60 tablets donated to support learning, play for children with cancer
Priscilla Nambalirwa, a patient support coordinator at the foundation, said the tablets will help children continue learning while they are away from school for extended periods during treatment.
Ezra Anecho, Resty Nabatte, Ken Stober, Zain Lule with his mother, Prisiclla Nambalirwa, and Moses Echudu in a group photo. (Photos by Maureen Nakatudde)
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Sixty computer tablets have been donated to children receiving cancer treatment at the Uganda Child Cancer Foundation at Mulago Hospital to support learning, recreation and social interaction during their prolonged hospital stays.
The tablets were donated on August 31, 2026, in observance of Children’s Cancer Month, which is marked every September.
Priscilla Nambalirwa, a patient support coordinator at the foundation, said the tablets will help children continue learning while they are away from school for extended periods during treatment.
“We shall set them up to a standard whereby they can learn some basic knowledge from what they miss in the classroom,” she said.
The tablets will also provide entertainment and help children cope with the stress of treatment.
“They will use them to play games, which divert their minds away from the cancer treatment,” Nambalirwa said. “More so during the times when they are getting their chemotherapy and other services offered at the hospital.”
Zain Lule who is battling Luekemia with his mom and a friend at Mulago.
For teenagers, he said, the devices could provide an opportunity to interact with peers and other young people who have experienced cancer.
“Most of these teenagers lie in bed, and they don't have time to socialise,” Anecho said. “We shall have WhatsApp and online programmes where our cancer teenagers can engage with other youth who have gone through the same experience to give them hope.”
Dr Yvonne Rose Buwikizo, a paediatric oncologist at Mulago Hospital, said access to the tablets would help keep children mentally active as they undergo treatment.
She said cancer treatment is particularly hard on children and that having something to occupy them could reduce the time they spend thinking about their illness and treatment.
The donation comes as childhood cancer continues to pose a major health challenge globally. The World Health Organisation estimates that about 400,000 children are diagnosed with cancer each year, with about 90% of cases occurring in low- and middle-income countries.
The tablets were donated to the Uganda Child Cancer Foundation by Ken Stober, Group Managing Director of Simplifi Networks.
Stober, an IT expert, believes that tablets can also be used as a learning tool for children.
“They'll put programmes that are geared towards the children's promotion of education,” he says.
“You know, a lot of them are not in school right now, so if there are some ways that they can be learning things while they're going through the treatment, that will help them not to fall behind in their education aspirations.”
For Stober, though he cannot alleviate the pain the children with cancer experience, at least the tablets can be a wonderful distraction.