This year for the holidays my family decided to forgo presents and donate to charities in each other’s names. We each listed two or three charities that we would love to donate to and then we’ll each donate to a charity in someone else’s name. It’s organized so that a donation is made to at least one of everyone’s charity choices. As soon as I saw our family instructions come in, I knew I wanted to support ostomy charities.
My family must not be the only one that donates to charities for the holidays in lieu of gifts so I thought maybe a rundown of some of my favorite ostomy-related charities and nonprofits would be fun. Here are my top 5 favorite ostomy charities, each has a unique contribution to the ostomy community.
United Ostomy Association of America
United Ostomy Association of America (UOAA) is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit and they are the holy grail of ostomy education in the USA. Their mission is to promote “quality of life for people with ostomies and continent diversions through information, support, advocacy and collaboration.”
UOAA is supported by private donations, memberships, subscriptions to the Phoenix Magazine, and sponsors.
In their mission they mention that they promote quality of life for people with ostomies and continent diversions through:
Information – They create and distribute informational resources like their “New Ostomy Patient Guide” and maintain their website which is full of information, an online discussion board and additional educational resources.
Support – They provide support to ostomates by connecting them to others via ostomy support groups, hosting annual conferences, and via their New Ostomy Patient Guide and Phoenix Magazine.
Advocacy – They advocate for folks with ostomies and continent diversions in Washington DC fighting for legislation that supports and protects the needs of ostomates and by creating the Patient Bill of Rights (which I wrote all about here) and other great resources. They also advocate by and for empowering ostomates to advocate for themselves and spread ostomy awareness.
Collaboration – They collaborate to spread ostomy awareness by forming relationships with organizations within the medical community which are related to ostomates and ostomy care like WOCN, Wild on Wounds, and Home Health Care organizations.
These are just some examples of how UOAA supports ostomates, but it’s really just scratching the surface.
Quality Life Association
Quality Life Association (QLA) is a nonprofit whose mission is to support the “special needs of the continent ostomate and to educate others on the latest advances in ostomy options”.
While my website is all about life with an ostomy (because that’s what I live with), an ostomy isn’t always the only option to choose from when facing the removal of your large intestine. There are two other options for patients who face having their large intestine removed including the Continent Intestinal Reservoir (CIR) which displays as a Kock Pouch or Barnett Continent Intestinal Reservoir, or an Ileoanal Pouch (J-Pouch). While conventional ostomies are incontinent (you evacuate from your stoma into a pouch without any effort), the CIR styles and J-Pouches are continent solutions (meaning you have more control over when you evacuate).
The Quality Life Association supports folks with continent ostomies by holding an annual conference, providing tons of informational education on their website, offering a referral list of healthcare professionals who are familiar with continent ostomies, maintaining a medical advisory board comprised of professionals in the know about the latest ostomy related technology, and by providing a place for folks with continent ostomies to meet and support each other.
Friends of Ostomates Worldwide
Friends of Ostomates Worldwide (FOW) is a volunteer-run, 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to “provide ostomy supplies and educational resources at no cost to ostomates in need around the world”. Read on for why donating unused supplies is SO valuable both for your storage space and for ostomates in need around the world.
How does it work?
- You donate your extra supplies (got a reversal and still had supplies laying around? Send them! Changed brands and have supplies from a brand that doesn’t work for you any more? Send them!). Ostomy Support Groups often receive donated supplies from their members as well and many of those groups are thoughtful enough to send them off to FOW.
- Volunteers unpack supplies, organize them and match them to the supply requests they’ve received.
- Supplies are packed up and shipped off! They work closely with organizations around the world including hospitals, clinics, cancer societies and ostomy associations and they always ship their products free of charge to needy ostomates.
Why is this important?
Ostomates in developing countries have a much different experience with ostomy life than most of us do in first world countries. Ostomy supplies are expensive and often out of financial reach, forcing ostomates to improvise to manage their ostomy by using whatever they can find around their house. Not only is this not sanitary, it doesn’t protect their ostomy or skin (which leads to chronic skin care struggles) and most improved methods don’t effectively collect their waste, which leaves them with poor quality of life and a lot of physical and emotional pain and discomfort. In many of these communities, ostomates are rejected by their family, friends and communities.
Donating your supplies or providing monetary funding to FOW allows them supply ostomates in need with supplies and education to help improve their quality of life and health. Just writing this little piece about them has reminded me how important it is to support organizations like this and ostomates across the world who don’t have access to the same level of medical care and supplies that I do. Maybe this will be the organization that goes first on my short list of charities I’d like to have someone donate to in my honor this holiday season…
Youth Rally
Youth Rally is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that provides an inclusive place for adolescents aged 11-17 with bowel or bladder conditions to spend a week each summer. Being a teen is hard enough without any medical challenges and I think it’s so cool that Youth Rally creates a space for kids with bowel and bladder challenges to foster their self-confidence and prepare them for the future. Their mission is to “provide an environment for adolescents living with conditions of the bowel and bladder that encourages self-confidence and independent living”.
It’s not just the campers that have bowel or bladder conditions, the counselors do too! In addition to typical summer camp recreational activities, they offer sessions for their campers about things universal to all teens living with medical or physical challenges like motivation, independent living, getting ready for college, and body image, and they offer medical diagnosis, peer discussion, and diversion/procedure-specific groups as well. How cool is that?!
It costs money for campers, counselors and nurses to attend and Youth Rally doesn’t turn campers away for lack of funds, which is where your donation comes into play. Your donation can sponsor the attendance of campers, counselors and nurses and can fund the fun activities they do that make this camp awesome.
Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Foundation
The Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurse (WOCN) Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit which offers funds to further the education of WOC Nurses and further research activities related to wound, ostomy and continence nursing.
Having access to a WOCN is a life saver if you’re new to ostomy-life and there simply aren’t enough of them out there. Supporting the WOCN Foundation supports ostomates by helping to ensure there is a growing network of educated medical professionals out there who know what the needs of ostomy patients are and know how to best care for ostomates.
How to Donate to Ostomy Charities
You can donate directly to any of these organizations via their website (and get a tax write-off if you need it), but you can also donate to many of these organizations without spending any extra money if you use AmazonSmile to make your Amazon purchases.
You can use AmazonSmile to make your Amazon purchases by going to smile.amazon.com every time you plan to make a purchase. You only have to select your charity once (you can find the option just under the search bar) and it’ll remember it every time you navigate to smile.amazon.com. From there, shop like you normally would and rest easy knowing that a small portion (0.5% of the purchase price) of your eligible purchase is being donated to your selected charity.