Last week, we reported that a young bullied child in Australia named Quaden Bayles picked up national attention when his mother posted a video of him saying he wished he was dead rather than continue getting bullied.
As a result, celebrities like Hugh Jackman and Jeffrey Dean Morgan sent in their own videos letting the little boy know he wasn’t alone.
Not only that, but comedian Brad Williams, who also has the same affliction of dwarfism that Bayles has, started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to send the child to Disneyland to make him happier.
That is when the trolls came out and online bullying started.
People started to accuse Quaden Bayles of being an 18-year-old who was scamming people (which we quickly debunked).
Now, the family of Bayles is hitting back.
Quaden Bayles family rejects Disneyland offer
When Brad Williams started the Disneyland fundraiser to send Quaden Bayles to the “happiest place on Earth,” he said that the extra money would go to charities to combat bullying.
BBC reports that Mundanara Bayles, Quaden’s aunt, said that they would prefer to pass on the Disneyland trip.
According to Bayles, they would rather send all the money raised to community organizations that help bullied children.
“This little fellow has been bullied. How many suicides, black or white, in our society have happened due to bullying?” Bayles asked. “We want the money to go to community organizations that really need it. As much as we want to go to Disneyland, I think our community would far off benefit from that.”
So far, more than $474,000 has been raised through the GoFundMe campaign.
The family of Quaden Bayles said that two specific organizations they would like to receive the money are Dwarfism Awareness Australia and the Balunu Healing Foundation.
Dwarfism Awareness Australia and the Balunu Healing Foundation
Dwarfism Awareness Australia is an organization that is a non-profit that started in 2014.
Their goal is to “educate Australia about dwarfism, whilst offering support to individuals and families affected with dwarfism.”
This means that they don’t just talk about dwarfism to educate people, but they are also there to help those families in need. Families like that of Quaden Bayles.
The Balunu Healing Foundation is another non-profit charitable organization that helps indigenous youth and those people in Darwin, Northern Territory.
The organization offers a “healing program which builds self-belief and self-esteem whilst assisting Indigenous youth to overcome the wide range of challenges they face.”
To donate to the GoFundMe in the name of Quaden Bayles, visit its page here and know that all money raised will go to help children in need.