About six years ago it was brought to our attention that a substantial portion of the children of our Nation’s military were not covered by CHAMPUS’s medical program. The first area of non-coverage involved children with physical disabilities that often preclude their ability to walk, talk, converse with or comfortably mingle with other children, have any confidence in themselves, readily read their schoolbooks and many other consequences for which there is no financial support for needed therapy. We quickly learned however of at least two programs designed and engaged to help such children, so the question was and remains how to fund such therapy and/or buy the necessary specialized equipment. In many cases, the families involved have more than the disabled child and find it difficult to afford the therapy involved. The lack of financial support by CHAMPUS remains so today and we have been providing such monetary support as resources allow. There are hundreds more of such children that we know are in need of our continued financial support. Will you help? Do you know any such children? Would you like to support their therapy?
The two programs involved, thus far, are therapeutic riding (TRP) and vision-enhancing technology. Working with the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association, we currently support the participation of over 200 military dependent children in 20+ states in certified NARHA programs. We have also provided “matching grants” to the Vision of Children Foundation enabling the installation of vision-enhancement equipment in public schools “our” military dependent with vision problems attend.
The AWCF stands ready to support other needs of our Nation’s military-dependent children with treatable handicaps. YOUR support of this ongoing effort will be both greatly helpful and appreciated. If you know of a similar need of disabled military dependent children, please contact us. If you are able to financially assist the AWCF in this program, please do so – no donation is too small.