Sanofi Espoir Foundation (SEF) My Child Matters (MCM) Programme Impact on Improving Childhood Cancer Care and Survival

Welcome to the SIOP blog which we hope will be the starting point of an ongoing dialogue on issues which impact us all in the global paediatric oncology community.We launch this blog on the back of the beginning of September Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. 

In our first post, we would like to highlight the wide-ranging and very positive impact of the Sanofi Espoir My Child Matters (MCM) programme in improving childhood cancer care and survival in countries with low resources.

"My Child Matters" Nurse Project Winners during the 48th SIOP Annual Congress (Dublin, Ireland, 19-22 October 2016)

SIOP’s partnership with the Sanofi Espoir Foundation (SEF) is well known across our paediatric oncology community and manifested in presentations at our Annual Congress, through various SEF funded awards, scholarships and contributions to clinical expertise and mentorship through the selection and oversight of the MCM projects.

As a non-State actor in official relations with the WHO, SIOP is well placed to help maximise the impact of MCM projects on reducing inequalities in childhood cancer worldwide and to support the aims of the Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer (GICC) to double survival rates to 60% by 2030.

Here are some key examples to emphasise the global reach and enormous impact of SEF’S support in our community:

• Appreciation of SEF’s high level of trust in the local childhood cancer clinical leaders

A major impact has been achieved in several sub-Saharan African countries on prevention of treatment abandonment, improvement of local data management capacity and quality, and the ability for the local teams to evaluate impact of interventions. End of treatment survival rates for Wilms tumour have improved to 68.5% (CANCaRe Africa).

• Workforce capacity building across Francophone Africa has been addressed through the African School of Paediatric Oncology

GAFOP E-Leanring Platform

SEF support was used to set up a training programme that leads to a Paediatric Oncology Diploma, with double accreditation from Paris Saclay University and Mohamed V University of Rabat, Morocco.

• SEF MCM support of awareness/advocacy, training/capacity building, access to care, psychosocial support and cancer registries, align with focus areas within the WHO GICC strategies

• Projects in low-resource settings

MCM Nursing awards, for example, have led to a 2-week intensive paediatric oncology nurse training in Pakistan including regional and international nurses (e.g., from Africa) and early childhood cancer symptom recognition training for community nurses in Uganda and Tanzania. Ms. Punjwani states, MCM Nursing Awards “are an opportunity for nurses to be autonomous. We want to do something for education, infection control and palliative care but have no funding.The doctors finally pay attention and see that nurses can get a grant on their own as individual health care providers and not just a sidekick of physicians. This makes us prioritize nursing care and is great motivation for nurses in LMIC".

• Establishment of a virtual education platform (TeLeo) for training in paediatric oncology (Spanish and Portuguese) across Latin America, with academic support from the Hospital Sant Joan de Deu (Barcelona) and SLAOP/SIOP Latin America

  

  Curriculum approved by SLAOP (Sociedad Latinoamericana de Oncología Pediátrica)made available freely available on YouTube

  
  
• The impact of MCM projects in Asia has been instrumental in realising the mission of the MCM Program to help reduce inequalities in childhood cancer care

The Foundation’s approach to programme management is well appreciated by awardees because it requires project leaders to be from LMICs.The Foundation’s flexibility to allow the awardees to adapt their projects to respond to new priorities imposed by the COVID19 pandemic has shown that successful interventions to improve the care of children and adolescents with cancer and their families can be conducted even in stressful and emergency situations.  

We look forward to working with the SEF on a similarly impactful future programme, continuing to serve as a venue for sharing results at our annual SIOP Congresses and providing continued engagement of our membership as expert consultants. 

Thank you very much for SEF’s continued support to the global paediatric oncology agenda!

If you and/or your team/institution has benefitted from the Sanofi Espoir Foundation (SEF) My Child Matters (MCM) support, please leave your feedback in our comment box below. We will make sure to share them with the SEF leadership!