Our 2018 Projects
A garden for kids and adolescents within the future King Albert II Institute (UC Saint-Luc)
This is our landmark project: we plan on raising funds, probably over several years, to finance the future garden for the kids and adolescents hospitalised, because of cancer, in the future building of the King Albert II Institute. This building will regroup all the wards and competencies in oncology and hematology of Saint-Luc that are currently spread around the hospital complex (whether for kids or adults).
Childhood cancer treatments require a large number of stays in the hospital (some of which last for several weeks) as well as invasive care and countless visits to the day hospital.
The garden will enable young patients to escape – physically and mentally – from the isolation of their rooms and treatment rooms; reconnect, for a few precious moments, with sensations of healthy kids: enjoy some fresh air and a bit of nature, play outdoors, …
Our wish is to finance this garden and turn it into a playground and place of relaxation, creativity and observation for kids and adolescents treated at the future King Albert II Institute.
The Beads of Courage (UC Saint-Luc)
Childhood cancer treatments are long and painful.
We will offer to youngsters “Beads of Courage”: after each procedure (blood test, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, puncture, …), the child receives a bead identified to the specific treatment.
These beads progressively turn into a beautiful long strand illustrating the hardly fought battle of the children and help them record and tell their story.
The necklace makes very concrete the journey which is otherwise difficult to comprehend for the child. Seeing the pearls, the child better understands what he is going through. Thanks to its symbolic value, the necklace enables the child to speak about his illness with his friends, siblings, parents, medical staff, …. The parents can use the Beads of Courage to explain and prepare the child to the different procedures ahead of him. At the end, the child has a unique necklace enabling him to look back on his past personal journey.
This project has already been successfully implemented in Flanders and in hospitals around the world. We want to implement this project for the first time in a pediatric hematology and oncology ward in French-Speaking Belgium.
Virtual Reality Goggles (UC Saint-Luc)
Virtual Reality (VR) opens up new ways to reduce anxiety before or during a procedure, reduce pain and distract the children during harrowing medical procedures.
We will provide the kids with a set of VR goggles with a software from the Belgian Start-up OnComfort (visual and sound) and VR goggles to reduce anxiety during a stressful, invasive or painful treatment. Kids are fully enthralled with what’s going on through the goggles and they can forget what’s happening around them. The child is immersed in a relaxing environment (the underwater world for instance). It is a form of virtual hypnosis.
These software and goggles are already being used successfully within the gynecological and breast oncology ward at UC Saint-Luc and have won a number of prizes in the USA and Europe.
Musical Therapy (UZ Leuven)
We will finance the purchase of music instruments for the musical therapy projects of UZ Leuven.
Musical therapy enables the sick child to express through songs and improvisations a whole range of emotions : fear, sadness, pain, anger, joy…
It is often hard for the child to verbalise these emotions. Through music, the child can express them without having to verbalise them.