“Smile” initiative supports children with cancer to tackle COVID-19

TDT | Manama

A new initiative hopes to provide psycho-social support to children with cancer and their families, along with coronavirus-protection kits that include masks, gloves and sterilisers. The “Smile” Initiative has been created by the Bahrain Future Society for Youth.

Volunteers have been busy delivering these kits to the homes of sick children affiliated with the initiative in different areas across Bahrain. The volunteers followed all precautionary and preventive measures suggested in the coronavirus fight, such as working in small teams, sterilising the kits during packaging and distributing, and also advising parents on how to use them correctly.

Future Society for Youth chairman Sabah Abdul Rahman Al Zayani said that the provision of this in-kind assistance to families of children with cancer comes within the framework of the “Smile” initiative to extend a helping hand in these difficult circumstances.

“We work as part of the national efforts aimed at tackling COVID-19 and provide all possible support to the most vulnerable or affected groups, especially children with cancer who suffer mainly from a weak immune system, who need special and permanent care,” Al Zayani said.

According to an emergency plan that was activated by the society’s Board of Directors for the current stage, the initiative has suspended all group activities, fearing for the well-being of the sick children, and its backers have begun to work from home with a hotline for parents to communicate and obtain psychological and social support.