Fundación Pérez Scremini offers educational support for hospitalized children in Uruguay

Children and young people who are going through or have gone through an oncological illness face certain health, emotional and academic challenges. Patients, as well as their families, must adapt to the treatment required to combat the disease and adjust to a new emotional stability. This adjustment directly impacts curricular learning.

One of the main goals of Fundación Pérez Scremini’s project is to offer children and young people suffering from cancer a comprehensive approach that ensures a strong and fluid link between all the parties involved in their treatment -their family, hospital and school- to improve their quality of life, contribute to their normal educational development, and prevent them from dropping out of school in the future.

There is research that shows that the different cancer treatments and the isolation experienced by children can have cognitive repercussions, such as the deterioration of general processes and the erosion of previously acquired learning skills. Fundación Pérez Scremini strives to avert these consequences of oncological treatment.

Another major challenge is returning to school after having been absent for a long time due to treatment. On many occasions, children and young people experience a change in the way they recognize themselves and/or encounter difficulties in key processes related to their attendance and performance in the classroom. They may also experience cognitive difficulties or noticeable physical changes that could cause them embarrassment.

For teachers it is also complicated to adjust the curriculum in cases of long periods of absence and, often, communication between the school and the family is fraught with difficulties.

This is why it is important to develop multidisciplinary work that contributes to both their physical and emotional health, guaranteeing their future opportunities.