Juvenile Arthritis Foundation Australia (JAFA)

The Juvenile Arthritis Foundation Australia (JAFA), is the primary organisation representing children with juvenile arthritis and their families in Australia. JAFA is a fully registered national charity with DRG1 status.

Founded in 2019 as a response to the urgent need for a national voice dedicated exclusively to representing and addressing the needs of children and adolescents with arthritis and related rheumatic diseases, their families and carers.  We have built an active community via parents and carers of young children affected by arthritis and other childhood rheumatic diseases and continue to provide them with peer support programs, trusted information, education and engagement around common needs.

Our mission is to stop pain and disability in kids with arthritis through early diagnosis and research with best practice care and support for all who need it.

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a painful, potentially disabling, auto-immune disease which, if not detected early and treated effectively, can result in permanent joint deformities and loss of vision up to and including blindness. An estimated 18-30,000 Australians aged 0-24yrs have JIA – the same number as have diabetes in the same age group. Despite this similarity, services and support for JIA are 40 years behind comparablechronic childhood conditions.

Leaving a gift in your Will enables JAFA to continue to conduct political advocacy to improve health policy and services.  It will contribute to JAFA’s goal to raise and leverage research funding campaigns to track the prevalence of juvenile arthritis and assess the health and financial impacts, improve treatments and prevent and ultimately find a cure.