CHILDREN & HEALTH
GET INVOLVED!

Make-A-Wish Ireland has one simple aim – to grant wishes to children aged between 3 and 17 years living with life-threatening medical conditions and enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. Positive people support Make-a-Wish Ireland through events, sponsorship and efforts to grant special wishes to their kids. Click here to make a donation and improve the lives of their kids.

Barretstown is a specially-designed camp that provides therapeutic recreation programmes for children with serious illnesses and their families. One of our senior traders holds an annual sports event in support of Barretstown, a great day that raises awareness and financial aid. Click here to make a donation and help Barretstown spread their fun to their special kids!

With Irish Therapy Dogs, volunteer teams (owners and their dogs) visit care centres nationwide every week to bring happiness to people who would enjoy a visit from a dog. The charity is growing all the time. At present 240 visiting teams operate around the country every week and there are a further 200 care centres on the waiting list who would like a visiting team to visit. The charity is completely run by volunteers so any funds go into running the office and advertising the services of the charity (in order to recruit more visiting teams). Most care centres visited are nursing homes where elderly people who may have had a dog in the past but can no longer have one receive a weekly visit. Speaking with other volunteers who visit nursing homes, they say that for many residents this weekly visit is much anticipated and one of the highlights of their week.

Sarah our accountant and her dog Rico (a springer spaniel) visits a school every Wednesday. They interact with children who have learning and behavioural difficulties. They also visit children who are afraid of dogs and help them overcome their fear or visit children who are just going through a hard time and are happy to have a visit from a dog. It’s lovely to see the children look forward to seeing him every week and they really relax in his company sometimes even telling the dog what’s worrying them.

During the summer when the school was closed Sarah visited the psychiatric unit of a hospital every week and the patients there also benefitted greatly from time with the dog.
You can find out more about Irish Therapy Dogs here: – www.irishtherapydogs.ie