ABOUT US
Micky's Foundation was founded in December 2014. It is an initiative of the parents of Micky. They lived in Aruba where Micky was born in 2009. Only five months old the mother and Micky were almost killed, when a drunk driver crashed into their car. Micky survived the accident. But because of severe brain injury he will remain with only 40% of his brain capacity for the rest of his life. The mother fortunately was barely harmed.
On Aruba specialized therapy as in pediatric physiotherapy, pediatric occupational and pre verbal speech therapy for children is not organized and for that matter hardly existing. And this was exactly what Micky needed. But not only Micky suffered from the consequences of cerebral palsy, many other children on Aruba have severe motoric and/or mental problems.
The Aruban government, nor the Aruban health care system have invested sufficiently in pediatric therapy. This is why the parents of Micky started an individual initiative and founded Micky's Foundation.
The goal is to continuously provide specialized and intensive therapy sessions in the homes of the families, to a group of around 30-45 children. For this we organize projects that run 3 months. These projects will be organized back to back four times a year, so continuity of therapy is guaranteed.
In January 2015 Micky's Foundation had started its first project with a pediatric physiotherapist and a pre verbal speech therapist. They worked for three months, between 2-5 hours a week per child, with 13 children. They also worked together with the local therapists who are treating the children on Aruba throughout the year. In April 2024 we have started project 32. Until this day we have provided therapy sessions to total of 198 children, which consists of around 20.000 free therapy hours, with 63 highly qualified therapist volunteering for Micky's Foundation. The therapy is always given with the assistance of at least one parent, so they can learn to give (easy) therapy exercises to their child.
The Aruban government does not subsidize our work. We solely depend on donations from the community: charity organizations, and businesses, both in Aruba and in the Netherlands and Belgium.
The board of Micky's Foundation consists of founder and chairman (Gijs de Rooij), secretary (Audrey Knijn) and a treasurer (vacant). The board has regular meetings to safeguard the quality of our activities. The financial administration is outsourced to: accountancy office Postma Tax and Legal NV.
In short Micky's Foundation on Aruba is about:
- FREE THERAPY
- SPECIALIZED THERAPY
- HIGH FREQUENCE THERAPY
- CONTINUITY OF THERAPY
- COLLABORATING WHERE POSSIBLE
- TRANSMITTING KNOWLEDGE
- THERAPY AT HOME
- LOBBYING TO CHANGE THE SYSTEM
- ADVOCATING THE CHILDREN'S RIGHTS (SDG'S)
Want to know more about our projects? Click here.
© 2015 by Micky's Foundation