Welcome to AMANC

Today was our first day at AMANC (The Mexican Association to Help Children with Cancer)! AMANC provides wrap around services to families with a low or very low socioeconomic status who have a family member facing childhood cancer. Some of the services AMANC provides are:

• Transportation to treatment, including flights to other cities in Mexico
• Food to patients and families visiting their child at the hospital
• Housing while receiving treatment
• Education
• Emotional and psychological support to both patients and family members
• Treatment including medication, prosthetics, and therapy not covered by the public health system

Today was orientation, and for the rest of the program, students will be volunteering in different areas of the organization including the kitchen, reception, painting, organizing activities and of course, playing with the patients! They will also have opportunities to talk to and assist AMANC’s doctor, social worker, therapist, and nurses in their day-to-day activities. We hope that students will leave this program with a better understanding of Childhood Cancer, Social Work and working with an NGO.

In the afternoon, everyone got to know each other a little bit better as they made shields that represented their teams. In our program we have Los Monos Panterescos (The Pantherlike Monkeys) and Los Dame Hielos (Give me ice).