Our Mission
Raregivers™ is a global network that delivers emotional support to caregivers, patients and professionals in rare, chronic and complex disease communities. We deliver daily compassion and relief to individuals who feel isolated and overwhelmed. Our organization is singularly focused on providing necessary mental health and wellness services to Raregivers - from sustainable psychosocial training and transformative retreats to a connective peer-to-peer multilingual network. Raregivers currently supports over 21,000 rare families across 33 countries, with a goal to connect and educate 3.5 million Raregivers™ by 2026. Founder & CEO, Cristol Barrett O'Loughlin, illustrates the unthinkable realities of losing three older brothers to the rare genetic disease Mucopolysaccharidosis, as well as the family difficulties (and triumphs!) while caring for children with a life-limiting illness in her TEDx talk Caring for the Caregivers. To learn more about Cristol and Raregivers™ by ANGEL AID visit https://www.raregivers.global
Our Impact
Causes We Support
Countries We Serve
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
ONE IN FIFTEEN PEOPLE suffer from uncured rare genetic diseases worldwide – the World Health Organization (WHO) reports more than 350 million families are in deep medical and emotional crisis. Half the patient population is children and a third of these children will not live past their fifth birthday. Despite the billions of dollars invested in research, science and clinical trials, there are zero (0) cures for any rare disease. In reality there is a global ‘blind spot’ in supporting the emotional wellbeing of patients suffering from rare diseases, their caregivers (3x) and professionals supporting rare families (5x) – more than 2.8 billion people worldwide are grappling with grief, depression, anxiety, isolation and hopelessness. Raregivers™ by ANGEL AID is an interactive, AI-powered mental health education program that helps patients, caregivers, doctors, nurses, genetics counselors, social workers (and all others) address the emotional realities of palliative-care decisions facing rare disease families. We know from Military and Senior communities how critical it is to ‘Whole Family Quality of Life’ to honor and support the emotions of patients and caregivers. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to scale the multilingual versions of our Raregivers™ program will ensure ALL rare families are offered emotional wellbeing alongside medical support in ALL countries, including low and middle income countries (LMICs) where medical resources are limited. Emotional support is critical. Our goal is to provide emotional support to 3.5 million Raregivers™ by 2026 across 400+ languages worldwide, including tribal communities within LMIC countries. The Raregivers™ program was vetted by an Independent Ethics Review Board (IRB) at Sydney General Hospital, University of New South Wales and Epilepsy Foundation of Australia. Our training has been vetted and adopted by medical professionals at hospitals and Rare Disease Centers of Excellence (COE's) around the world including Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC), Seattle Children's, Boston Children's and others in India, Mexico, Brazil and various European countries. This highly-effective, disease-agnostic, DEI-led program has been successfully utilized since 2018 in English-speaking countries (USA, Canada, Australia) and was piloted in Spanish in 2023 (USA, Mexico). We are aligned with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals #3 (Health & Wellbeing) and #5 (Gender Equality) ~ as medical events/trauma/diagnosis disproportionately impact women who are the primary caregivers in 82% of families living with rare genetic diseases. With $1.5 million in funding, we can support 3.5 millions Raregivers™ by 2026. Support Raregivers™ by ANGEL AID today. Raregivers.global
