Victoria College lend a helping hand to the young and the old
Charity Prefects, Meredith Telford and Rachel McComish created a list of possible local and international charities. The school community was then allowed to vote. This gave everyone the opportunity to choose an organisation they felt most passionate about.
This academic year the local charity VCB will be supporting is TinyLife, and the international charity is Alzheimer's Society.
TinyLife is a Belfast based charity that started out in 1988 as the only premature and vulnerable baby charity in Northern Ireland dedicated to reducing illness, disability and death in babies born here. Their main aim is to reduce the number of premature and sick babies born in Northern Ireland and to support pregnant women and families who have experienced the birth of a premature, ill or disabled baby or babies.
As a regional charity, TinyLife relies heavily on the generosity of the general public and the business community in Northern Ireland to enable them to provide their services. Contributions made by VCB will help families across Northern Ireland by supporting medical research in the areas of still birth, miscarriage and premature birth and by identifying and addressing shortfalls in follow-up services for all those affected by premature birth.
For more information, visit TinyLife's website at: http://www.tinylife.org.uk/
Alzheimer’s Society is a charity that works to improve the quality of life of people affected by dementia in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Society is committed to provide people with dementia the best possible quality of care and support. They provide training for care professionals, to ensure the optimum quality of care is given.
Their aim is to increase their investment in their research programme to around £10 million a year by 2017. This money will fund important research to ultimately try to find a cure for dementia. They have local services which include; home care for people with dementia, support and befriending services to help partners and families cope with caring.
For more information, visit Alzheimer's website at:
http://www.alzheimers.org.uk
VCB liked the contrast between helping the young and what is commonly associated with the old. Meredith said, "I am very happy with the chosen charities for this year because I feel that we really gave everyone a voice in who they want to help. ...". Rachel also added, "I agree, I think it's really fulfilling knowing that we are essentially helping all walks of life with these choices. For some people in VCB I know that these two charities are really close to heart, so we are looking forward to fundraising and helping these charities as much as we can."
If you would like to help the girls on their mission to make a difference, keep updated on / with the school website and look out for school events associated with these charities.