The first international meeting of representatives of Cancer Children Parents’ Organizations in Eastern Europe was organized in Saint-Petersburg (Russia) on Saturday, August 14th, 2004. The meeting took place under the patronage and financial sponsorship of the International  Confederation of Cancer Children Parents’ Organizations – ICCCPO). The Non-Government Organization „Children and Parents Against Cancer“ (Saint-Petersburg) and its executive director Katerina Kiseleva invited participants to its office for this meeting. ICCCPO was represented by Marianne C. Naafs-Wilstra (The Netherlands) and Gerlind Bode (Germany). The other participants came from different towns in Russia: Volgograd, Severodvinsk, Cheliabinsk, and Simferopol (Ukraine). 

Each of the guests talked about the experience of his/her own organization and the specific features of their work in their region. During the first part of the day, the discussion covered questions, connected with the work of the organizations with parents of children with cancer, with medical doctors and hospitals, where children are treated, with sponsors and representatives of the local or regional government. It was a heated discussion and active exchange of different opinions, especially on the topic of fundraising for parent organizations and active involvement of specialists - professionals as well as volunteers.

As a result of the discussion, participants made concrete plans for the nearest immediate future:

- exchange the results of the meeting,

- develop principles of joint colaboration,

- create an inter-regional project,

- develop and publish a joint electronic (Internet) newspaper or magazine,

- establish a joint website for all participants of the meeting (with information about all organizations participating in this meeting),

The idea of creating an inter-regional internet network was fully and enthusiastically supported by all participants of the meeting. Our foreign colleagues were deeply impressed  by the enormous work we are doing in Russia and the Ukraine. They admitted that at the time when parent organizations were started in Holland and Germany 20 years ago, the situation was very similar and that they came across the very same problems:

- lack of volunteers,

- the negative general public opinion that totally rejects all open discussion about cancer,

- absence of information about childhood cancer

- absence of mutual understanding between medical doctors and parents of cancer children,

- absence of contacts among organizations, representing one region (one country).

Parent organizations for children with cancer started in Russia and Ukraine only 6 - 7 years ago. But - as noticed by our foreign colleagues, they have achieved very positive results. This supports our idea of pooling our efforts in order to achieve much more in future.

In fact, the lively discussion started already on Friday, when our guests went sightseeing – accompanied by some group members, visiting the beautiful palaces of Petergoff and Pushkin city. On Friday evening, all participants were invited by the ICCCPO representatives to a festive dinner during which many interesting stories about concrete everyday problems and the work in their organizations were told. Thus we could continue the discussion on Saturday with more depth on all relevant and important topics. We realized that on top of our common problems, there are some specific peculiarities characteristic for certain regions or towns. Participants of the meeting suggested several new ideas, that work better in some specific places than in others. The most important question was how to cooperate with officials, especially on a local level. All participants supported the opinion that parent organizations for children with cancer must work as equal partners in their relationship with official government representatives of different levels. The future creation of a Russian Association of Parents’ Organizations would be really helpful in solving common problems with official representatives on the highest level.

Our foreign collegues highly greatly appreciated the meeting, pointing out that Russian and Ukrainian organizations helping children with cancer and their parents are presently are working on a highly qualified professional level.