Local Spina Bifida Partners
Working together allows us to make a bigger impact!
Our Spina Bifida partners are extremely important and help us accomplish our goals. We’ve partnered with some amazing organizations in Illinois who focus on caring for the Spina Bifida community. We want to thank them for their partnership!
Saving Kids In Ethiopia!
For those who have Spina Bifida, the bladder and kidneys are often affected due to the incomplete closure of the spinal cord in utero. For a person living with Spina Bifida, urinary catheter supplies are generally essential, which results in the need for urinary catheterization. It is expensive for a person living with Spina Bifida to go to the bathroom. In fact, for local families, the out of pocket average cost is about $1500 a year for just catheter supplies alone. This is a basic need that many do not have to think about.
According to Dr. Ahmen, who serves with the ReachAnother Foundation, more than 40,000 pregnancies in Ethiopia each year are affected by Spina Bifida. Without the proper supplies, a majority of the children die from infections before they celebrate their 5th birthday.
Ellavation had the opportunity to partner with local families and with the Illinois Spina Bifida Association (ISBA) to help thousands of kids impacted by Spina Bifida in Ethiopian. By collecting catheters from local families and assisting the ISBA in associated costs, a huge impact has been made! The small part we played in this life changing mission, will help save thousands of children!
Your generosity to local families has been able to impact a community generally out of our reach. All children deserve the chance to thrive and Ellavation is excited to join efforts with the ISBA in helping to give support for such a basic, but necessary, need.
YMCA Camp Independence!
Camp Independence is a magical place where kids and young adults with Spina Bifida can go enjoy the experience the joys of camp can bring, which unfortunately is something that many children with disabilities are not given the opportunity to do. Camp Independence is hosted at specially designed cabins on the grounds of Camp Duncan in Ingleside IL. They hold 8 weeks of camping that help campers learn to be more independent in their daily lives. Each child is paired with their own counselor and broken down into different age groups. As you can imagine, this is a very expensive operation to run and they’ve found it challenging with each passing year to continue to support families that need it. This year, the cost is $1800 per camper. This is a major cost for most families!
Because of your generosity, Ellavation has been able to fund four campers for the summer of 2023! This experience fits so well into Ellavation’s goals to help improve quality within the home! Not only do campers learn more independent skills, but families and caretakers are given some much needed respite through their services as well. This amazing work helps ensure that every child has the opportunity to attend, regardless of their family’s financial situation.
Become a Partner
If you would like to partner with us, fill out the form below and we will get back to you.