Camp Zulu
Camp Zulu is an outreach/retreat
for school-age children&siblings of
veterans with a military service-connected diability or disabilities.
We've have filed for 501 (c)(3) status through the IRS and are a
non-profit organization located in Missouri. We will be making updates
as everything progresses, so please refresh your browsers to have the
most updated version of the page, thank you. Also we are in the process
of updating our Bylaws to include the school-age children of injured
First Responders and their families as well, thank you for your
patience.
Every child deserves happy memories, Camp Zulu is designed for families
and kids to just have fun while making new friends and memories. Camp
Zulu is for kids 18 and
younger and their families. Most kids
do not know anyone in school who has a disabled veteran as a mom or
dad, or as an older brother or sister and so
forth. There tends to be extra stresses or worries in their lives
compared to an average household, as sometimes our
households can be more chaotic, several doctors appointments and
limitations or slightly different than civilian counterparts at school.
Our mission is to help provide the families
with some outreach and support.
Difficult experiences can be harder to cope with when it feels
like no one, not even family or friends understands what you are going
through. It can be even more difficult when you do not have a support
network or a limited support network as well. Connecting with other
veterans and their families, and reaching out for support can help to
overcome isolation and increase enjoyment of life. We will help to
increase enjoyment of life, by helping make happy and memorable moments
in life and support.
Our kids know what it's like to see their parent in physical
pain, they even try to help sometimes and some apologize and it's not
their fault, they just know you hurt and want to help or wished there
was something they could do. But they see (even the best you hide it
sometimes) and know we're not able to do all the things other parents
the same age as their friends from school do, and just different
things, it's part of their life, through the eyes of a child from the
household of a disabled veteran. Sometimes they wish they could do more
activities through school and such, but it is physically very hard on
some of us veterans. Now with all the people abusing medication (doing
the heroin now, counterfeit pills on black market too) or getting pills
illegally, it's made it very
difficult and hard for those of us in real severe physical pain to get
treatment. Even those who do all treatments/surgeries to even try to
get better along medication to help us, when it is all that is left
that can help us if our bodies are that shot. Being in the military
takes a toll on bodies, more than the average person to begin with more
less getting hurt. Doctors are so reluctant and scared to treat their
patients, as the
government, outside groups have cracked down on doctors so hard they cannot
even take care of their patients properly, or to even help the
patient and their family have any decent quality of life. Even with all
your documents, MRIs, imaging,
reports, and so forth they feel they cannot treat their patients, or
make their quality of life and then in turn their families better. It
gets harder by the day, and some of us do every treatment available
possible along with medication. We need to be able to clean, play with
our kids, homework, do normal daily activities, it makes it hard to
keep up especially with younger kids. It's not fair to our children or
families that we're neglected. Some of us that have
more than one child may have noticed different things when we had a 2nd
child. Some have kids grow up in doctor's appointments all the time
coming with us, or at the VA all day long and the drive. They've even
been doing that with medications for PTSD for those who have
panic/anxiety attacks/insomnia and need the medication, some of you may
have
experienced problems getting medication unlike before, they've
cracked down on so many things that now affect us veterans and we've
done nothing wrong, nor do we ask to be injured or in pain. It's like
we're in a grey area, and they look at black and white and skip right
over those of us in the middle, and it's taken a toll on quite a few of
us of all ages. As they keep making new laws and stricter/tighter
regulations, I hope they remember those of us who truly do treatment,
and remember that most of these doctors also help people like us too,
we defended this Country and deserve to be able to play with our
children for God's sake. There is quite a bit that can stress a family
at home and this is just one scenario above that adds fuel to the fire
for some of us sadly. Anyways, there is just a lot of things that
affect all of us when it comes to our kids, and most kids do not know
another with a parent who is disabled from serving their Country, and
all kids like to have fun, make new memories and have a family
adventure,everyone deserves happy times.
Thank you and thank you for your service!
http://www.campzulu.org