Grants Distributed During Financial Year End March 2023

Alex’s Wish £75,000 TBT continues to help fund research into establishing treatments for Duchenne, an aggressive form of Muscular Dystrophy which affects 1 in every 3,500 boys. With Duchenne, all muscles are destroyed due to lacking a specific protein and this includes major organs like the heart and lungs. Typically, sufferers do not live beyond their late twenties. Currently, there are no treatments or cures for Duchenne but there are many medical initiatives and trials  taking place which TBT is supportive of.  By breakdown…£5,000 is helping to build the DREAM Wheelchair – a high-tech powered chair specifically designed by boys with Duchenne. £50,000 towards prototypes for a robotic suit that can be worn discreetly and comfortably, to aid arm and upper body function. DUK has partnered with Spinal Muscular Atrophy UK (SMA UK) to ensure that the suit has benefits beyond DMD. The remainder of our grant is being spent on general gene therapy research. Alex’s Wish is an excellent example of the sort of charity that TBT enjoys supporting. It is founder led by a mother whose son has Duchenne and is run predominantly by volunteers. The team at Alex’s Wish bring all their energy to bear in fundraising whilst ensuring that they minimise costs, enabling maximum proceeds to reach the various causes fighting the disease.

A Band of Brothers £20,000 Ten weeks of one-on-one mentoring for 20 young men, a Rites of Passage weekend, a further twelve weeks of mentoring, community activity and adventure days, and weekly meetings with the local mentoring community. Up to ten young men will attend each programme. The costs include the weekly venue hire to ensure that the Community is always there for men, young and old. It also includes the cost of engaging young men in our work which remains one of our biggest challenges.

Artists for Africa $30,000 This grant gives Kenyan children from under privileged backgrounds a safe home to grow up in, where they have opportunities beyond anything their backgrounds would have ever provided. The A4A House provides safe, supervised housing, clean water, nutritious meals, clothing, education enhancement and transportation to academic and arts classes for scholarship students. They currently have twelve students living under its roof all of whom are artistically gifted. The lives of these children are immensely changed with some graduates having gone on to programs including the English National Ballet School in London, Lawton University in Oklahoma, and the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago.

DEBRA £80,000 A grant towards funding GEBULO. A 20-Week Multicentre, Open Study Assessing the Efficacy and Safety of Apremilast (Otezla®) in Patients > 6 years of age with EB simplex generalized. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and tolerance of apremilast, an inflammatory drug already used for psoriasis and Becet’s disease, to treat patients with severe EB Simplex over the age of 6 years. There are an estimated 4,000 people in the UK living with EB Simplex.

EBRP $154,900 are creating a Brothers Trust Cure Innovation Award making funding available to challenge the research, scientific, and medical communities to come up with the most innovative ideas to advance treatments and cures for EB. The typical project funded by EBRP ranges from $50,000 to upwards of $1,000,000, therefore the award size could vary based on the commitment of the Brothers Trust. The bigger the award the bigger the idea. As research has moved towards human clinical trials, the amounts needed are closer to seven figures for each award. Research proposals are reviewed by our world renowned Scientific Advisory Board and selected from around the world. EBRP has funded over 100 projects in 20 countries and has built a community of the most brilliant minds focused on curing EB.

The Empowerment Plan $50,000 investing in the growth and success of EP’s Production Manager who has progressed through the program offerring skills training and employment for homeless people in Detroit in manufacturing specially designed coats/sleeping bags for homeless people, which are distributed globally. TBT is also contributing to the core funding to produce these coats.

John Foundation $46,000 Our grants help fund truly life-changing opportunities. John Foundation rescues vulnerable children and young adults from being trafficked; providing education, medical care, training, and employable skills for an independent future.This grant has gone towards buying bikes for their rescue team to reach people in desperate need of help quickly, and also to support 70 young men and women with setting up their own micro businesses by providing them the needed equipment. John Foundation has also secured a third campus three times bigger than their present campus and The Brothers Trust has granted $35,000 to build a safe home for vulnerable children in this campus.

Kares 4 Kids $40,000 Supporting FODAC – Friends of Disabled Adults and Children TBT has covered the cost of approximately 45 pediatric wheelchairs and adaptive mobility equipment for free to children whose parents could not otherwise afford them. We are also sponsoring 4 more Joyristas for Java Joy and contributing towards the cost of a vehicle for the The Young Adults Learning Life Skills (YALLS) Program, which supports special needs youth who have aged out of their traditional education environment by providing critical life skills as they continue to adulthood.

The Lunchbowl Network £29,000 The Lunchbowl Network educates and feeds over 400 of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children in the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya. This year we are funding the annual costs for their unit for hearing impaired. Currently the unit is facilitating the best provision available for deaf children within Kenya. 15 deaf children, aged between 3 and 7 years, have access to the Kenyan syllabus through Kenyan Sign Language. They integrate with hearing peers within the school and travel every week to integrate at a high-end international school. The integrated unit provision is unique in Kenya and is a beacon of diversity in practice. TBT is also funding a vital replacement kitchen for the Saturday Feeding Programme, science facilities in their secondary school and assisting with emergency supplies helping to rehome over 300 families whose homes were impacted by a serious fire.

Mama Biashara £20,000 This small charity helps to support women and children leaving abusive relationships in Kenya and providing training and employment. Each £10K grant will rescue 700-800 women with an average of 2 children (so, 700/800 children) each from a life of violence (tribal/domestic/sexual and/or extreme physical) and fear.

Mindstep £3,000 This small charity supports mental health and suicide prevention research, awareness and support. The charity was founded by the family of Max Davies, who died by suicide in 2018 at 22 years old, following a short period of depression. In attempt to understand and to help others, the charity partnered with the Suicide Behaviour Research Laboratory at the University of Glasgow to fund postgraduate research into the causes of suicide. The charity has since extended its activities to also deliver Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), provide financial support to those unable to afford counselling, and is now training its own counsellors to deliver subsidised therapy. This grant funds the 1st year of a diploma course for a new counsellor.

Momentum £40,178 Funding for a Family Support Services Coordinator for a year. This role is an absolutely essential part of their Family Support Team, enabling families to access their most popular and impactful services whilst also freeing up time for the Family Support Workers to offer direct emotional support at home and in hospital. Also funding 150 creative therapy sessions for seriously ill children.

Stem 4 £50,000 stem4 is a charity that promotes positive mental health in teenagers and those who support them including their families and carers, education professionals, as well as school nurses and GPs through the provision of mental health education, resilience strategies and early intervention. This grant assists with updates to the Head Ed and Combined Minds programmes.

Story Book Dads £25,500 Allows families to reconnect through the magic of storytelling. They help parents in prison to record bedtime stories and messages for their children on CD or DVD. This grant is supporting their core funding as well as 2 initiatives. Assisting prisoners who are poor, or non readers to participate, and also provide children with content that allows them to ‘read along’ with their dad or mum. TBT is also contributing to their core funding, essential equipment for their new premises and to help 4 ‘home editors’ which allows ex-offenders to continue editing films after their release.

Spark Book Awards £3,000 Last year this small charity were able to make donations of 544 books to disadvantaged children as nominated by their teachers. 237 of those books were bought as a direct result of the support of the Brothers’ Trust and this year’s grant is enabling them to double their donations in 2022.

Warmheart $10,000 helping elderly people living in remote areas of Thailand.