Supported by proceeds from the Children’s Art Project and the Phi Beta Phi Enrichment Program, M. D. Anderson’s Division of Pediatrics’ Education Program aims to provide continuity of educational instruction, thereby preventing academic declines while children are being treated for cancer, according to Dr. Martha A. Askins, coordinator of the Education Program.

Other objectives are to remediate academic skill deficits, provide academic enrichment, and facilitate positive transitions between M. D. Anderson and the children’s home schools.

“Encouraging children to continue their studies gives them an important message of hope and a sense that we believe they are going to survive their cancer,” Dr. Askins adds. “Hope is powerful because it gives children the strength to endure difficult treatments and battle this formidable illness.”

In the Children’s Learning Center and Adolescent and Young Adult Educational and Vocational Center, children receive grade-appropriate instruction, tutoring, career planning, computer training and vocational guidance from an M. D. Anderson teacher and Houston Independent School District personnel. A cognitive remediation program also is available for children with attention deficits.

he M. D. Anderson community of patients, faculty and staff represents an astonishing diversity of culture and language. International patients make up more than six percent of those treated at the cancer center every year.

While the foremost challenge for all is to conquer cancer, for some there is another, perhaps less obvious, challenge — the language barrier. To help overcome this barrier, medical interpreters are dedicated to facilitating communication between patients and their health care professionals.

Language Assistance interpreters speak Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Turkish, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Taiwanese, Italian, Japanese, German, French and Danish. Interpreters for other languages, including sign language, are contracted through language agencies.

“We help patients act and interact as autonomous persons who are full participants in their cancer care and who can make informed decisions,” says medical interpreter Fuad Yahya.

Fuad, who is from Qatif, Saudia Arabia, says that when physicians communicate freely and directly with their patients — which is what medical interpreting is supposed to facilitate — the patients are more willing to entrust their lives to the physicians’ care.

“Interpreters have an obligation to faithfully transmit all stated information, even though some of it may be unpleasant. Withholding vital information from patients for the sake of sparing them the burden of knowledge invariably undermines trust,” Fuad says.

Language Assistance also has a team of interpreters who are charged with producing patient education materials in their languages.

hopping for Children’s Art Project merchandise is as simple as logging on to its On-Line Store at www.childrensartproject.org.

While the majority of orders are still filled by telephone, fax or mail, the number of those being placed on-line is expected to rise. Since the store’s Internet debut in October 1998, nearly 200 orders have been recorded by M. D. Anderson’s Information Services, generating more than $9,700. In addition to viewing all of the Project’s seasonal greeting cards and gift items, individuals can send e-cards designed by M. D. Anderson patients free of charge.

Sales of the Project’s products help fund many patient programs at M. D. Anderson.