Patient services at Cancer Institute
The Cancer Institute Chennai requires volunteers for handling a range of services, which include general assistance to patients and caregivers at its various counters, follow-ups on those not reporting to hospital by writing a letter or making a telephonic call to them.
“The institute has benefited greatly from the roles played by many volunteers,” says Dr Surendran Veeraiah, professor and head of Psycho Oncology. Five years ago, he says, the Institute had brought out a detailed booklet that gave information on where people can volunteer and the time commitment expected of each role.
Those interested in volunteering in this manner can write to the Chairman of Cancer Institute stating their background and nature of service they wish to offer.
Address: The Chairman, Cancer Institute
East Canal Bank Road, Gandhi Nagar, Adyar, Chennai 600020
Hair for hope
If you wish to donate your hair for making wigs for people with cancer then register with Can-Stop.
To commemorate World Cancer Day, the Chennai-based cancer awareness non-profit is organising a hair donation campaign till February 15. Register on the QR code shared on http://www.canstop.org/ to find a location closest to you. This drive is being supported by Naturals. Minimum length of hair must be 10 inches and hair of any colour will be accepted.
Besides this drive, Can-Stop invites anyone above the age of 14 years to be among its network of volunteers. They have an application form to be filled, following which the person is inducted through a simple screening process.
“We invite you to meet with our team and our founder to discuss your personal interest, availability and find out which area of Can-Stop you would enjoy the most helping us with,” says a note on its website.
For details on the hair donation drive, contact Fedritha at 9941007688
Know regional languages?
Penn Nalam, a non-profit focused on creating cancer awareness through timely screening, wants communicators in various languages including Hindi, Malayalam and Telugu to help reach out to niche communities. Anyone who is willing to spend two hours a month for this pro bono work will be oriented on the role they will have to play. Those adept at storytelling, puppetry or drama will add value to this initiative.
For details, contact Mary at 98431 24842
A WEaving exercise
If you know the basics of crochet or are willing to learn then join this growing volunteering initiative that stitches knitted breast prosthetics for mastectomy survivors. Started in 2018, Saasha India Foundation has so far donated more than 5700 breast prosthetics to patients free of cost.
These are stitched by a network of volunteers spread across India, UAE and Kuwait and distributed through hospitals and doctors.
“We have no target for any volunteer and once they join the network, we don’t allow them to go,” says Mumbai-based Jayshree Ratan who leads the initiative. Whenever there’s a need we have volunteers pitching in. In Chennai, we have more than 30 volunteers, she says.
Training sessions are conducted periodically to orient new volunteers as well as to quality-check the work done by existing volunteers. Videos in regional languages are also uploaded on its Facebook page to help people understand the how these breast prosthetics work.
For details, call 077009 90212 or visit their Facebook page, saaishaindia