• Equipping the day-care surgery hospital (endoscopies clinic in Altagamoa Al-Awal)

Back in 2010, realizing that one of the two towers of NCI’s complex needed structural reinforcement, the NCI administration displaced some of the services offered at this tower to the other one. The Association was asked to provide all possible assistance to facilitate cancer patients’ access to medical care. AFNCI sponsored the construction and equipment of out-patient clinic facility and a day-care surgery hospital in Altagamo Al-Awal for a cost of one and half million pounds. The Hospital receives patients who need endoscopy, minor surgeries or radiotherapy.

• Providing transportation for patients and workers to and from endoscopies clinic (Altagamoa Al-Awal hospital)

After the establishment of the endoscopies clinic of the NCI in Altagamo Al-Awal, AFNCI took over transferring patients and workers to and from the clinics aiming to offer the best possible care to cancer patients. AFNCI provided for a bus fleet equipped to offer patients all means of comfort while transferring them to receive radiotherapy or to have endoscopies, in addition to transferring the clinics’ staff. The busses work from 8:30 am to 6 pm, making three rounds that transfer 25 to 30 endoscopy patients, 15 to 30 radiotherapy patients and 60 to 80 internal medicine patients.

AFNCI continues to support  its most important project,  Hospital 57357 and its related expansion projects. As the number of children patients seeking 57357’s free quality services is increasing, the Hospital is expanding. It started with 180 beds, then 60 beds were added in Cairo branch besides opening the Tanta branch with a capacity of 60 beds. The Hospital had to also transform some administration rooms into patient rooms which made the Hospital in severe need for more storage area.

AFNCI has established a new storage space for the Hospital with an area of 1000 square meter over four floors for the cost of 5 million pounds within a period of less than two years. The space includes many storage areas such as:

• Storage for the blood donors management unit
• For laboratory supplies
• For research department supplies
• Chemical and alcoholic substances (in a separate floor)
• Storage for the information technology department

These storage areas contribute to maintaining the provision of the hospital’s operational needs of supplies and keeping them in a place equipped to safeguard their validity for a long time. They also contribute to making available and safe the substances that are used to prepare medications where it can be saved for six months.

• The Association’s office inside the National Cancer Institute, NCI

AFNCI’s office inside the NCI consists of staff and volunteers. It is opened daily except Fridays, to offer all means of help and support to the Institute’s patients. It helps patients through procedures and paperwork, replying to their inquiries, finding  room in the guesthouse for patients coming from faraway areas, as well as transferring patients to and from endoscopy clinics in Altagamoe, in addition to providing morale support throughout the treatment period.

The Association’s office is also responsible for organizing visits for groups or individuals, handing out gifts and toys to adults and children patients. It organizes birthday parties and trips to entertainment places and public parks for children.

In 2014 the NCI’s new out-patient clinics were opened to the public. The clinics were a gift from AFNCI and Egypt Cancer Network, ECN.

The Association built and equipped the clinics to serve 1600 patients per day, and alleviate the burden on NCI’s main building. Moreover, AFNCI is still supporting the clinics to ensure they continue providing high quality service that cancer patients deserve and as such contributing to giving them better chances of recovery. Currently the Association is committed to providing for maintenance and cleaning as well as affording salaries for the clinics staff.

AFNCI is committed to offering continuous support by providing for medication, maintenance expenses and affording security, administration and cleaning teams’ expenses.

The Children’s Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357 was the most important project that AFNCI initiated and developed. It is the largest children’s cancer treatment center in the world in terms of capacity. It is not just a Hospital, but a model of change and a comprehensive institution that is fight pediatric cancer by offering free high quality medical care to all patients without discrimination.

Hospital 57357 is setting up new standards for free of charge healthcare. The 57357 institution introduced novel fundraising concepts to guaranty the Hospital sustainability and preserve its standing as a unique center for healthcare, research and training. But most importantly, these concepts benefited the entire civil society in Egypt and were adopted by a host of other charitable organizations.

The beginnings:

Planning for Hospital 57357 began in 1998 with the formal registration of the Association of Friends of the National Cancer Institute (AFNCI) (presently the Association of Friends of the National Cancer-free Initiative) as a non-profit committed to improving the lives of cancer patients at the NCI through facility development, upgrade and training, which contributed to improving over-all survival rates of children with cancer in the Institute.

The departed professor Dr. Reda Hamza, Dean of the NCI at 1995, was the first president of the Association. Along with a group of young doctors he thought of establishing a hospital for pediatric cancer that provides free services to contribute to raising recovery rates of children with cancer.

A group of patriotic businessmen supported the Hospital project since its inception through the Association (AFNCI) which was responsible for tenders, design, constructions, electro- mechanical works, internal decoration, equipment and fundraising. In 2004, the 57357 foundation was instituted to oversee the operations and sustainability and development of the Hospital.

The Hospital is seeking to introduce change to the concept of free healthcare and and to raise cure rates of children with cancer to reach the world rates of 80- 85%. Currently, after 11 years of operation the Hospital is recording an average over-all survival rate of 73%.

AFNCI is still supporting 57357 through participating in funding its new expansion project and its education and training programs. In collaboration with Egyptian Cancer Network, ECN in the USA, AFNCI is sponsoring the joint pediatric oncology fellowship program between 57357 and Dana Farber Boston Children’s, USA, which at creating a new generation of specialized, well trained physicians capable of changing and improving healthcare provided to cancer patients. Whenever the need arises, the Association provides the Hospital with its needs of safe blood from its blood bank, in addition to supporting different training programs for pharmacists, such as clinical pharmacy and pharmacogenomics. It also sponsors the travelling costs of physicians and scientists to and from Egypt for scientific meetings and knowledge exchange. https://www.57357.org