Two schools collecting the most mobile phones for the Jack & Jill Foundation will win the opportunity to meet Jedward in June 2011 – as new competition is launched by children’s charity Jack & Jill as part of its SOS campaign

As part of its SOS (Save Our Service) campaign, the Jack & Jill Foundation today launched a nationwide competition for schools to collect old mobile phones in exchange for interactive whiteboards and the two schools collecting the most phones win an opportunity to meet Jedward in June 2011.  Recycled mobile phones are a real currency for Irish children’s charity Jack & Jill who provide home nursing care and respite for 300 children nationwide with brain damage.

The Jedward / Jack & Jill schools competition begins immediately with a strong range of free classroom equipment, including Promethean Interactive Whiteboards, available to participating schools in exchange for mobile phone donations so that everyone wins.  The opportunity to meet Jedward will be awarded to the school that collects the most phones per capita between now and May 20th and also to the school that collects the most phones in total over that timeframe.  Therefore, all schools, big and small, have a great chance of winning.  The two winning schools will be announced on 30th May, with plenty of time to prepare for their Jedward encounter in June 2011.

Unwanted mobile phones continue to be a critical source of funding for Jack & Jill and over 600 schools in Ireland have already received free Promethean Interactive Whiteboards and other equipment over the past year in exchange for these old mobile phones to the value of €1.2 million.  Over 1,700 schools nationwide are registered with Jack & Jill.

Welcoming the Jedward competition Jonathan Irwin CEO and Founder of Jack & Jill said, “We want to say a big thank you to the schools that have already collected over 250,000 phones nationwide for Jack & Jill.  We know that having Jedward on board through this competition will entice more school children and teachers to get collecting old phones for Jack & Jill with a view to swapping them for valuable classroom equipment, assisting the school to get its green environmental flag while also helping Jack & Jill families locally and possibly meeting the Jedward boys.  I also want to thank John and Edward for supporting Jack & Jill and really getting behind our drive for more mobile phones which are a real currency for our home nursing care model.”

The 1,700 schools that are already registered with Jack & Jill’s Phones for Boards program will automatically be entered into the competition from this week and all other schools can register at www.jackandjill.ie/phonesforboards or call 1850525545.  Schools can avail of a full range of free classroom products.

Bbelow find a breakdown of Jack & Jill families in every county in Ireland:-

Jack & Jill’s Funding Crisis

Jack & Jill has a budget for 2011 of €2.7m to provide this vital service to Irish families of which less than €600,000 is received from the HSE.  The Foundation is facing a serious shortfall in its funding due to a drop in public donations and failure to secure the €1.35 HSE grant (half of its 2011 budget) it requires.  Jack & Jill wrote to its families recently informing them of a 20% cut in their hours funded by Jack & Jill from 1st January 2011. This is devastating for hundreds of parents around the country, who as a result of caring for a severely ill child, are already on the brink emotionally, physically and financially.  The tragedy for the families of these special babies is that many will be unable to cope with the reduced support and will have to return their children to hospital-based care – putting severe strain on our paediatric services, not to mention the stress involved for the families.  Jack & Jill has responded to its funding crisis by initiating a national campaign - SOS – Save our Service. The target is to raise €750,000 in cash and mobile phone donations with a target of collecting 250,000 unwanted mobile phones urgently.  In addition, Jack & Jill is continuing discussions with the HSE, senior politicians from all parties and the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health, in a effort to secure the State funding it requires.  A 2010 report by Trinity College entitled “There’s no place like home” found that Jack & Jill services save the State up to €42m per year by caring for children at home versus hospital care (€16,422 per child at home with Jack & Jill compared to €147,365 for hospital). The survey also found that the overwhelming preference for parents with severely sick children was to care for them at home with their families and recommended more State support for Jack & Jill.