The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult on many people, but those that were struggling before we were all locked into our houses have understandably struggled far more. It fell to the Reach for a Dream foundation to try and comfort all those children who needed to deal with the stress and anxiety of the Coronavirus, above and beyond the life-threatening illnesses they faced every day.
While Reach for a Dream has a great deal of resources at its disposal, many of the usual procedures it followed to bring joy to desperate children couldn’t be carried out. It’s not like they could organise big parties with celebrities or take kids to see landmarks they’d always dreamed of seeing when the country was in lockdown. So instead of sitting and waiting for lockdown to end, the charity looked for alternate ways to spread happiness. One such solution was the magic of virtual reality.
weekly newspaper.
For 33 years, the Reach for a Dream Foundation helped to fulfil the dreams of thousands of children battling life-threatening illnesses. When the pandemic struck, this work ground to a halt.
The foundation realised that fulfilling dreams would not be possible for a long time. To keep up morale, they decided to bring the dolphins, aeroplanes and rollercoasters into the wards – with the help of virtual reality (VR).
The foundation delivered the first VR headsets last year and is ready to deliver another seven now that Covid-19 cases are declining and they can visit hospitals again.
The VR experiences may not replace the dream, but they give the children an adventure that keeps them motivated and positive in the meantime, says Natalie Lazaris, the head of business development at the foundation.