Lifeline Foundation helps three organisations
You may hear a lot about the organisation’s gala fundraising events, but today the Lifeline Foundation is in the news because of what it does with the money it raises. In this case over twenty thousand dollars for three worthy causes. News Five’s Kendra Griffith reports.
Kim Simpliss, Founder/Director, Lifeline Foundation
“Today we are pleased to be donating eight thousand dollars to Friends of Paediatrics.”
Kendra Griffith, Reporting
Friends of Paediatrics intend to use their donation to implement a programme to test for sickle cell anaemia and thyroid functioning in newborns.
Dr. Egbert Grinage, President, Friends of Paediatrics
“If you detect sickle cell anaemia in the newborn period then you can prolong that person’s lifestyle by putting them on special medication and vaccines. Just being aware of what their diagnosis is helps a doctor to detect quickly enough when they go into crises as they are called. The congenital thyroid, low thyroid states, any baby that you pick up at birth with low thyroid condition and you treat them, you immediately prevent mental retardation which would have been irreversible.”
Kim Simpliss
“In the early morning of June first, we all were awakened to the devastating cries for help from our brothers and sisters in the north and south of Belize who saw their possessions swept away by the terrible flooding caused by Tropical Storm Arthur. Their lives have been changed forever, but LifeLine Foundation is hoping that with this donation of ten thousand dollars to the Belize Red Cross, we can continue the rebuilding efforts presently underway.”
According to Red Cross President Karen Diaz, the Lifeline funds will help to provide two months of assistance to five hundred flood victims in northern and southern Belize.
Karen Diaz, President, Belize Red Cross
“We have one plan of action which is about six hundred and seventy-eight thousand dollars, the budget. To date, including our donation from LifeLine, we have received about ninety percent of that budget, so we only have ten percent left to cover. That assistance will include food packages, which also takes into consideration the food that NEMO has given to the families that are affected in the south already. We will be giving mattresses, kitchen sets, hygiene sets. We’ll also be giving school kits, which will include pencils, exercise books, that sort of thing.”
The third organisation is the Belize Cancer Society, which received two thousand five hundred dollars.
Laura Longsworth, Vice President, Belize Cancer Society
“We know for sure what we will use these funds for, we are going to be helping our children. We have about ten children that we assist through the Cancer Society. Not only assist monetarily, but we also assist in making sure they go to the right place. When they come back we look at the kind of treatment they receive and so on. Hopefully, this year we will build a budget and so the community will know how much money we need to make sure that we take care of their kids.”
Lifeline Foundation Director Denise Courtenay says they are grateful to those who make it possible for them to assist others.
Denise Courtenay, Director, Lifeline Foundation
“Our support increases every year. This year our gala was really very, very successful. We had more people attending, we had more in terms of sponsorships and every year I think when people attend our gala and they see the events that we put on, they realise that we are committed to the causes that have selected and they give us their full support, so we are very happy about that.”
The LifeLine Foundation was founded in 2006 and holds twice yearly fundraisers. Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.
In related news, the Organization of American States has donated twenty-five thousand dollars towards reconstruction efforts following the devastation caused by Tropical Storm Arthur. The cheque was presented today by O.A.S. Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza to Belize’s O.A.S. representative Nestor Mendez at the organisation’s headquarters in Washington.
