Today, on International Youth Day, the Lorna Byrne Children’s Foundation is celebrating its 5th Anniversary of helping children in vulnerable and marginalised situations around the world. Over the last five years the Lorna Byrne Children’s Foundation has helped over 5,800 children and 3,800 family members and has raised €600,000 for children’s projects to date.
What began five years ago as a vision from international bestselling author Lorna Byrne to help children in significant need, has grown into a charitable foundation dedicated to supporting innovative initiatives for children around the world. Today the foundation supports initiatives in the areas of health and wellbeing, education and integration and humanitarian aid.
To mark the anniversary founder Lorna Byrne said “When I look back, it’s unbelievable that we have been able to help so many children and young people over the last five years. I am so grateful to all of the people: the kind volunteers, the generous supporters and patrons and our partners who have come forward to help so many children and to make the foundation what it is today. Children are so precious. It’s heart-breaking to see so many of them still suffering today and we need to change that, children should only be children. We have to keep children happy, healthy and safe and while today is a wonderful day to celebrate all the smiles on their faces, I just want in the future the continuation of your help to transform even more children’s lives around the world for the better.”
In the last year alone the foundation’s support has:
- Provided integrated pre-schooling for 539 young children from two segregated ethnic groups in Ethiopia
- Upskilled 288 Syrian youths in Za’atari and Azraq refugee camps, Jordan to turn ideas into social enterprises
- Taught empathy skills to 300 children in Limerick, Ireland
It has partnered with many organisations such as APA – A Partnership with Africa, Unicef Ireland, Narrative Four, Blue Box and the Children’s Grief Centre and has supported projects in Ireland, Ethiopia, Syria and Jordan.
Looking ahead the foundation is hoping to expand its projects and reach significantly over the next three years and will focus on piloting and scaling projects for very marginalized and vulnerable children in more countries.
To support the work of the foundation see www.foundation.lornabyrne.com/donate
For more information on the Lorna Byrne Children’s Foundation see www.foundation.lornabyrne.com