Fundraising Efforts Continue for Beijing's 'Miracle Baby' Camila, Sun Oct 27

Fundraising Efforts Continue for Beijing's 'Miracle Baby' Camila, Oct 27

Tom Arnstein and Anna Pellegrin Hartley | Oct 25, 2019 4:00 pm | Add a comment | 292 reads

Your team spirit is showing, Beijing.

The community has come together in a big way this past month to help one of its own. As we have previously reported, local baby Camila Cortavitarte Urdaneta was born prematurely at just 25 weeks when mother Coro Urdaneta suffered from a severe case of preeclampsia. Incredibly, despite odds to the contrary, both mother and child survived the emergency delivery. However, Camila immediately entered the intensive medical care, and with both the couple's insurance and private savings quickly exhausted, they turned to the local community for support. Her story has touched thousands, and people from far and wide have donated to assist in paying for her care.

With the incredible outpouring of support from the Beijing community and fundraising efforts by the F&B scene, the initial fundraising goal of RMB 600,000 has now been reached. Good news for sure, but due to extenuating circumstances, the family still needs our support.

According to close family friend Anna Yip, baby Camila has been fighting hard these past weeks: "She’s overcome three serious bacterial infections in her eight weeks of life, with each treatment lasting ten days, and is now beginning to feed and breathe on her own. Tests show that her brain, eyes, kidney, and lungs are developing well too. She now weighs 1.36 kilos and her mom and dad got to hold her for the first time last week."

"I remember holding my son when he was born, and I can’t even imagine how it must feel to be able to touch and hold your child for the first time, eight weeks after birth." Yip says. "Coro described it as the happiest day of her life. Marco said it was mind-blowing, he was so nervous but then she fell asleep on his chest, and all was right in the world."

The Cortavitarte Urdaneta family are now preparing to take their bundle of joy back to Spain to live, however as Camila's lungs are still very under-developed, doctors have advised the family to wait until at least April 2020 before taking the long-haul flight.

Therefore, fundraising events continue, including the huge Friends for Friends charity bash at TRB Copper this Sunday, Oct 27. This food and friends festival will help raise money for Camila's continuing care and give everyone an opportunity to celebrate this remarkable story and her true fighting spirit. 100 percent of the proceeds from the event will be donated to Camila’s care, and all donations exceeding this amount will be donated to a local charity.

For RMB 150 per head, attendees can join in for plenty of food, drinks, fun, and most importantly, to raise money for a fantastic cause. The entry includes three food and drink vouchers and one raffle ticket entry.

All food and drinks are being generously provided by the following local businesses: De Refter, Hulu by TRB, La Pizza, Migas Mercado, Moka Bros, Niajo, Q Mex, Le Sommelier Wines, EMW Fine Wines, and Passion Wines.

DJs Cad73, Dirty Dishes, Jay One Two, and DJ G4 will be spinning tracks to keep the party going, and there will also be a dedicated Kid’s Corner (with face and bag painting for the little ones), as well as local artisan Chiara Anfuso selling neon lamps, which are perfect for Christmas gifts. Extra food and drink tickets will be available for RMB 40 each.

Those who cannot make it to the event on Sunday, or simply want to better their odds of winning a great raffle prize, can also purchase raffle tickets to support the event.

As always, all donations and support are welcome to this family in their time of need.

Friends for Friends will take place at TRB Cooper, Sun Oct 27, 12-8pm. For more information and to register, scan the QR code on the poster. To purchase tickets to the event in advance, add AGIC on WeChat (ID: agic_assogic)