Smiling with Jerome Foundation is currently facing a tricky situation, as some people are said to be collecting money on the organisation’s behalf, without permission.

Josette Frendo, one of the founders of the organisation and Jerome’s mum, posted to Facebook about the situation. “Smiling with Jerome Foundation has not authorised any persons collecting money on its behalf. At the moment, only Helping Hands Magazine are authorised to sell the magazine for €4 for our Foundation,” she said. In another post, she said that a certain Luana has been authorised “to collect items (not money) on our behalf for the special kids of our True Heroes Group. She has an authorised letter with her signed by me.”

Josette asks anyone to report unauthorised people collecting money on their behalf. “People are coming across persons with a picture of Jerome asking for money. Anyone seeing these persons please take a pic[ture] of them and send it to us.”

Smiling with Jerome is a charitable organisation that was initially set up to continue Jerome Frendo’s mission of putting a smile on every person’s face. Jerome passed away on 6th October 2017 and wanted to help out other families like his going through rough times.

The Foundation takes care of a group called True Heroes, currently having just under 500 members consisting of parents whose children have anything varying from serious illnesses to acute disabilities and special needs.