webinar was addressed by eminent oncologist Dr Ian Pinto amongst others. CanSurvive is a Goa-centric movement launched a year ago as a project of the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman and over the year it has been promoting awareness and interactive sessions, seminars and supporting services and fundraising events for poor cancer-stricken patients.
According to CanSurvive its co-ordinating team of professions is a voluntary and community-based movement with the aim of bringing some rays of hope and positivity in patients suffering from cancer. They have an eight-fold objective of activities designed to convey message of prevention and cure. They have gone to schools, colleges, panchayats, parishes, clubs to address people about the need to be conscious about the rising number of cancer patients in Goa and how early detection and treatment can not only lead to remission but improve quality of life of patients.
In an interesting to raise funds for the movement just Rs1 rupee is collected from audiences so that the money can be used assist the poor who are marginalized and stricken with cancer. It is the Aldona parish which took the initiative to raise funds by preparing and selling paper bags and the funds raised apart from creating awareness also assisted some patients find accommodation through a network in outstation cities vis-a-vis treatment options.
Amongst other initiatives CanSurvive also organized a seminar on “Safe Food for Health & Organic Cultivation” to make cancer patients and others in immediate and extended family to understand the benefits of wholistic eating, which means growing and taking care of one’s own kitchen garden to harvest organically cultivated vegetables and fruit. The effort saw enthusiastic school children being invited to lend their hands in paddy sowing in the fields of Goa, an initiative in collaboration with the Agriculture Department which is promoting a switchover to organic cultivation in Goa’s agricultural fields.
Other initiatives: A cruise adventure for cancer-affected children where both they and parents bonded over happy smiles. Octima Restaurant at Cavelossim also hosted a dine-and-donate evening to raise funds for the movement. Guests present included some from abroad and families of cancer patients, as also well-wishers. Such get-togethers are also for those who have lost dear ones to cancer and can do with moral support to unburden grief and help to redress any losses.
All in all it’s a thumbs-up for CanSurvive who have a helpline (ph:8182830405), you may also look them up on email cancersurvivegoa@gmail.com.