The life of six-year-old Amelia and her mother, who suffers from severe health problems, got a new lease of life when this shocking story reached the crowdfunding platform Contribee and attracted the attention of several prominent Lithuanian opinion makers. The campaign to help Amelia and her relatives is now gaining momentum, and the funds raised by Contribee are expected to finance the girl’s rehabilitation, nursing care and other necessities.
Amelia came into the world in perfect health, but is now plagued by a myriad of illnesses and ailments.
Amelia was born healthy and no genetic disorders have been recorded. The nightmare started after four months of beautiful development,” says the girl’s mother, Laima. – That’s when Amelia began to suffer from persistent, prolonged and uncontrollable seizures, causing damage to both hemispheres of her brain. From that day on, Amelia’s development stopped. Today, her six-year-old daughter’s medical list includes specific mixed developmental disorder, ataxic cerebral palsy, generalised epilepsy and total blindness.”
After learning about Amelia’s story, Contribee, a Lithuanian crowdfunding platform, decided to try to help Amelia and her relatives.
We contacted Amelia’s mother, introduced our platform and offered to work together to try to raise the necessary funds for Amelia’s ongoing rehabilitation, nursing care, medical aids, and disability equipment. Amelia’s mother took our proposal very well, so we got to work – we helped to create Amelia’s charity and support fund page on our platform, and we created a video presenting Amelia’s story,” said Gediminas Ratkevičius, the head of “Contribee”.
The campaign launched on the Contribee platform has attracted the attention of several well-known performers and opinion makers – Jazzu, Goda Alijeva, Iglė Bernotaitytė, and social media star Indrė Stonkuvienė have shared the girl’s story on social networks. Stonkuvienė not only shared Amelia’s story, but also joined the circle of supporters and made a one-off donation of EUR 100.
I am the founder of the Women in the World initiative, which has been running for several years now, and its aim is to help families of seriously ill children fulfil their dreams. I did not hesitate to join the campaign to help Amelia,” said I. Stonkuvienė.
Our main goal was to reach as many people as possible, so that as many people as possible could hear about Amelia’s story. That’s why we reached out to Lithuanian opinion makers, we were heard and we are very grateful to the well-known women who have already responded on social networks,” notes Mantas Michalauskas, Head of Communications at Contribee.
Thanks to the people who shared the girl’s story, more than one day later, more than one and a half thousand euros in one-off donations were donated to Amelia Banelytė’s charity and support fund on the Contribee platform, and some of the people also became subscribers to the platform.
One of the biggest dreams of Amelia’s relatives is to be able to visit the Adeli Rehabilitation Centre in Slovakia, where Amelia would get the help she needs in order to learn to chew on her own and to become physically stronger.
According to Michalauskas, the Contribee platform does not charge any fees to the users who create the page, so Amelia’s page was created at no extra cost. “Contribee encourages other non-profit organisations – public institutions, community organisations and foundations – to raise donations on the platform. The platform is currently being used by organisations such as Lithuania for Animals, Young Maltesers, Penkta Koja, Animal Welfare Initiatives and others.You can contribute to Amelia’s brighter future by making a donation here