The Write Effort Club Makes Friends With Pediatric Patients Through Letters

By Kimberly Chouang
Editorial Assistant | The Pacific Times

The Write Effort Club plans to reach out to children with chronic illnesses as penpals.

Led by NP3 High School seniors Kynat Ahmad and Jill Chahal, the Write Effort Club, previously known as the Cancer Support Club, will have their first club meeting on Jan. 14. This club will be working closely with nearby children’s hospitals, child life specialists at Kaiser and an organization called It Takes Guts.

“We believe that pediatric patients, although given great support and resources during their hospital stay, become isolated from their loved ones and are in need of friends,” Kynat said.

The patients who will participate are decided when they have their parent’s consent and as they reply to the letters sent by the club members. The number of participating patients will grow with the number of students that join.

The Write Effort is also the high school students’ Senior Project where they chose “to focus on hospitalized children and their lack of socialization with others their age,” Kynat said and, “the ultimate goal is to make long-lasting pen pal friendships with them if we are able to get their (patient) parents’ consent.”

Kynat and Jill Chahal wanted to do The Write Effort Club as part of their senior project because they observed that when they volunteer at hospitals, the patient usually wanted something they couldn’t get from the gift shop, such as companionship and a smile.

“Although they are provided with professional therapy, amongst other things, to help cope with their situation, they don’t get the opportunity to create and maintain relationships with others.” Kynat added, “Long-term hospitalization often causes patients to lose previous friends and makes it difficult for them to create new friendships.”

Kynat and Jill will be working with different organizations throughout NP3’s second term. By the second meeting, students will be able to write letters to children with chronic illnesses until someone writes back.

Starting on Jan. 14., meetings will be held in E-2 on Mondays during lunch. High school students can sign up to join The Write Effort through the Remind app with @twenp3 or by texting “@twenp3” to the number 81010.

“I really hope that people join our club to write to hospitalized children because not only are you uplifting someone’s day, but it’s through something as simple as a letter!” said Jill.

For any additional information, you can view the It Takes Guts Organization at http://www.it-takes-guts.org/ or contact Kynat Ahmad at [email protected] and Jill Chahal at [email protected].