Making Dreams Come True

Our work involves helping a child to identify a dream that is in his or her heart. A dream, which can lift them away from the symptoms and treatment of today and carry them into another world. A world of fun, stimulation, family time, hope, love and caring. Whatever the dream, it's often enough to give a child the will to carry on with the fight.

Who qualifies to have a dream fulfilled?

The purpose of the Foundation is to fulfil dreams for children of all income groups and of any race, colour or creed, between the ages of 3 to18 who have been diagnosed by a doctor as having a life-threatening illness.

Reach For A Dream does not provide any financial assistance with medical treatment or make financial grants to provide money for research purposes.

Steps to realising a dream:

The granting of any dream is dependent on funds and facilities available. All dreams must have the agreement of the doctor and the family concerned and all necessary indemnities and consent forms must be completed before a dream is realised. All publicity is cleared with the family concerned and no accounting from the family is required, to try and create a period of time that is as totally worry-free as is humanly possible.

Step 1:

An assessment form needs to be filled in by the family and doctor concerned. Once the assessment form is returned to a Reach For A Dream office, a staff member or volunteer will phone the family and set up an appointment to visit the child at home or at the hospital, whichever is more convenient.

Step 2:

The staff member/volunteer will speak to the parents and explain the purpose of the Foundation and how we operate. Then the staff member/volunteer will spend time alone with the child and ascertain what his/her interests and likes or dislikes are. The importance of this exercise is to ensure that there is no outside influence on the child's dream.

Step 3:

Three dreams are requested in order of preference. Should we be unable to fulfill the first dream for any reason, we will endeavour to fulfill the second or third dream. One dream is fulfilled for each child and should a child relapse, a second dream will be fulfilled.

Step 4:

A completed dream form then needs to be signed by both the parents and the medical practitioner. This is a very important step as it indemnifies the Foundation in any way and also gives the parents and the medical practitioner the opportunity to air any concerns. Dreams that could be harmful to the child in any way are not fulfilled.

Step 5:

The completed dream form must be returned to the Reach For A Dream office so that we can begin fulfilling the dream. The time taken to fulfill a dream depends on the nature of the dream as each dream differs in cost or the availability of finding the dream or making a booking.

Step 6:

Once the dream is ready to be fulfilled, a Reach For A Dream representative will contact the child and family to make the necessary arrangements. At all times the entire family is included in the dream experience. With permission from the child and family, the dream will be recorded with photos or video for the purpose of the Foundation.