Community based fundraising helps families with biomedical expenses

Image Courtesy of PhotoXpress.com

Tori Tuncan is the owner and organizer of a fantastic website called Lend4health, a site designed to help families with children (and adults!) find funding for the expenses of biomedical treatment for Autism Spectrum and other Neurological disorders.  Special diets, doctors, and lab testing can be overwhelmingly expensive and most families don't have insurance, or are not covered for biomedical therapy.  These days, with our economy the way it is, things are tough for most families not just those with special needs family members.  This is where Tori and people from all over the world come in.

Lend4health is a micro-loan system where families make a loan request for the amount they need. The request, along with a bio of the child/adult in need is then posted on the site.  The next step is to acquire the funds through the people who visit the site.  A person can choose any amount to loan to the family whether it be $5, or $50.  Once the amount of the request is fulfilled and a written loan agreement has been signed, the loan can then be disbursed to the requesting family.  The loan is then paid back interest-free in increments (usually in the form of monthly payments) and given back  to the lenders.  According to Tori, "With Lend4Health, even $5 can be loaned to a family, and that $5 can make a direct impact on a child and on that family. And when that $5 gets repaid, it can be re-loaned again to another family. So your initial investment is just $5, but it can have an eternal, very deep impact. The "profit" is health, so it really is immeasurable."

When Tori's son was diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder, she'd heard about the Gluten/Casein Free diet from a friend and decided to see if it would help.  The friend who had mentioned the diet also reccomended a message group for parents who used the biomedical approach.  After reading through the different posts, she realized that there was an extreme need for financial assistance among these families.

"It became obvious very quickly through everybody's messages there that biomedical interventions were expensive, and that many parents on the group were struggling. "Should we do the urine test or the stool test, since we can only afford one?" "We can only afford 3 of the 15 supplements my child's doctor recommended. Which ones are most important?" "I want to take my child to a DAN! doctor, but it costs $500 out of pocket, we don't have it right now, but I don't want to wait to save it up." These were the things I was reading from these other parents, and I wanted to help. "

Remembering a website called Kiva.org where they use the same type of micro-loan system to help impoverished familied mostly in third world countries, Tori decided to see if this type of system could work well in helping families with their biomedical costs.  And so Lend4Health was created!  The site has been up and running since June 2008, and has since distributed nearly $33,000 in loans to families in need.

To learn more about how you can help, please visit lend4health.blogspot.com/