Tagged: “Community”

Let’s give Kate Hope to Walk

Dear all, we are Charmaine and Daniel and we are reaching out for your generosity once again to help our daughter Kate.

Kate is a 4-year-old girl who suffers from a very rare disease called Tatton Brown Rahmann Syndrome. Kate is one of just 200 people who are diagnosed with this syndrome worldwide, and has a mutation which makes her the only case in the world.

Apart from the difficulties related to the syndrome, she had to go through more than ever imagined. In 4 years, she has already undergone three surgeries: open heart surgery, Achilles tendon lengthening, and abdominal wall defect. The last operation is a very rare defect that one finds on the body.

Thanks to your past contributions, Kate was able to attend various therapies every day, both in Malta and abroad, to improve her mobility. Unfortunately things are getting worse, and she has now been diagnosed with another rare disease called cone dystrophy – this can put her vision at risk. Although she already has difficulties to see clearly like we do, this disease is much worse and can lead to blindness.

Given that with this syndrome she is growing at a much faster pace, the amount of therapies that she is undergoing are helping her to improve, but unfortunately these are not enough. She requires a crucial feet surgery to giver her stable feet that can go flat on the ground and provide stability for balance, strengthening, better weight-bearing long term, and lead her to walking.

In addition to this, we will also have to invest in a robotic walking machine in the near future to help her practise steps and be able to walk independently.

Bearing in mind that she might lose her eyesight, for Kate to walk is imperative for her independence. We are therefore asking for your help so that together we can fund her surgery. This is going to be carried out by the specialized doctor Mr Matthew Dobbs at Paley Institute in Poland.

The estimated cost of this surgery and post operation therapies and other therapies to keep us on track during the 5 weeks abroad are of €36,500.

We want to thank all the generous donators that have already contributed.

The remaining estimated sum to reach our goal €15,000.

To donate, please choose the amount that you wish to contribute from the amounts on the right-hand column. Should you wish to donate more than the sum indicated, you can edit the amount in the text box.

Thanks for your support, kindness and generosity. With your help, you can give a better life to our daughter, Kate.

Much love from Charmaine, Daniel, Kate.

Darkness Into Light

Darkness Into Light is a tradition that began in Ireland in 2009 for suicide prevention and awareness, signifying walking from darker days to lighter days together.

Now happening across 19 countries with 400,000+ attendees, we bring this to Malta on the 6th May with the challenge to walk from Valletta Triton Fountain at 3:15am, and arrive in Sliema in time to meet the sunrise with a catered breakfast provided.

We will be raising awareness and fundraising for the mental health support charity “Walk and Talk”. This is a registered VO that provides monthly walks in Malta for those struggling with Mental Health. Your donation will help us to continue and expand this invaluable work at a time when this support is needed more than ever.

The full walk will be fast paced, but we aim to remain inclusive in our events, so those unable to take on the full route can join at any point. A map will be provided on our website with predicted times to arrive at certain points, or you are also welcome to join us for breakfast to watch the sunrise in Sliema at 5:30am.

Please help us to help communities across Malta – every donation really does make a difference!

Walk & Talk – VO 2305

New Hope for Andrea to Get Back on his feet

Malta for Madagascar Christmas Campaign

General Info:

The Arnaud Guesry Foundation is a Maltese registered charity active in Northern Madagascar to help the region’s most vulnerable children. Our amazing team runs a desperately needed orphanage for children, La Maison d’Arnaud, as well as several valuable community projects in the area including a prison support project, malnutrition rehabilitation, local hot meal project and much more… Due to the current crisis impacting the world we are in desperate need of support, otherwise we’ll be forced to close. Any little bit helps…

Our primary operation is the running of our residential facility, which currently houses 30 children full time from the ages of 3 months to 12 years old. Within this program we offer the children all the support of a family home including, but not exclusive to, education, nutrition, health services and psycho-social support. Our children benefit from the care of 20 full-time members of staff at our home including nannies, cooks, security guards, teachers, volunteers, social workers and administrators. The house has a garden and keeps hens, it has access to fresh ground water and serves as a centre for the local community.

Summer School Program:

In addition to our residential program, we run a summer school to support the local curriculum in summer months, June-September, with professional teachers in both academic and extracurricular subjects. This summer program is open to our own children and up to 100 the most vulnerable children from surrounding villages (referred by the mayor and community leaders) for free. The children here are offered our regular psycho-social support, the benefits of the education, a safe place to stay while their parents are at work, medical checks and are also given a meal a day.

Prison Project:

We also work in the local prison where we provide education, healthcare and legal advocacy, wherever possible, to the inmates of the women’s section and under-18s section. We take particular responsibility for prenatal, maternal and neonatal care in the prison as well as supervision of births and child development. We offer a space in our home to any mother wishing to give temporary custody of a child currently living with her in the prison to La Maison d’Arnaud until such time as she is released and finds her feet, with the help of our social worker and administrative team.

Malnutrition Re-feeding and Specialist Surgeries:

In addition to the prison, we work closely with local hospital pediatric wards. We liaise with doctors when cases with social underpinnings are presented, we run a specialist malnutrition program including feeding training, support with milk and medication and, where needed, residential care in the most delicate periods of rehabilitation. We act as intermediaries between hospital services and state/judicial services and are often called upon to make recommendations or submit reports. We also take on children who need specialist surgeries and recovery care, such as cleft palate surgery, to coordinate and pay for their care and treatment.

Crisis Relief:

We also hold several spaces (beds) in our home on reserve for crisis cases. These cases come under our local state partnerships and provide social services, police and the children’s courts with residential spaces for children with the need for specialist care and adequate security in urgent need. Examples include abandoned infants, children removed from exploitation (labor/sex work), cases of severe abuse (including neglect) or abandoned children.

We value very highly our ties to the local community and the support we provide families in their darkest moments. We try our best to provide a local, stable base for children which facilitates family visits, rehabilitation and reunification. Our operations are, at times, limited by funds and we know we could do so much more if we have the means.

2022

Over the years we’ve made great strides in overcoming numerous barriers and hurdles to help the nurturing of the children at the Foundation. We’ve tried to introduce sustainable practices such as investing in chickens to sell eggs, and our home garden. With all the children home to help with the harvest and tend the animals and the land – it’s a sustainability project we’re really proud of – we’ve managed to produce; 80 different varieties of salads, 9K aubergines, 66K papaya, 100 k of bananas, 12 packets parsley, 72K tomatoes, 1.5 K green beans, 1k peppers, 14 packets of water cress. Our chickens are producing 83 eggs per day. However, all of this small success doesn’t make up for the losses we’ve faced this year.

Two years ago a Zaar campaign and the generosity of the Maltese people saved our project from closure. We are so incredibly grateful for all the support we were given in those critical weeks. Now we’re hoping to regain some of our strength and recommit to those children we’ve been keeping on hold for so long as we hunt for the funds to return to full working capacity. The money you donate will make a huge difference to children in desperate need of protection, medical care, education and love.

We still rely on that belief that each person can contribute to the reduction of inequality and the irradiation of global poverty.

There are so many ways you can help us and each one makes a difference. You can sponsor a child, or a nanny or a program. You can volunteer for us. You can donate to us. You can fundraise for us. We need € 5,000 to commit to crisis relief cases for next year. Every single donation makes a difference. Please give what you can and we guarantee that every cent goes directly to Madagascar and the children.

We are a very small charity. Even following us on social media and sharing our posts can bring us to the attention of a wider audience. That can be all it takes to let the right person see what we can do.

NB- Funds will be received by the charity whether the target is reached or not. Every donation will make a difference to La Maison d’Arnaud and the community we support. Please give whatever you can today.