Revisiting our approach towards impact: The South Cluster Campaign on Cancer Prevention and Care

Caritas India had organized a 2-day Partner Meet for Strategic Development with a focus on Volunteering and Sharing Communities under the banner of CRS and CIDAL in Bengaluru at Indian Social Institute from September 13-14, 2022, to discuss how Partnerships should be perceived in the current context of post-Covid and FCRA changes.

This meeting was strategic in nature considering the essence of the 4 Key Strategic Pillars that are amalgamated into this new approach toward impact investment through cluster campaigns. The Southern Cluster Cancer Campaign has been on the move since 2019. This campaign that covers all the diocesan partners of Karnataka, Andhra, Telengana, Goa and Tamil Nadu have been yielding changes manifold. From households adopting nutritious food under the Good Food campaign to the aspect of mobilizing volunteers as caregivers and steering the resource mobilization drive toward palliative care and treatment, the campaign has touched the lives of thousands of households.

With 57 partners on board, there is a network of awareness, support, referrals, information exchange, safe food and healthy living that is consciously being promoted and mainstreamed into the daily living of each of the households. With around 4000 cancer survivors being identified through this initiative, there is a ray of hope in journeying together with these cancer patients to help them embrace and overcome this disease in an enabling environment of care and support. Cancer survivors are now ambassadors and harbingers of hope for those who are feeling hopeless due to this disease.

Caritas India and 56 partners from across the Southern states except Kerala came together to deliberate and introspect how our campaign has journeyed and how effective we can make it in the coming future. The 2-day meeting concluded with concrete action plans that would impact and connect this chain across the district, state, regional and national levels.

The meeting was attended by all the diocesan partner directors and was facilitated by Fr. Paul Moonjely, Executive Director, and Fr. Jolly Puthenpura, Asst. Executive Director together with the Caritas India team on the ground.