Charities

The St. Edmund's School St. Edmund's in Wahroonga is a co-educational secondary school for teenagers with vision impairment and a wide range of other disabilities including intellectual disability and autism. For over fifty six years it has been part of the mission of the Christian Brothers. Students now travel up to 40 kilometres to Wahroonga from all over Sydney.
St. Edmund's today is a dynamic school, based on a regular high school model, which has a major focus on work education and placement. The curriculum offers both life skills to HSC level and regular school certificate options. All students are catered for through an individual program which addresses academic, personal wellbeing and emotional spheres. High levels of technology support all aspects of the program. In addition there are many co-curricular opportunities such as dance, creative art, music and sport to ensure the school experience is both challenging and rich. Add to this a school personal development and leadership program and you have the right ingredients to produce happy, achieving, confident students.
The school motto "St. Edmund's - where life is celebrated, the kids are cool and disability is only a state of mind" says it all!

KidsXpress is a dynamic program for children 4-14yrs who have faced challenges, loss and or trauma in their lives. During the KidsXpress program children are finding ways to cope with their situation through music, art and drama therapies, providing kids with the foundation to learn positive coping mechanisms for life. Experiences such as being bullied at school, the separation of parents, receiving treatment for a chronic/terminal illness, watching your sibling or parent die, or being subjected to domestic violence, abuse and/or neglect, as well as many other life tragedies can all have devastating effects on the child and their future strategies to cope with life.
KidsXpress is an innovative and dynamic program that provides these children with positive, healthy coping mechanisms to face the challenges and stresses that life presents. This is achieved through the therapeutic use of music, art and drama. KidsXpress is supporting children to find a healthy and safe way to cope with life whilst learning a positive coping mechanism for life.

The Brain Foundation as founded in 1970 by Neurosurgeons and Neurologists to raise awareness in the community of brain disorders and diseases and to raise money to fund scientific and innovative research projects on an annual basis.
Research applications are selected by a National Scientific Committee of eminent Neurosurgeons and Neurologists. Projects with the greatest potential for success, undertaken by some of the countries brightest researchers, are selected. Since 1970 the foundation has provided more than $20 million dollars to these projects with significant results obtained in the areas of childhood epilepsy, ‘Bionic Eye’ technology, migraine and stroke treatments and stem cell brain and spinal cord self-recovery. These are just a small sample of successful research projects that have been undertaken in the last 40 years. There have been many successes in other areas that affect many people such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Muscular Dystrophy, MS and Motor Neurone Disease.
Headache Australia is a division of the Brain Foundation which was set up specifically to provide support and information to the 8 million Australian men, women and children who suffer from debilitating migraines or chronic headaches. Migraine and chronic headache are leading causes for lost productivity and social disruption in our country.
The Brain Foundation is a registered charity and is financially self supporting. Donations are fully tax deductible. The recipients of Brain Foundation funding are also eligible to receive a Commonwealth Government co-contribution of up to 75% thus increasing their available research funds substantially and giving considerably extra value to each donation received.

The Starlight Children's Foundation brightens the lives of as many seriously ill children and their families as possible through the granting of wishes and by providing entertainment both in and out of hospital. Each year Starlight's magic touches the lives of over 200,000 children and their families.

Sporting Chance Cancer Foundation was launched in May 1997 and will fill an acknowledged void in medical education, providing adequately financed scholarships to encourage our future doctors to develop creative ideas to better fight cancer.

Humpty Dumpty Foundation is a charitable organisation that is currently raising funds for the Children’s Services at the Royal North Shore Hospital.

The Children’s Cancer Institute Australia is based at Sydney’s Childrens Hospital at Randwick. The institute is leading the way in research of childhood cancer.

The Sunnyfield Association improves the lives of people with intellectual disability. The Sunnyfield vision is to provide the best services for people with an intellectual disability to live, learn, work, make friends, have fun and get help when needed.

The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute conducts fundamental heart research, provides cardiovascular research training, and facilitates the rapid application of research discoveries to patient care.

Make A Wish Wishes Do Come True "The aim of the Make-A-Wish Foundation is to create magic & hope for children & young people under the age of 18 with a life-threatening illness, by granting their most cherished wish. Make-A-Wish recognises how magical it is for a child to be able to dream. For those children who may never live long enough to fulfil their dreams, the Foundation works tirelessly to ensure they become a reality by creating a world of magic where wishes really do come true!"

Cystic Fibrosis Australia (CF) is the most common life threatening, recessive genetic condition affecting Australian children. CF affects primarily the lungs and digestive system however with improved medication and treatment life expectancy has been extended considerably CF is an inherited condition. For a child to be born with CF both parents must be genetic carriers for CF. They do not have CF themselves.

Spastic Centre NSW was established in Sydney in 1945 to assist children and adults with cerebral palsy in Australia , it is estimated that every 18 hours a child is born with CP. There is no known cure, no pre-birth test and the incidents of severe disability is on the increase.

Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect) overcoming the isolation of autism. Autism spectrum disorder (autism) is a disability that affects the way a person processes information and relates to others. There are an estimated 120,000 Australians who are on the autism spectrum, 30,000 of whom are children or young people under the age of 18. Aspect is based in NSW and is the primary provider in Australia of services for children and families affected by autism spectrum disorders.

Books in Homes is a literacy program about breaking the cycle of booklessness in homes. Our aim is to influence disadvantaged children in the primary school age group that reading, potential and achievement go hand-in-hand and that it's "cool to read".

The Sydney Cochlear Implant Centre (SCIC) is the worlds largest cochlear implant program. SCIC has a commitment to provide hearing and speech for all profoundly deaf people using cochlear implants. Under the direction of Professor Bill Gibson AM, SCIC is acknowledged worldwide as the first of its kind to bring together a multi-disciplinary team, wholly responsible for cochlear implant assessment, medical care and habilitation for profoundly deaf children and adults.