Give the Gift of Breath

$100 - Provide an In-home Environmental Assessment that helps the family identify allergens and sources of allergens in the home.

$500 - Pay for an Asthma Equipment Kit with: nebulizer, compressor, spacer, peak flow meter; mattress and pillow covers that control dust mites, cleaning supplies, HEPA air filters for the child's bedroom, and a specially adapted vacuum cleaner.

$1,000 - Sponsor an Asthma Education Group for a family or group of patients

$5,000 - Helps pay for changes to the environment of the home to reduce asthma-related problems coming from carpet, air conditioning, and other factors.

Breath is the key to life, and is often taken for granted. Unless you live with asthma. People with asthma don't take breathing for granted, because they live under constant threat of restricted breathing and the pain, limitations, and illness that accompany it.

Tucson is ranked as one of the nation's number asthma hotspots. Since 1980, the asthma rate among Tucson's children and adolescents has doubled, hitting hardest among the poor. Currently, 18 percent of Tucson's children (6,000 of El Rio's pediatric patients) are affected by asthma. This amount is double the adult rate, which is already the second highest in the nation.

When you give the Gift of Breath, you literally breathe new life for children with asthma. El Rio's Pediatric Inner-City Asthma Program helps children to learn ways to control their asthma, provides life-saving medication and equipment, and preventive education to reduce or eliminate hospital stays.