2020_05_15_TANT_relatos_esperanza

Accompanying cancer patients with podcasts that tell stories of overcoming and motivation while they receive treatment during their quarantine period. This is the goal of Palabras que acompañan, a project promoted by the association Española Contra el Cáncer (AECC), which has been joined by Tantaka, the University of Navarra's solidarity time bank. A group of students of this academic center participate in the initiative that seeks to make therapies a more bearable moment, since the sick are alone.

"The idea was born four years ago and so far it had developed normally. Our volunteers went, chatted, offered the services of the association to read, but due to the status of COVID19, our face-to-face services have had to stop," explains Eva Roque Merino, general coordinator of volunteer activities at AECC, who accepted Tantaka's proposal to continue with the readings online. In the Navarra Hospital Complex, posters have been hung in the treatment rooms and waiting rooms, inviting patients to listen to the podcasts from their cell phones and have a more pleasant experience.

The Thousand and One Nights or The Feather Sack

The platform already has seven stories. Stories and tales that in about three minutes narrate a fragment of The Thousand and One Nights, specifically The Sultan's Teeth and the two ways of telling the truth; the story of The Bag of Feathers and the importance of knowing how to apologize to a friend; or the story of two friends, Alex and Maria, who played pirates and learned to believe in treasure.

Cristina Febrer Nafría, 1st year student of Philosophy, Politics and Economics, is one of the voices that accompanies the sick. Cristina found in this project a way to collaborate during the quarantine. "When the confinement began, I saw many people helping: in the hospitals, making masks or gowns in their homes, writing to the sick... I wanted to do something, but I didn't end up doing it. I wanted to do something but I couldn't find what I could do to help. It's very easy to spend all your time at home and not take others into account," she says. Cristina Febrer emphasizes that the audiobooks do not contain "just any" stories, but that they all have a small teaching for reflection.

"I am interested in continuing to grow and develop, through different social and human activities, my sensitivity and listening skills. I believe in the power of empathy, solidarity and humility," says Raquel Marcé, a medical student and another participant.

People who wish to collaborate in this volunteer activities can write to tantaka@unav.es and the audiobooks can be listened to in the following platform