#RightNow: Tiny Tickers backs call to give charities the support they need to deliver their vital work.

On the 17th February 2021, hundreds of charities, including Tiny Tickers, will take to social media to back the Right Now Campaign and call on the government to create an Emergency Support Fund for the third sector.

Right now, charities are doing everything they can to make a difference, but resources are running out and people and causes are suffering. We join the call on the government to create an Emergency Support Fund.

During the coronavirus pandemic, there has been no let-up in our cause. Just as many babies have been born with poorly hearts, fighting for their lives against the dangerous, unrelenting and indiscriminate foe that is congenital heart disease, but now in the added context of the global pandemic. And that fight has been made harder – heart services have been severely reduced; families have faced the most difficult situations without the physical support of loved ones. Tiny Tickers has never been more needed.

The immediate response to coronavirus is only the start. People across the country know that charities like ours are Never More Needed right now, and for the foreseeable future.

During the last weeks and months there has been much greater demand for the work we do – more families needing support, more work to ensure that prenatal detection rates stay constant and do not drop. We want to carry on making a positive difference because we’re #NeverMoreNeeded than right now.

As a country, what we do and how we allocate resources as we move, hopefully, to recovery will only be effective if we include the people, problems and places that are often overlooked. The work charities like ours do – and our relationships with our beneficiaries – shows we must strive to meet everyone’s needs and rights, now more than ever.

We’re backing the #RightNow campaign because, like many other charities, we know the work we do helps change people’s lives, and our community, for the better.

Our CEO, Jon Arnold, has already signed the open letter, calling on the government to set up an Emergency Support Fund and urges others to do so too. You can read his blog about the #RightNow campaign here.

Tiny Tickers’ Chair of Trustees, Paul Schofield, says, “We are all very well aware of the toll the pandemic has taken on much of society over the last year or so, creating or amplifying extreme financial, physical or emotional hardship for many across the country. Often it is left to the charity sector to take up the strain when no one else can. But this usually vibrant sector is also under very significant financial pressure and the future of many vital charities hangs in the balance.

But still we, like others, worry about the sustainability of this funding over the medium term and hence I fully support the call for more assistance to prevent the additional burden of the pandemic weighing down most on already disadvantaged shoulders.”

Find out more about how you can support the #RightNow campaign here and follow Tiny Tickers on Twitter @tinytickers