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Who We Are

CanKids KidsCan Transforming Cancer Care for Children in India

A national movement built around children and families — strengthening access, care, systems and hope across the childhood cancer journey.

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Our Story

From support to systems change.

CanKids KidsCan works so that a diagnosis of childhood cancer does not become a journey a child or family has to face alone.

Founded in 2004 by Poonam Bagai, herself a cancer survivor, CanKids KidsCan, the National Society for Change For Childhood Cancer In India, partners with hospitals, medical professionals, and state governments to enable access and best standards of treatment, care and support across 61 cities and 22 states of India.

Catering to childhood cancer patients from primarily underprivileged families, CanKids is present in 148 hospitals across India. Through our signature program YANA (You Are Not Alone), CanKids provides medical, drugs and diagnostics support, accommodation through Home Away from Homes, patient transport, blood support, nutrition and rations, education and counselling support.

CanKids has signed Memoranda of Understanding with 10 State Governments as the Knowledge and Technical Partner for Childhood Cancer. These partnerships help integrate childhood cancer into state health systems by strengthening early diagnosis, referral pathways, shared-care models, patient navigation and continuity of care.

The partnerships also support capacity building of healthcare professionals, health systems strengthening, financial protection for families and evidence-based policy implementation — working towards equitable access, treatment completion and better survival outcomes for every child.

CanKids FlyerQuick introduction · PDF Organisation ProfileDetailed overview · DOCX

Our Purpose

Mission

Deliver access to holistic care to children and families affected by childhood cancer.

Vision

To enable global standards of survival for childhood cancer in India.

To ensure quality of life and holistic care for children with cancer and their families throughout their journey.

To secure the five rights of health-impaired children with cancer: the right to health, education, childhood, pain and palliative care, and the right to be heard.

Our Values

How we choose to work.

Our values keep children and their families at the centre while guiding how we build partnerships, use resources and remain accountable for the change we seek.

Engaging patients, parents, survivors and community — working with passion, dedication and emotion that will always keep children and their families as the central focus.

Creating a strong, sustainable organisation to make the Change for Childhood Cancer.

Collaborating and partnering with all stakeholders at India and international level.

Developing low-cost sustainable models and solutions best suited to resource-constrained low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Working with honesty and transparency.

Working professionally to ensure efficiency and accountability.

Ensuring that 80% and more of all funds raised are utilised to support children and their families.

Our Model

YANA turns support into access.

To overcome the challenges of childhood cancer in a vast country with scarce resources, CanKids uses the principle of YANA — You Are Not Alone to drive Access2Care.

YANAYou Are Not Alone

Building Block 01

CanKids Hospital Support Units (CHSU)

Enabling the best treatment, care and support to children and families who reach a cancer treating centre. CanKids operates 141 CHSUs across India.

Building Block 02

Change for Childhood Cancer

Guiding children and families to treating centres for the earliest possible detection, diagnosis and treatment through shared-care systems and state partnerships.

Treatment SupportAccommodationEducationNutritionCounsellingPalliative CareNavigationAdvocacy

At treating centres

CanKids Hospital Support Units (CHSU)

CanKids' YANA approach forms strategic partnerships with hospitals in India treating children with cancer. Through these partnerships, CanKids provides a support unit covering program areas and core services in each hospital.

Each CHSU has a Social Support Team that may include social workers, data managers, dietitians, teachers, psychologists, volunteers, patient navigators and care coordinators, with doctors, nurses and research coordinators provided where required.

Our People

People behind the mission.

Governance, lived experience, clinical expertise, programme leadership and regional action come together to move CanKids' mission forward.

Ms. Poonam Bagai

Founder-Chairman

A colon cancer survivor herself, Poonam founded CanKids in 2004 with a vision to ensure that children with cancer receive timely access, treatment, care and support.