Kesem is a nonprofit, student-led national organization that supports the children and families of patients battling cancer. Recently, rolling out was at the Living Well Expo, a breast cancer event, and caught up with Kesem members Westley Um and Elizabeth Shin to learn more about the organization and how it has helped them.
What is Kesem?
Um: Kesem is a nonprofit for kids whose parents are dealing with cancer. We have day camps where we give children an opportunity to get away from the harsh realities of cancer. We get to interact with the kids, get to know them a little bit more and just provide a safe community for them to be able to talk about what they may be going through. Also, we want to provide a community of a lot of people who are going through and feel the same things.
What are some services Kesem provides?
Um: We have multiple day camps. We also host activity days or fun days. We usually host them the first week of every month. This month, we’re going to the Atlanta Zoo. We’ve also held events at our school, Emory University, and we’re looking forward to holding different events at different venues with different organizations. We are striving to keep brainstorming and bringing up new things to do with the children.
Why is cancer so important to you?
Shin: So, for me specifically, I struggled with a grandfather who passed away from cancer. So just coming to university and being able to find this chapter and find this organization, I found that I really related to it. And if I knew about this organization earlier, I would have been able to just be in a community where I could be more safe, and I could have felt comfortable earlier. Which would have made just talking about what I may be going through and processing it easier.
Is Kesem only in Georgia?
Um: No, Kesem is on a national scale. The organization was actually started in 2000, and there are over 130 chapters around the country, and they’re all student-led. Cancer affects around 5 million adults around the US, which means a lot of children are affected by that, as well. We want to be a resource to those children.
