Contact between the sponsor and the child is personal: both know each other’s address and can get in touch. However, the sponsor’s money doesn’t go directly to the child’s family, but to the national OI association to which the child belongs.

The reason that the remittance is not made directly to the child is that we want to guarantee that the money is used exclusively to purchase medicines and to enable the child to receive treatment. That’s why we work only with OI associations. In each one we have a direct contact person who ensures that the child receives the donations of his sponsor.

Latin American OI associations strive to provide their members with the treatment that state health care doesn’t provide them. These associations organize:

• sessions for the administration of biphosphonates
• medication purchase
• reservations for the necessary resources in hospitals so that the patients can receive the treatment

When the association receives the money sent by the sponsor, it:

• purchases the medication and the necessary equipment (needles, bandages, antiseptics)
• sees to it that the child receives the treatment
• pays separately for the room the child will be in during the treatment
• pays for the meals or the labor of the hospital staff
• organizes group administrations of medicine (which is administered according to the child’s body weight)

Marcelito, Sebastián y Raquel