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The Vijayaratnam Foundation today launched the ‘A Gift of Love and Hope’ campaign to raise funds to support Taarana, its school for children with special needs, hoping for generous donors and individuals to help the school reach out and impact more children with special educational needs.  

The three-month-long campaign, which consists of an Indiegogo crowdfunding page and two events - ‘A Night of Laughter and Music’ at the end of March and a 5km charity run in May, is intended to raise funds to help children with special needs from poor and lower income families to have the opportunity to attend the specialised programs at Taarana School that offers an Early Intervention Programme and customised academic programmes.

 

Taarana was set up in 2011 by the foundation to provide assistance to children between the ages of three and 17, with physical, emotional or learning differences and who find traditional academic settings challenging.

Launching the campaign at the Bangsar Village in Kuala Lumpur, Vijayaratnam Foundation chairperson Umayal Eswaran said every gift for Taarana makes an impact.

“With greater financial support, the dedicated staff and team at Taarana can deliver expert and compassionate care as well as clinical therapy programme that caters exclusively to these children. Generous donors would also allow Taarana to provide cutting-edge facilities and cover the costs of providing specialty areas that are not self-sustaining.

“Currently, 48 children and their families from the Klang Valley turn to Taarana for their childrens’ special learning needs. Another 30 children are on our wait-list.

“Taarana has a reputation for excellence and is an invaluable resource for special needs children due to the level of care and expertise it offers. However, we are limited in terms of financial strength to reach out to more children who are in need of special education care. That is why we are having this campaign to seek financial assistance from generous individuals, the private sector and corporations.

“Our target is to raise RM350,000 for the Taarana financial assistance programme,” explained Umayal.

The foundation has been subsidising the fees for children from disadvantaged and low-income families. The aim of the fundraising campaign is to be able to continue with this financial assistance programme that will help at least 20 other children from similar families to get the help they need.


AZRUL MOHD KHALIB is deputy head, RYTHM Foundation & Vijayaratnam Foundation.

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