Aarambh

Aarambh is a non-governmental organization that aims to catalyse social and economic changes in marginalized communities, focusing on providing educational and health support to underprivileged children across India. Dr. Ernest Borges Memorial Home provides free accommodation to cancer patients (and their families) who come to Mumbai from all over India (mostly rural areas) to seek cancer treatment at Tata Memorial Hospital. The home focuses a lot on palliative care so many of the patients living there have terminal cancer and have stopped active treatment and are instead being given medication solely to help with pain-management.

We try to plan our sessions to give the children-patients an opportunity to have fun and be creative through games and arts and crafts activities, and to encourage them to interact with one another, rather than being isolated in their individual rooms. As some of the children are anxious to learn, but unable to attend school, we sometimes teach them letters, math and try to incorporate an educational component to the activities. The best learning from this experience is that all of us are children and we come together in our sessions, despite the language barriers, and work collaboratively. It makes us feel humbled by all the love we get.

- Clinika Murkumbi and Devika Madgavkar