UFO Fundraising Foundation

 

The majority of UFO Members recognise the importance of supporting and actively contributing to those who are less fortunate. We are aware that a small effort from each Member can make a big impact to those in need. The UFO Foundation provides the opportunity for Members to be able to make a difference to people’s lives through annual fundraising. UFO supports the following charities:

 

By getting involved in annual fundraising, we have fun, reinforce our position as a good corporate organisation whilst at the same time, contributing to campaigns that really make a difference to people’s lives. Obviously, there is no obligation for any Member to take part in the fundraising. We simply want to present the opportunity for Members who want to participate in the worthy causes. 

 

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During our 2012 and 2013 Annual Meetings, we raised over $4300 for The Dream Trust. Our fundraising table at our 2012 meeting is pictured. The main object of the Trust is to help poor children with Type 1 Diabetes. People at large, in India, are not medically insured and have to buy their own insulin and syringes. Poor families find it difficult to commit a quarter of their monthly income for the healthcare required by a diabetic child. This is why they try to find short cuts which they wrongly believe will make treatment less expensive.

 

Please take time to listen to this short radio documentary. The majority of us are blissfully unaware of many issues going on in the world outside of our daily lives and it is only through journalists like Lucy Layock that we can learn about places like the Dream Trust. 

 

This charity was chosen as it is close to the heart of UFO Chairwoman, Rachel Humphrey, who's youngest son, George (11 years) was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in October 2010. Rachel says "We are fortunate in the UK to have George's insulin and medication supplied by our health service. I understand that in India, many diabetic children from poor families suffer as their parents are sometimes unable to afford the medication that they need. I know the worry and fears for parents of diabetic children and hope that together, we can help them."

 

In November 2012, Rachel and her sister Mary, made a self funded trip to Nagpur to visit the Dream Trust and present the funds. Here are some photos from the visit:

 

ABOVE: When we first got to the Dream Trust clinic we were taken to a room full of our sponsored children and their parents who had travelled between 3-4 hours to meet us. We then met them one by one in a room and were able to talk to them through Dr Pendsey and give them gifts. The thing that affected us most was the look on their parents faces when we met them, they were so grateful to have sponsorship and although it made us feel good that we could do that for them, it also made us feel sad that something we take for granted (continuous supply of life saving insulin) is so rarely available for these children.

 

ABOVE: Here is Karishma (16 years), a bright girl but she has found it hard to progress at school due to being in and out of hospital. Many parents can’t afford insulin and this means the children are frequently hospitalized, which ironically costs them much more than the medication. As Karishma is sponsored and able to take insulin every day, she is now doing much better and she told us her aspiration is to become a Doctor.

 

ABOVE: The Dream Trust also helps to rehabilitate and give the children a future. The money we raised funded these bikes for Type 1 children so they could get to school as education is the only way out of poverty for them.

 

ABOVE: This is Monali (13 years) who was diagnosed Type 1 in 2006, and her Mother in the background. She travelled 4 hours to meet us. The Dream Trust was founded by Dr Sharad Pendsey after he experienced 2 shocking incidents of seeing 2 diabetic girls die. The parents of the girls had stopped giving insulin as they simply could not afford it any longer. Thanks to the charity, girls like Monali will not suffer the same fate.

 

ABOVE: This is a typical insulin kit collected by the children when they visit the clinic. The clinic staff carefully monitor the children's growth to ensure that the correct dosage of insulin is prescribed.

 

ABOVE: The Dream Trust helped this couple, who were homeless, to find a place to rent and funded the ladies insulin. Sadly due to her diabetes, she suffered 3 miscarriages so the charity lent her a blood test meter so she could control her diabetes better in her 4th pregnancy, and it worked! The couple now have a beautiful little girl. The Dream Trust also bought her a sewing machine so that she can earn some money and become self-sufficient. It was an honour to visit them in their home.

 

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The UFO Head Office made contact with Dreams Come True, a registered charity with the mission of bringing joy to children who are terminally or seriously ill by making their treasured dreams come true.

 

We decided to raise funds towards the cost of a dream for a 9 year old boy called Luke, who has Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus. Luke is a full time wheelchair user and has been in hospital for the past 2 summers and has undergone 5 lots of surgery in the past 18 months. Luke tries really hard to overcome his difficulties with a positive attitude. He attends mainstream school and has lots of friends who accept him for who he is and not what he can do. Luke's dream is to have a beach wheelchair so that he can enjoy the sand at the seaside, go fishing in rock pools, join his family when they go exploring in the woods - something he has never been able to do as his everyday wheelchair tips up with any slight change of terrain. 

 

UFO Members raised GB £1000 towards buying Luke a beach wheelchair by holding a raffle at our 2010 Annual Meeting.

 

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Mr. Frank Muramura (UFO Uganda) is the Proprietor of this charity, which was established to raise funds for scholarships and bursaries for financially unable children living in Uganda and its neighborhood and to provide and maintain scholastic materials for the needy students. 

 

 

US $3,320 was generously raised by a raffle held at our 2009 Annual Network Meeting in Cambodia, which has paid for the school fees for two students for two years so that they are enable to complete the secondary school cycle. 

 

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Situated in the suburbs of Colombo and founded in 1926, the home is run by Rev. Sister M. Jinali Fernando and the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. The institution caters to the needs of destitute young girls and women who have been caught in social, moral, family and legal difficulties and dangers. There is accommodation for 120 girls and women and their ages range from 13-20 years. They are housed in 3 separate cottages with a Sister in charge of each cottage.

 

 

Over US $2,500 was generously raised by a raffle held at our 2008 Annual General Meeting in Cancun to help pay for the repairs of the roof and the kitchens in 3 separate cottages of St Euphrasia's Girls Home, Sri Lanka. Read letter.

 

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Mr Oluwole Adeyemi of UFO Nigeria is part of the Ilupeju Lions Club who raise funds for local causes, including Lagos General Hospital which was established in 1982 as a Health Centre to service the Community and converted to a General Hospital in 1999. Equipped with all the usual departments of a General Hospital, it also houses the only Direct Observed Therapy for TB in Lagos, as a Blood Certification Centre, Voluntary Counselling, HIV Testing and the prevention of Mother to Child Transmission.

 

 

Over US $1,500 was generously raised from a Sponsored Walk held at the UFO Head Office and on 24 October 2007, the Ilupeju Lions Club donated a pure water Bore Hole to Lagos General Hospital. 

 

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