ABOUT THE FILM
HOW I LIVE
Follow the incredible journeys of four children with cancer and the healthcare teams working to cure them. Filmed on the front lines of global pediatric oncology in Egypt, Myanmar, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Ghana.
​
'How I Live' follows the journeys of four children with cancer in Guatemala, El Salvador, Myanmar and Egypt. Following them from diagnosis through treatment, the complex issues facing patients, families and healthcare providers emerge. The film documents the difficulties not only of cancer treatment but also the physical and geographic obstacles to accessing care and how these can be the most daunting to overcome.
We meet the healthcare teams who know and understand what those challenges look like for families of children with cancer and are working to provide quality care to their patients in the face of adverse conditions. Weaving together four years of filming and stories from disparate corners of the globe, the film is a composite of: the power of parents’ love, children’s courage, and what is possible when a community is dedicated to treating and someday curing childhood cancer.
THE NUMBERS
300,000
80%
CHILDREN & ADOLESCENTS DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER EVERY YEAR
OF CHILDREN DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER LIVE IN LOW INCOME COUNTRIES
80%
SURVIVAL RATE AMONG HIGH INCOME COUNTRIES
20%
SURVIVAL RATE AMONG LOW INCOME COUNTRIES
The diagnosis of a child with cancer is a traumatic event in the lives of patients and their families. As devastating as that diagnosis is, imagine receiving that diagnosis in a resource poor country; for these children the trauma of diagnosis is often exacerbated by the serious limitations of medical resources in their home country. The treatment of childhood cancer in high-income countries is largely viewed as a success story, with survival rates at 80%. By contrast, in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs), the survival rate averages just 20% for children with cancer. What are the reasons for the disparity in survival rates? How have some LMICs been able to increase their survival rates to those nearly on par with high income countries? What are the healthcare systems and who are the people responsible for these increased survival rates? These are some of the questions that How I Live will examine.
FILMING LOCATIONS
Yangon Children’s Hospital
Yangon, Myanmar
​
Hospital Nacional de Niños Benjamin Bloom
San Salvador, El Salvador
​
Children’s Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357 (CCHE)
Cairo, Egypt
​
Unidad Nacional de Oncología Pediátrica (UNOP)
Guatemala City, Guatemala
​
​
​
Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital
Accra, Ghana
​
​