The Ronald McDonald House Charities provides a comfortable place to stay for families with hospitalized children under 21 years of age who are being treated at nearby hospitals and medical facilities. Currently, there are 366 houses in 42 countries, which have been estimated to have saved families more than $700 million in lieu of hotel costs. Each house offers extended stay lodging, three home-cooked meals each day, free use of laundry facilities, and other essential items and services - at no cost to the families.
The charity has also expanded into acquiring spaces inside hospitals to provide meals, snacks, couches and cots, TVs, bathrooms, and showers for those families who were ineligible for RMC housing based off of the predetermined distance from hospital to the home. Now families have a space to relax, nap, and eat while remaining close to their hospitalized child. And in 2000 RMHC rolled out the Mobile Care Clinic which visits low-income areas to provide low or no cost medical and dental services to children who need them.
The houses were built on the idea that nothing else should matter when a family is focused on the health of their child- not where they can afford to stay or where they will get their next meal. Their belief is that when a child is hospitalized the love and support of a family is as powerful as the strongest medicine prescribed. The generosity of volunteers and donors make it all possible so click here to make your tax-deductible donation today: DONATE!
