The Friends of the Children’s Hospital Association

 

Young child with her mother at FOCHA

The Friends of the Children’s Hospital Association (FOCHA) is a voluntary support group to the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital. It offers emotional support and practical assistance to the patients and their families and aims to make being in hospital a less traumatic experience for the children. It does a variety of things, including co-ordinating volunteers, giving special attention to the children, running support groups for parents, giving food parcels, clothing and toiletries to inpatients and their families and providing ventilation machines and transportation to and from clinics.

At the moment, we are fundraising for ten portable DVD players for FOCHA. Each DVD player costs £30. Many of the children at the hospital feel scared and alone at times. Lots of people have already donated DVDs to FOCHA, and with the portable DVD players, a child at the hospital will be able to choose some DVDs and can watch them on a portable DVD player, whilst they are having a scan or other procedure. This will distract them and stop them being so scared. FOCHA said that its primary goal through this project is to “minimise the anxiety of the hospitalisation experience” for the children. Find out more here!