Image
formats

About Us

The La Karle Foundation is an incorporated, non-profit, charitable organization which was registered in 2013 in Trinidad and Tobago by its Directors Cheryl Ann La Roche, Brian La Roche, Louise Balkaransingh and Kyle La Roche and was borne out of a desire to support families that were experiencing challenges in coping with children with medical issues and provide a platform for them to share their experiences with other families.

Unlike other similar organizations, The La Karle Foundation is not representative of any specific medical condition, but rather provide support to all families coping with sick children regardless of the diagnosis.

The vision for this foundation was based on the Directors experience with their love ones who were both diagnosed with a rare degenerative progressive disorder called Menkes Syndrome and their own challenges of struggling through the medical system and society to sustain their health and provide the best life that they could for them, it also recognises the loss of Kareem La Roche who passed away in 2013 after a twenty (20) year battle with Menkes despite the prognosis that he would not survive the severity of this rare disorder past the age of three (3).

The foundation’s decision to incorporate all sick children was based on the recognition that the impact on the family was the same regardless of the diagnosis. It was also appreciated that families were similar as they all have to cope with the pain and isolation after the diagnosis and the innate fear of how to move forward from the diagnosis.

Though the vision of the Foundation is to provide an emotional support system for families, it would also provide through the donations of others, assistance to families in need on a case by case basis to purchase medical supplies and equipment as well as day to day supplies for their love ones.

The long term goals for the Foundation are two fold-:

  • To bring medical services to families with sick children through a Mobile Medical Caravan staffed by volunteer Doctors and other medical personnel.
  • The Foundation also would seek to be instrumental in bringing about changes to the medical system in Trinidad and Tobago by providing recommendations to improve the services and support available to children and families

 

The Foundation’s Logo:

La Karle Foundation Logo 

The logo was selected as the colour green represents life, and the tree knowledge, while there is an unbroken support of families with each other lending support to each other.

 

The First Story:

The first story posted was written by one of the Foundation’s Directors and chronicles the experiences of expectation, disappointment, fear, acceptance and hope during this journey called life when taking care of a very ill child. It also shares the experience of losing the child you love and learning how to survive.

The story is not meant to provide any professional approaches or give guidance to anyone on managing their situation, but it is merely the writer’s journey.

 

The Foundation’s vision is … “Creating hope”.

plantedSeed

Hope is defined as the wish for a particular event, that one consider possible

As parents and families of sick children, hope is all that we can hold unto, whether that hope is for our love one to recover from their illness or whether it is to provide them with the best opportunities to make their life easier.

While the Foundation is operated through a core committee of volunteers which consist of the Directors and other volunteers guided by three (3) Consultants with expertise within the Medical, Social Services and Business fields, the Foundation is open to and supported by volunteers who embrace the vision of the Foundation.

Based on the vision of the Foundation, there are three (3) main platforms-:

  • Support Group– Available to families to share their stories online with each other.
  • Information- This would provide information on what fund raising and other initiatives that the Foundation would be engaged in and how volunteers can participate.
  • Contact – How to contact the Foundation for further information as well as booking arrangements for appearances at functions for motivational speeches based on the sharing of experiences.