The formation of this voluntary trust named as “Cancer Volunteers Odisha” - CVO for the comfort of calling- is a unique step. CVO has come up to give one platform for the collaboration of many NGOs and organisations who provide voluntary and informal care to the cancer patients.
Cancer patients and their family caregivers in Odisha face many challenges. Several NGOs and medical organisations in Odisha have been working on their own to support and assist in different areas, such as- cancer awareness, cancer detection, cancer patient guidance, support for cancer management, socio-economic assistance, and most importantly ‘to be available’ for psychological succour.
Most of the NGOs and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) work in different parts of Odisha for the last few years. During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-21, it was heartwarming to see some of these NGOs taking care of cancer patients, adults and children, so that they would get diagnostic tests, could receive a blood transfusion or cancer medicines, and could stay near to cancer care facilities. Most of these NGOs and CSOs, with highly motivated cancer volunteers, do encounter many hurdles. Just to give a few real-world examples: the cancer patients and their families do not get timely access to doctors or a hospital; transport, meals and stay is not easy to arrange near to cancer treatment centre in the cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar; many cancer patients (and their family caregivers) get the word-of-mouth advise to go outside Odisha for the treatments which prove to be costly and long-drawn absence from native socio-cultural surroundings. It is important for us to tell the society that 70% to 80% of common cancers can be easily diagnosed and adequately treated within Odisha, by cancer surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy including palliative care.
Every collaboration has the opportunity to strengthen the activities. Between 2021 and 2022, a few leading minds in healthcare and cancer volunteerism, with an understanding about the prevailing cancer care scenario in Odisha started informal discussions, “how can we bring together these NGOs and CSOs?” The first meeting of these organisations took place on 26 June 2022, at Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Bhubaneswar. Sixteen organisations had their representatives present on this momentous occasion.
1st Meeting to discuss the ideas for collaboration and formation of CVO, on 26 June 2022
From the beginning, the broad aims of CVO are spelt out:
On the day 23 Aug 2024 of CVO Trust Deed registration at Sub-Registrar office, Bhubaneswar, some of the Trustees(L-R): Namrata Rath, Aswini Kumar Darjee, Nitai Goura Panigrahi, Gopal Krushna Das, Sukanta Kumar Nanda, Bidhu Kalyan Mohanti.
From this humble beginning,
CVO will engage with activities for knowledge & training in cancer volunteerism, and will create capacity building for cancer care in Odisha.
CVO will become a bridge between the cancer volunteerism and the government and the society.