Mazda Foundation
 

Mazda Foundation and Campbell Live spread Christmas cheer

19 December 2009

The Mazda Foundation first partnered with TV3’s Campbell Live in 2008 to bring some Christmas cheer to deserving Kiwi families who were in need of an extra-special Christmas.

In the lead up to Christmas 2008, viewers were asked to write in and nominate a family they believed had it a bit tougher than most. Five families were selected to receive $5,000 worth of shopping vouchers.

Andrew Clearwater, Mazda Foundation Chairman, said the letters received were heartwarming and it was a challenging to choose just five recipients of the shopping vouchers.

“It was a real privilege to meet one of the families – the Tamateas – whose eight-year-old daughter Mya was undergoing haemodialysis every other day for a severe kidney disease,” said Clearwater.

“It turned out to be a truly special Christmas as the family also found out on the same day that a kidney donor had been found for Mya.”

In 2009, the Mazda Foundation shared a little more Christmas cheer with four Kiwi families as well as for the people of Samoa who were left devastated in the wake of September’s Tsunami.

The Mitchell family from Warkworth were one of the four families selected to receive $5,000 worth of shopping vouchers. Eva Mitchell (2) was born was a diaphragmatic hernia meaning her diaphragm wasn’t formed properly and as a result has pushed her internal organs up into her chest cavity leaving her unable to breathe without an oxygen tank and unable to feed – she is fed through a tube inserted into her stomach.

Frequent operations and bouts of pneumonia mean the Mitchells have spent most of Eva’s life in Ronald McDonald House in Auckland. Despite Eva’s condition, she is a strong child with a beautiful personality and is looking forward to a special Christmas with her family.

The Foundation also donated 20 volleyball sets to villages in Samoa along with $5,000 cash. Volleyball is popular in Samoa and it is hoped that the new sets will entice the local people back beaches again.