Sonya’s son
In 2015, Sonya’s son was born with spina bifida. The doctors in her small Bulgarian town told her that he wouldn’t be able to walk. Then, local authorities took her newborn from her and put him in an institution 100 miles away. Sonya didn’t have a choice, and she knew that the facility could not give him the love and attention he needed. So she put out a call for help—and received an answer from a surprising source.
“I knew that in an institution, my child would not develop properly,” says Sonya. “He needed to be at home with me.”
Unfortunately, no one in power believed her. This was simply how things were done in her town when a child had a birth defect, and that was that. But Sonya wouldn’t give up on her son. And fortunately, her story caught the attention of an organization called Lumos.
Lumos was no stranger to stories like Sonya’s. They are focused on helping children in orphanages and institutions around the world. And what they’ve found is that few of these kids are actually orphans. Like Sonya’s son, many of these children have families, but they were separated because of poverty, discrimination, war, or natural disaster.
Lumos helps these kids leave institutions and find loving homes with families—or reunite with their own. And all of this is the brainchild of one rather magical founder: J.K. Rowling.
Author J.K. Rowling is most famous for her beloved Harry Potter series and companion books like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Back in 2004, Rowling was reading the newspaper when she came across a shocking article about children who were kept in caged beds in an institution.
That day, Rowling made it her mission to start a charity that would end the institutionalization of children. So Lumos, named after the light-giving spell in Harry Potter, was founded to shine a light on some of the world’s most disadvantaged children.
By 2015, when Lumos learned of Sonya and her son, they had already helped thousands of families in her situation, and they knew what to do.
They worked tirelessly with Social Services to allow visits between Sonya and her son so that their fragile bond wouldn’t be broken.
After three months of negotiations, they helped the mother and son reunite for good.
But stories like Sonya’s are not unique. Since 2009, Lumos has helped over 31,000 children around the world leave harmful institutions and orphanages and find homes with families. To save more kids, Lumos needs more funding. And there is a very special way that you can help…
CrowdRise by GoFundMe has partnered with Lumos for a fundraising sweepstakes. Three lucky winners will attend the New York, Paris, or London premiere of ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.’
Winners and their friends will receive free flights to their red carpet premiere, a four-night stay in an upscale hotel, and a meet-and-greet with the cast. A fourth winner will enjoy a private screening of the movie in their hometown for up to 30 of their friends.
To qualify for any of these prizes, all you have to do is donate to Lumos’s CrowdRise campaign. All donations will go to Lumos to help them save more children like Sonya’s son from harmful institutions and orphanages—both here in the United States and around the world.
As the nonprofit side of the GoFundMe family, CrowdRise by GoFundMe is an online social fundraising platform designed to help nonprofits grow their event, run, walk, cycle, and peer-to-peer fundraising programs.
