The Support Group for Children with Cancer - Bahia (GACC-BA) is a Civil Association Nonprofit (ACSFL) charity, founded in January 1988 by some doctors and parents of children who were affected by cancer, with the mission of to provide needy children and adolescents, particularly those coming mostly from inside the state, all the assistance and support needed to achieve the treatment of disease, whose chances of cure are found today in 70%.
Two reasons were drivers in the idealization and the creation of the institution: the belief in healing, countering all the negative expectations that surround the cancer, and the high rate of noncompliance with treatment, about 60% at the time,
particularly for socio-economic reasons. Fortunately, with the contribution of the GACC-BA, working in network with several partners, this sad indicator has become a fact of the past. Already since 1991, we noted a decline in this curve and, currently, the waiver does not exist in the state. The GACC-BA assists children and adolescents from families with
unfavorable economic situation, education and culture, most of them coming from the upstate. These are families that almost always have no fixed source of income, and parents work in most cases in the informal sector, to achieve, with difficulty, a minimum support the family. In Bahia, are recorded each year on average 450 new cases of children and adolescents with cancer and of these, again on average, 50% are referred to our institution. Currently assistance is provided to approximately 650 children / adolescents per year over their companions, giving them and their companions over 20 services and benefits during treatment, which lasts on average two years.
Beneficiaries of the institution are offered free and on a continuous basis, more than 20 services and benefits during their
stay that lasts on average two years, among which are:The child and the companion - Accommodation for non-residents in the capital; Food; Urban and interurban transport; Occupational Therapy Services. Only the child - financial aid to perform services adjacent to treatment and examinations; Financial aid for the placement of prostheses and orthoses ;Food assistance during the intervals of treatment; Development of the ludic activities - teaching; Elementary school in partnership with the City Department of Education. To the child and respective family - Psychological assistance; Dental care; Nutritional support; Citizenship training. Only the companion - Review preventive for mother (gynecologic cancer); Family planning.