A support group for new mothers has donated more than $10,000 to two charities that help children.

The Meet-a-Mum Association (Mama) raised $11,800 through a variety of fundraising initiatives including a sale, auction and wine tasting event in February.

The charity, which has 300 members, chose to donate $5,900 each to the Reading Clinic and the Coalition for the Protection of Children.

Mama president, Wendy Wiseman said: “It was very important to us that this money went towards children on the Island.

“The Reading Clinic does a great job helping youngsters and we were extremely impressed with the coalition’s breakfast programme, which is why we chose these two charities.”

The Meet-A-Mum Association originated in the United Kingdom in 1982 as a support and resource group to assist new mothers. The Bermuda chapter of the Mama was formed in 1986

Julie Dunstan, executive director of the Reading Clinic told The Royal Gazette: “The Reading Clinic wishes to express our heartfelt appreciation to the members of MAMA for their generosity in supporting students with learning differences.

“This gift will be used to deliver services to children with dyslexia who are enrolled in our core reading programme.

The funds will assist us to deliver a total of 162 one-on-one lessons using the Orton-Gillingham approach to teaching decoding and spelling. “In other words, this donation will support two students for the entire 2015-2016 school year.”

Kelly Hunt, the coalition’s director of child and adolescent services, added: “This money will go towards helping to fund our breakfast programme in the schools.

“We are extremely appreciative of the donation and it is donations like this that have enabled us to expand the programme into eight schools so far.”