By Nina Garayan, Esq.

Co-Founder, Walking With Alex Foundation

On January 7, 2026, we officially launched the Walking With Alex Foundation with a mission
that was deeply personal to us: to help children with autism and other developmental needs
access the therapies and support they deserve, regardless of their families’ financial
circumstances.

When we began this journey, we knew the need was tremendous. What we could not fully
appreciate at the time was how quickly the generosity of our supporters would begin translating
into real, meaningful changes in the lives of children and their families.

Today, only months after our official launch, we are incredibly proud to share some of what we
have accomplished together.

Our Work in Armenia

One of our most meaningful partnerships has been with TMM (Teach Me More), a center in
Yerevan, Armenia, serving children with developmental needs.

With financial support from the Walking With Alex Foundation, TMM has been able to provide
therapies to children whose families otherwise could not afford the level of services their
children need.

Through this partnership, children have been receiving services including speech therapy,
occupational therapy, aquatic therapy, music therapy, and physical therapy.
For a developing child, these are not simply appointments on a calendar.

Speech therapy can help a child develop ways to communicate their wants and needs.
Occupational therapy can work on skills necessary for greater independence in everyday life.

Physical and aquatic therapies can support strength, coordination, balance, and motor
development. Music therapy can provide another avenue for engagement, expression,
communication, and connection.

Most importantly, consistent access to these services gives children the opportunity to work
toward developmental goals that may previously have felt out of reach. We have watched children begin developing new skills, making progress in areas where they had struggled, and gaining opportunities to reach more of their individual potential.

Every child’s progress looks different. For one child, success may mean communicating a need
more effectively. For another, it may mean developing a new motor skill, becoming more independent with a daily activity, tolerating a new environment, or engaging with another person
in a way they could not before.

These milestones may appear small to the outside world.

To their families, they can mean everything.

Bringing the Same Support to Families in Lebanon

Our work has also extended to Lebanon through Jour d’Esperance, an autism center serving
children and families who desperately need access to developmental services.

Through our support, children at Jour d’Esperance have been able to receive the same or similar
therapeutic services, including speech, occupational, physical, aquatic, and other developmental
therapies based upon their individual needs.

Once again, our goal has been simple: a family’s financial circumstances should not determine
whether a child receives the opportunity to develop essential skills.

In communities where resources can be limited and families may receive little or no financial
assistance for developmental services, therapy can become an impossible expense.

Parents know their child needs help. They know early and consistent intervention matters. They
may even know exactly which services their child needs.

But knowing what your child needs and being able to afford it are two very different things.
Walking With Alex Foundation is working to help close that gap.

From One or Two Hours to a Full Therapy Schedule

One of the most significant impacts of our financial support has been the ability to increase the
amount of therapy some children receive.

For many of the children we support, their families were previously able to afford only one or
two hours of therapy per week, even though their children needed significantly more.

Our support has meant the difference between receiving those limited services and finally having
access to the fuller schedule of therapies they have needed for years.

Think about what that means for a parent.

Imagine knowing that your child needs speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy,
and other developmental support—but being forced to choose which one you can afford that
month.

Imagine knowing that additional hours could give your child more opportunities to practice
communication, motor, sensory, and daily living skills, but simply not having the financial ability
to provide them.

For many of the families we have helped, our support has changed that reality.

For Some Families, This Is Their First Support Ever

Perhaps one of the most emotional parts of this work has been learning that, for many
parents, this is the first meaningful outside support they have ever received for their child.

Some families have spent years carrying the financial, physical, and emotional responsibilities of
raising a child with significant developmental needs almost entirely on their own.

They have adapted their lives around their child’s needs. They have sacrificed careers, financial
security, sleep, personal time, and countless other things that most people never see.

For some of these children, the therapies funded through our organization may be their only
realistic opportunity to receive meaningful early intervention.

And early childhood does not wait.

There is a limited period during which children are rapidly developing communication, motor,
social, adaptive, and cognitive skills. Every child develops differently, but access to appropriate
intervention gives children the opportunity to learn, practice, and build skills during these
important developmental years.

For many of the children we support, this is their chance to stretch their potential as far as it can
go.

That is a chance every child deserves.

Sometimes Helping the Child Means Helping the Parent, Too
There is another impact of our work that is much harder to measure.

Time.

For some of the families receiving our support, their child’s main caregiver has been caring for
that child virtually every hour of every day since birth.

There has been no babysitter.

No afternoon off.

No opportunity to go to the gym, sit quietly with a cup of coffee, meet a friend, run errands
alone, or simply exist for a few hours without being responsible for another person’s every need.

For some of these caregivers, the two or three hours their child spends receiving therapy have
given them something they have not experienced since their child was born:

a few hours for themselves.

Two or three hours may not sound extraordinary.

To a parent who has lived for years without a break, it can be life-changing.

It can mean attending a doctor’s appointment. Taking care of another child. Going to work.
Buying groceries without rushing. Sitting quietly. Resting.

And sometimes it simply means having enough time to remember that, in addition to being a
caregiver, they are also a human being with needs of their own.

This is why supporting a child with developmental needs has an impact far beyond the child.
When we support a child, we support an entire family.

The Progress That Cannot Always Be Measured in Numbers

We can count therapy hours.

We can count children served.

We can calculate how much financial assistance has been provided.

But some of the most important results of this work cannot easily be placed into a spreadsheet.

How do you measure the value of a child finding a new way to communicate?

How do you quantify a parent seeing their child accomplish something they once feared might
never happen?

What is the value of a few hours of relief for a caregiver who has been in survival mode for
years?

What is the value of hope?

These are the accomplishments that matter most to us.

For the children we have been fortunate enough to support, this assistance has been fundamental.
For many, it has opened doors to therapies and developmental opportunities that simply would
not have existed otherwise.

And for their families, it has meant something equally important:

They are no longer doing this completely alone.

None of This Happens Without You

As proud as we are of what the Walking With Alex Foundation has accomplished since January
7, 2026, we know one thing with absolute certainty:

None of it would have been possible without our supporters.

Every person who attended our launch, donated, shared our mission, supported an event,
introduced someone to our organization, volunteered, or simply believed in what we are trying to
build has played a role in these children’s stories.

When you support Walking With Alex Foundation, your contribution does not simply disappear
into an organization.

It becomes a speech therapy session.

It becomes time in the pool with an aquatic therapist.

It becomes occupational therapy that helps a child work toward greater independence.

It becomes physical therapy that helps a child develop strength and motor skills.

It becomes music therapy that gives a child another way to engage and express themselves.

It becomes two hours of relief for an exhausted parent.

It becomes an opportunity that a family could not otherwise afford.

It becomes hope.

We Are Just Getting Started

What we have accomplished since our official launch makes us incredibly proud, but we also
know that this is only the beginning.

There are still so many children waiting.

There are families in Armenia, Lebanon, the United States, and around the world who know
exactly what their children need but simply cannot afford to provide it.
We want to reach more of them.

We want to fund more therapy hours, support more families, build stronger partnerships, and
continue creating opportunities for children whose potential should never be limited by their
family’s ability to pay.

To everyone who has supported Walking With Alex Foundation since January 7, 2026:

Thank you.

Thank you for believing in these children.

Thank you for believing in their families.

Thank you for trusting us with your support.

And most importantly, thank you for helping us turn compassion into something
tangible—therapy, opportunity, progress, relief, and hope.

Together, we are not simply funding therapies. We are giving children opportunities to grow,
giving families support they have never had, and reminding them that they do not have to walk
this journey alone.

And we are only getting started.

Walking With Alex Foundation — Walking beside children. Walking beside families. Walking
toward a future with more opportunity, support, and hope.