CHILDREN’S CHARITY THE Jack and Jill Foundation is owed in the region of €300,000 after a company that raised funds for it went into liquidation.
In a statement today following a story published in the Sunday World on the issue, the CEO of the Jack and Jill Foundation, Jonathan Irwin, said that Folamh Ireland, the company involved in the charity’s recycling programme, went into liquidation in October 2012.
Folamh had been instrumental in supporting Jack and Jill to raise much-needed funds for home nursing care through the recycling of old mobile phones, which accounted for 7 per cent of the €37 million we’ve raised since 1997 and which successfully delivered €2 million worth of classroom equipment nationwide to schools.
Owed money
According to Irwin, Folamh Ireland’s closure has left Jack and Jill owed a “substantial amount of money” in unpaid mobile phone donations and a large number of schools and clubs awaiting equipment.
Jack and Jill is dealing with the liquidator and said that it estimates that Folamh Ireland owes it in the region of €300,000 in unpaid mobile phone donations.
The harsh reality is that we have not had mobile phone payments from Folamh since October 2011. In spite of this, we finished 2012 with a small surplus and that was due to the determination and generosity of our families, fundraisers and corporate partners all over the country for which we are very grateful.
Response
Over the past three months, the charity’s staff have been contacting the 184 schools that Folamh had contracted to supply equipment to in exchange for old mobile phones, which hadn’t been done by Folamh. It has honoured all of the Folamh equipment contracts from its limited funds where there was a clear contractual commitment by Folamh to deliver equipment.
We did this even though we were advised that we had no obligation to do so but in recognition of the wonderful support we have received over the years from schools across the country. However, for those schools and clubs who had ‘banked’ phones with Folamh Ireland, unknown to us and without any funds being donated to Jack and Jill, we must refer them to the liquidator – Michael Kennedy of Irish Insolvency Solutions, 32 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2.
Irwin said that while this is a blow, “it’s not a killer blow” and he wants to reassure people that the charity’s home nursing care programme for children with severe disabilities continues as normal, and that nursing hours will not be cut because of the situation.
The foundation is in the process of appointing new recycling partners, including Arc Telecom (part of DCC group), and will continue to recycle old mobile phones and cartridges. People with unwanted mobile phones can donate them by freepost to Jack and Jill Mobile Phones Appeal, Freepost F4968, M50 Business Park, Ballymount, Dublin 12.
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