Lovely, lovely donations over the weekend from all these lovely people…

Liat Harrower, Peter Blashki, Penny Wood. Alaina Smyth, Amanda Jones, Kathleen Harrison, Sandie LaVaughn, Kirsten Breen, John Ingham, Sharni Graham, Gary O’Dwyer, Lanika Sharman, Suzie McManus, Cath Browne, Bruce Hartley, Shane Fielding, Paul Martinico, Amanda Costanzo, Linsey Johnston, Megan White, Michael Johnson, Zoe Henderson, Brett Coleman, Juanita Liston, Kathryn Teale, Stephen Paine, Jim Kydas, Nicole Harris, Claire Barrett, Paul March, Michael Bialczak, Lauren Fitgerald, and Richard Does.  Many thanks to you all.  

 Australian children’s charity I Give A Buck Foundation of Australia Ltd assists children from disadvantaged families who also suffer from a life-threatening or life-altering illness or condition – with particular focus on terminally ill children. 

Liat Harrower, IGAB Relationships Manager and a director of the organisation is a mum of four – Rachael 27, Travis 26, Taylor 12 and little Mitchell – who passed away in 2008 at the age of 7 from Niemann-Pick Type C disease. 

Taylor and Liat say: “we love what IGAB does, how it does it, and how it allows us to remember our beautiful boy by helping other families who are going through incredibly difficult times. 

For the families of a child with a serious or life threatening illnesses, time is the most precious thing in the world – and that time should be spent holding and loving their child, rather than having to privately fundraise to help pay for a vital service or piece of equipment for their child”.

Rachael volunteers for IGAB and Travis has made generous donations to past appeals too…

Many thanks to the following for their wonderful generosity in recent days: Meredith Flash, Sean Wilson, Melissa Kearney, Lalor North Secondary School, Neville Dibbs, PJ Mitchell, Kim Pickering, Ray Zahra, TF Palmer & Sonia Reynolds

How gorgeous does she look in this photograph?  You’d never pick from looking at her that Emma has a rare and unusual condition, you see five year old Emma, from Cranbourne, VIC, hasn’t eaten any solid food for 4 years. 

Having been born prematurely, weighing just 510 grams, Emma was initially tube fed at hospital and then subsequently developed further medical issues (including chronic lung disease), that required further ongoing supportive tube feeding, which set back the limited progress she had made onto solid foods and has left her with a severe aversion to food. So severe that even the smallest crumb in her mouth causes her an extreme amount of distress. 

Emma has been assessed by specialists at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne and Monash Medical Centre, and has participated in specialised joint feeding programs – all of which have been unsuccessful in overcoming her food aversion. So Emma has needed to obtain all her nutrition via specialised formulas.  She will lick certain foods such as rice crackers, but will not actually ingest them. 

Her medical team and her family have reached the end of the road and are at a loss at what to do next. Her doctors have never seen a child with such a severe food aversion as Emma suffers.  There are no programs or organisations in Australia that can offer further help to her Emma’s family has exhausted all possibly avenues. 

With her weight on a continuous down-slide, keeping up an adequate calorie intake for her is not proving to be possible.  Emma is tiny for her age, not registering on the standard medical charts in either growth or height. Specialists have been unable to tell Emma’s family what the full impact will be on Emma’s quality of life in years to come.

As a parent, you’ll travel to the ends of the earth for your children – and this is close to what Emma’s family are going to need to do to give her a shot at a ‘normal’ life.

Emma’s treating team have now identified a specialised program for children such as Emma in Graz, Austria www.notube.at  which has an incredible success rate. Emma’s paediatrician has recommended that ideally she undergo this intense treatment prior to starting school next year to avoid social stigmatization and related difficulties with feeding her formula at school. 

However, with the cost of the program is approximately $24,000 and airfares for Emma and her mum will be approx $5,000 – and $29,000 is not something that Emma’s family can afford. 

We think that Emma should have this once in a life-time opportunity to get her condition treated in time for school next year and we’re going to do everything possible to allow that to happen.

If you‘d like to help Emma, simply hop over to her Appeal page and scroll down to the bottom of the page to make your donation.

Australian children’s charity I Give A Buck Foundation of Australia Ltd assists children from disadvantaged families who also suffer from a life-threatening or life-altering illness or condition – with particular focus on terminally ill children. 

Each year Australian Hearing staff nominate a Charity Partner of Choice – and we’re absolutely thrilled that we have been chosen for 2011/2012.

Australian Hearing has been working to brighten the lives of hearing-impaired children since 1947 and we couldn’t be happier that they’re joining us in making a difference in the lives of other disadvantaged children too.

They’ll be supporting us via several events throughout the year and we’re looking forward to keeping you posted on their progress.

Australian children’s charity I Give A Buck Foundation of Australia Ltd assists children from disadvantaged families who also suffer from a life-threatening or life-altering illness or condition – with particular focus on terminally ill children.

Sometimes our supporters go above and beyond, and this week Peter Kozera has done just that!

Peter responded to our request for help in finding a business willing to donate a reverse cycle air condition unit for our Qld office.

He hit the phones and had it sorted in a matter of days – and then even found a local electrician to do a free install!  Thank you Peter!

5 year old Bella has multiple, and complex, medical issues resulting from a rare chromosomal disorder. The ventricles in her brain are enlarged, resulting in an intellectual impairment, low muscle tone, delayed speech and delayed motor skills.  Bella has feeding tube surgically connected to her tummy so that she can receive nutrition.

Because her condition is so rare she doesn’t qualify for government funding that could subsidise the extremely high combined costs of her therapies, equipment and aids.

Bella has the opportunity to attend Conductive Educational Queensland every week to receive some fantastic Occupational, Speech and Physio Therapies.  The program teaches children with neurological conditions to be as independent as possible and to develop confidence and self-esteem.  

The program is improving Bella’s health and well-being. It’s improving her quality of life.

But the cost of the program is becoming difficult to manage on top of the cost of all her other medical treatments and all the special pieces of disability aids and equipment that she needs too.

At I Give A Buck! we believe that every child has the right live with dignity and good health and happiness – and so we’re running Bella’s Appeal to raise the $4,600 needed to pay for Bella’s therapies through until the end of 2012. Currently, we have $800 in the kitty so much more is needed.

If you’d like to ensure that Bella is given the chance to shine please donate to her appeal here.  All donations $2 and over are tax deductible and 100% of your donation will go towards Bella’s therapy costs.

The beautiful Jennifer Keen from Jennifer Keen Design has agreed to do all our graphic design work totally free of charge! When you make a donation to an appeal we use 100% of that donation to fund whatever it is that that child needs. We don’t even deduct the credit card or PayPal charges involved.

We are the only charity in Australia that does that.

And we can only do it because of the incredible generosity of people like Jennifer and all our other wonderful business partners who provide us with their time and skills and products free of charge.

So, please, when you next need some graphic design work done – contact Jennifer.

I Give A Buck Foundation is turning 2 and we’d like to celebrate with you…

What?

For 2 years, since our public launch on November 1^st 2009, we’ve been changing the lives of some incredible children – and you’ve played a big part in making that happen.

We think that’s cause for celebration! So let’s get together for a picnic lunch – we’d love to meet you.

BYO everything you need for the day.

Where?

Werribee Park Mansion Grounds – Werribee Park, K Road Werribee VIC 3030. There are 10 hectares of beautiful gardens and historical farm buildings to explore. Entry to the grounds is free but there is a small fee to tour the mansion. Werribee Open Range Zoo is right next door.

When?

Monday, October 31^st 2011. We’ll be on the main lawn in front of the mansion at 1pm…

The grounds are open 10am – 6pm. Mansion tours close at 5pm. The zoo operates from 9am – 5pm

RSVP, if attending, to Barb

Since we relocated from Melbourne to QLD last Dec, we’re just loving the sun… at the beach on weekends… but not so much in our little office which is a 3m x 8m uninsulated room on the west side of our garage.

It’s getting uncomfortably hot and not exactly a great working environment to attract volunteers – which is something we desperately need.

 We’re hoping to find a company willing to donate a 1.5KW reverse-cycle air conditioning unit for the office.  If you have any contacts, please email Barb

Australian children’s charity I Give A Buck Foundation of Australia Ltd assists children from disadvantaged families who also suffer from a life-threatening or life-altering illness or condition – with particular focus on terminally ill children.