Make-A-Wish New Zealand has fulfilled a Kiwi-Indian girl’s wish, by revamping her bedroom and giving it a new look. 

Bhavya Pala had undergone treatment for a liver transplant eight years ago and has had ongoing medical conditions. She is one of six Kiwi-Indian kids the organisation has worked with this year to make their wish come true. 

“[We were] very excited, that Bhavya wanted to redo her room. Her old room made her feel like she was in a hospital. This room has had a big makeover and feels more like a room, rather than a hospital room,” says Bhavya’s mother, Bhavisha Pala. 

Make-A-Wish New Zealand is the national arm of the international non-profit organisation of the same name, that helps fulfil the wishes of New Zealand children between the ages of three and 18 living with a critical illness. Though fulfilling her wish took a few months, the organisation did exactly what Bhavya wanted. 

“She wanted a bedroom makeover, she just felt like her bedroom felt a bit sterile because she had a lot of her medical equipment around her…she came up with a mood board and guided me and planning the kind of things she wanted,” says Anna Buchanan, sponsorship and community fundraiser at Make-A-Wish. 

Like many other children Make-A-Wish works with, Bhavya was also on a five-stage journey for her wish to come true. The first stage is the wish capture, where the child decides what they want for their wish. Volunteers are then sent to the child’s house to meet them and their families to understand what their wish is. The wish is then designed based on the specifications and information from the volunteers, after which the child is provided with a “wish anticipation”, which builds excitement for the wish, the fourth stage is when the wish is realised. 

“Her [Bhavya’s] mum had told me she had her school ball coming up and I knew that she loved make-up, so I arranged for a make-up artist to go around to the house and do the make-up for her school ball,” says Buchanan. 

Bhavya was now in the final stage of her journey.“Me and my colleague went [to Bhavya’s house] on the day and set up the room and built all the furniture,” says Buchanan. 

Another stage in Bhavya’s wish journey was the wish impact, which is a wish's long-term effects on a child. For Bhavya, her newly revamped room would be her own magical place to go back to. 

In a video sent to the Indian Weekender by Bhavisha, her daughter was overcome with joy, with a hint of disbelief at the transformation of her room. 

There are currently 321 children like Bhavya who are waiting for their wish to come true. Make-A-Wish Foundation relies on public donations to make these children’s wishes come true. The organisation’s local office was first established in 1986 in Auckland.