Santa Claus Foundation
Santa’s gift to the children of the world
MISSION
Santa Claus Foundation’s charity in 2023
In 2023, the Santa Claus Foundation focused its charity work on cooperation with the Support Foundation for Disabled Children and Youth, Save the Children and for Children’s Clinic godparents. The Santa Claus Foundation thanks its partners for their warm cooperation in the past year and wishes everyone a peaceful Christmas season and all the best for the coming year.
Get to know the partners who enable the important mission of the Santa Claus Foundation: https://santaclausfinland.fi/en/kumppanit/
The Santa Claus Foundation donates a donation called Santa’s Gift every year. In 2022, Santa’s gift was allocated to Vamlas, a support foundation for disabled children and young people. The goal is to offer an accessible and barrier-free event aimed at families with children with disabilities during Christmas, where families can participate and at the same time hear about various hobby activities for children with disabilities. Of course, Santa Claus himself will also be present at the event.
The purpose of the campaign was to make Finns pay attention to their neighbors and encourage them to do selfless acts of goodwill throughout December. When every Finn is made to do one or more good deeds, there is a twist of positive action and joy-making, even for free.
More about the elfday: tonttupäivä.fi
Run for the life of kids
Santa’s run for the life of kids is a yearly 10 k run in the city centre of Helsinki. Every year thousands of people are running for the life of kids and their future. The run is organized together with Save the Children.
Equal christmas
With Santa’s Gift we help disabled children and young people and their families to live an equal life to others. We challenged everyone to participate in an ”Equal Christmas For All” charity programme.
The campaign was organised with charity foundation Vamlas, which is over 100 year’s old charity foundation for disabled children and young people.
good will christmas tour
Santa’s Gift for Good Will tour in Finland and in Asia, visited playschools, preschools and hospitals together with Santa Claus. Santa travelled by train. He wanted to show how important is to use ecologically friendly transportation. Santa met thousands of kids during the tour and they all felt the true spirit of good will and christmas.
Partner’s were National Railways, Nelonen Media Group, City of Tampere, City of Turku, Sheraton, Sony Music and Spotify.
Kids have the right for a hobby
Santa together with amazing Harlem Globetrotters had a basket ball event at the Helsinki city center. The purpose was to tell how important it is for every child to have a hobby.
Support for kids traffic injuries
Santa’s Gift was shared between several beneficiaries and one of them was the Finnish non-profit organization TATU Ry. The gift was given to support children injured in traffic accidents.
TATU is a nationwide organization established in 2001. The aim of the organization is to provide support for children and young people injured in an accident or suffering from long-term illnesses as well as their families.
BENEFICIARIES:
Children’s education
Children’s education
Each child has the right for education. The Santa Claus Foundation aims at promoting children’s educational opportunities with the 2015 donations. Santa wishes, that as many children as possible would have access to education and accumulation of knowledge. The Santa Claus’ gift is delivered through Save the Children Finland.
The international share of the Santa Claus’ gift will be donated to Nepal, for purchasing school supplies for children in needy families. The domestic share of Santa Claus’ gift will be donated for purchasing textbooks for upper secondary education for the whole duration of the education. In addition we will donate tablet PC’s for unaccompanied minors arriving in Finland.
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400 Nepalese children will receive pens and notebooks for a school year
Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world. In Nepal, the school attendance of many children remains a mere dream, because parents cannot afford to send children to school. Often families are so poor they cannot even obtain the most common school supplies as pens and notebooks. However, without these a child cannot attend school.
A youngster of a disadvantageous family will receive high school textbooks for the whole duration of the education
This benefit is intended for a youngster of a family whose limited financial means pose a threat to continuance of the schooling, of the youngster, after primary school. Due to this benefit a youngster can start the high school studies and take the matriculation examination.
Unaccompanied minors arriving in Finland will receive ten tablet PC’s
These PC’s will be donated for minors seeking asylum in Finland and the shelters in the cities of Espoo and Oulu, which are supported by Save the Children Finland. Save the Children Finland has launched operations for accommodating the children seeking asylum in Finland. Without help and support these children are at risk of becoming marginalized and re facing losses and dangers. Save the Children Finland has set up shelters for minors in cooperation with the Finnish Immigration Service in Espoo and Oulu for unaccompanied minors seeking asylum. Child welfare needs are arranged by donations and children and youngsters are provided with everyday supplies, in the shelters.
Child psychiatry
The Santa Claus Foundation has given Santa’s Gift to the HUS Child Psychiatric Unit three times. The donations have been used to arrange recreational activities for the children.
Child psychiatry specializes in examining and treating psychiatric disorders in children. The examinations assess whether a child is affected by a disorder of psychological development, whether treatment is needed and what an appropriate form of treatment is for the child.
An examination at a polyclinic involves a team that usually consist of a physician, a psychologist, a social worker and/or a nurse and they assess the child’s situation by meeting the entire family and interviewing the parents.
The child will go through individual examinations that may include an interview conducted by a physician in accordance with the child’s age and developmental level (e.g. play observation), a somatic and neurological examination, an examination by a psychologists and, if necessary, other examinations for example by a pediatric neurologist. Sometimes it is necessary to carry out inpatient examinations to assess a child’s situation and need for treatment, which normally takes 6 to 8 weeks.
The most common reasons for having a child examined are restlessness at day care or school as well as disruptive behavior, problems with social interaction and depression.
World Vision Finland
Slum of Nairobi, Kenia
Year 2014 the international share of Santa’s gift was delivered together with the help of World Vision. Santa Claus traveled all the way to Korogocho to deliver clean water and healthy food.
Aasoli, village in central India
In 2012, the international portion of Santa’s Gift was donated to the central Indian village of Aasoli through World Vision Finland. Santa has donated building materials to build a preschool as well as a cow allowing a poor Indian family to get some milk.
Children of East Africa
The first Santa’s Gift to an overseas beneficiary was given in 2011 after arranging a collection in aid of the children of East Africa. “Help Santa” is a joint Christmas gift campaign run by the Santa Claus Foundation, World Vision Finland, Upcode, MiniMoi and the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE. The aim of the campaign is to help the children of East Africa. The campaign was created by the production team of a YLE program called Kansallisaarre (“National Treasure”).
The campaign funds are raised and delivered to the destination by World Vision. The proceeds from the collection go to East Africa with one half allocated as emergency aid to the crisis areas in the Horn of Africa while the other is being used for supporting long-term development programs carried out by World Vision Finland in Kenya and Uganda. The money is spent, for example, on the children’s education, promotion of health and well-being as well as strengthening the families and communities. Emergency aid comes primarily in the form of clean water and refurbishment of the existing water sources and wells.
Children with epilepsy
In 2008, Santa’s Gift was shared between three recipients. Among them were children with severe epilepsy and their families who were offered an opportunity to enjoy a recreational event together.
Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by sudden, unpredictable convulsive seizures and loss or a decreased level of consciousness. An epileptic seizure is a brief disorder of brain functions caused by abnormal electrical activity in the brain which could in the worst case spread throughout the brain.
According to the World Health Organization, epilepsy is one of the most common serious disorders of the brain, accounting for 1% of the global burden of disease.
Non Fighting Generation
In 2007 and 2008, one of the recipients of Santa’s Gift was the non-profit organization Non Fighting Generation.
An educator can have a significant influence on young people by opening up new horizons to their minds. This calls for educational discussion considering the young person’s overall situation, expanding their world view and improving their life skills. Communication with young people has to be interactive and the educator has to be able to listen and empathize with what they say. In addition, a youth educator should be able to exercise authority as young people are not yet entirely able to control their own lives. Therefore, the interactive support provided by an educator should also include giving instructions, advice and sometimes even orders.
