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Do Something to Support the AIDS Orphans
Educate your community, create awareness, raise funds, and...  It is estimated that in every 5 minutes someones mother, father or guardian die from HIV/AIDS in Uganda. And as a result, over 2 million children are considered orphans, vulnerable and trapped by the grinding poverty. These children are in desperate need of basic needs we often take for granted - education, supplies, healthcare, clothing, beddings and food. Despite the free Universal Primary Education, 2 in 5 of the AIDS orphans and vulnerable children do no attend school due to lack of money to pay for the costs of supplies required. Those who can afford often drop out when a parent who has been paying for the education dies. Without help these children end up wandering all over searching for survival. And when all fails they turn to child labour, crime, prostitution and face an early death from malnourishment, drugs and dreadful diseases. These children need your help if they are to secure a bright future, to reach their potential, to escape the jaws of AIDS and become productive contributing members of their community. These children lack access to education, lack school supplies, lack counseling to cope up with the trauma AIDS has caused them of living with a parent to care for them. These children are ignorant about HIV/AIDS and needs awareness to prevent them from catching the disease. At Youth with a Vision, we have done and continue to do all that we could to support some of these children in a modest way, but we even struggle, and sadly due to financial limitations we cant just do enough to enable these vulnerable children an opportunity to reach their potential. Funds are needed to help provide school tuition and supplies, bedding, clothing, food and healthcare to enable the AIDS orphans and vulnerable children to attend school. Funds are also needed to help provide awareness workshops to prevent these children from catching AIDS, and to offer them an escape route from poverty through skills development and support of income generating activities. Dine to Save A Life Day is all about educating the world on the HIV/AIDS epidemic and orphans crisis while raising funds to transform lives for the better. We are asking you to support us to raise the much needed funds to further our work with the AIDS orphans and vulnerable children in Uganda. Imagine when a girl goes to school, the chances of her future children dying before the age of five falls drastically. In the same way when a boy goes to school the chances of him committing crime to survive are minimized. How you can help? Sign up to participate Between 1st November and 1st December, 2009, host a meal for your friends or do something like to be part of the Dine to Save a Life Day in your community. During your event, educate participants about the HIV/AIDS negative impact upon the children, the orphans crisis and vulnerable children in Uganda. Then ask your participants to pay for the meal or service to donate the proceeds to this cause and help many of these children get the education and basics they desperately need to improve their condition of life. Fill in the form below to register now.
Registration Form LAST YEAR - DINE TO SAVE A LIFE 2007 From 3rd November to 1st December 2007 several generous people gathered in their communities around the world to share with their loved ones as part of Youth with a Vision fundraiser Dine To Save A Life. The Youth with a Vision family kicked off the global meal in Uganda with a delicious breakfast at His Grace Restaurant, crossing over to UK with a lunch and dinner before ending in USA with a breakfast. United States of America Stacey Frumm AMHERST USA  My name is
Stacey Frumm and I am a student at Amherst College in the US. When I first learned about Youth With
A Vision (YWAV), I was struck by the depth of their goals and programs, as well as the dedication
of their volunteers. The organization captured my attention, and when I heard about the Dine to
Save a Life event, I knew I had to participate. I recruited four friends (Jodie Simms, Maria
Rosasco, Conor McDowell, and Sam Grausz) to host a brunch on December 1st, 2007 (World AIDS
Day).We all pitched in and prepared the entire meal ourselves. After much debate, we settled on the following menu: pancakes (blueberry and chocolate chip), coffee cake, potatoes, chocolate chip scones, oatmeal molasses bread, kugel (a sweet noodle casserole), bacon sausage, and fruit salad. Since we are university students, the event was very relaxed. We invited fifty people, knowing not all of them would come. In the end, around thirty attended. The brunch was served buffet-style; guests helped themselves to the food and stood around and talked and laughed. We gave a small presentation about YWAV so that all in attendance understood the organization they were helping. Peoples generosity was overwhelming. YWAV is a wonderful organization with a truly inspiring purpose, and the Dine to Save a Life event allowed us to gather with friends and share a meal to support YWAVs initiatives. Angie Belcher Bristol, UK Chow down for children  Its funny
but as I write this I remember spending several hours mulling over the title for last years UK dine
to save a life event..I think theres a bit of me thats still uncomfortable asking people for money so I wanted the event to sound very up beat. Some charities have a habit of making the fundraising process quite depressing with there images of naked children and sombre music tracks. But YWAV arent like that, they are very positive and celebrational in the success of their projects. One point of Interest is in the very different ways that John and I work. I tend to go for a less is more approach whereas I think John tends to write out 6 thousand word proposals in his sleep! And he is quite a demon at marketing... I think he could show some British charities a thing or two. Chow down for children was quite a simple premise, eat food, and invite your mates around. And give some money to your host who will give that money to YWAV. I tried to stress that this meal could be banquet or could be a fish finger sandwich. It didnt have to be anything grandiose. The important thing was breaking bread with your mates or family and helping children who didnt have such families to feed them in Uganda. But this is where I hit problems... This was about the time when the UK was going through a crisis with its culture of dining. School meals were vilified for their high fat contents and super Chefs were selling millions of books while the TV schedule showed programmes every night about how not only to cook good food, but impress your friends and family. So there was an increase in the way people in the UK were viewing food and there was huge snobbery about which foods were cool (mostly expensive and organic) and which were not. So I found that the Chow Down for Children project while being simple and straightforward, also brought out peoples neurosis about the trendy ness of their dinner time menus. People worried about what other people would think of their fayre and some people wanted to go to other peoples events rather than entertain themselves. This was quite crazy as the whole aim of the project was to help support poor children in Masaka whose families had died of AIDS and for whom education, food and clean water was privilege not a given. It seems crazy that we are worrying over which variety of blueberry to eat while just the basics are such a struggle for John and his team at YWAV. But rather than use this as a philosophical point to (cue the sombre music) remark on the economic divide and the selfishness of western society. Im going to take a leaf out of Johns book and turn this into a marketing opportunity. This year, rather than people holding events in their homes, Im going to organise one large ticketed event which people can go to. This could also have entertainment of some sort included, maybe some comedy or cabaret. This could help to brand the chow down for children project and make it easier for people to give money, while not having to cook themselves. I have been running a comedy evening in Bristol for a year now so maybe I could see if we can get a Chow down and chuckle for Children event.. Ah, theres this years title... Plus the comedy element means that this years project will be even more up beat... so it will encourage people to put their hands in their pockets and give more cash to YWAV. Which is the whole point after all. Anyway got to go, Im off to get a fish finger sandwich for tea. Much love Angie Belcher FAQs General Questions What is Youth with a Vision, is it a legitimate organisation? We are a Christian community based youth organisation registered (Registration Number C.D 2211) and recognised in Uganda by the local CBO Board. We are dedicated to improving the quality of life of disadvantaged young people in Uganda by defending and advocating for their rights, providing opportunities for education, better nutrition and job creation so that they map out avenues and opportunities to achieve productive and sustainable livelihoods, and to usher them as agents of positive change within their spheres of influence. Recognising that our society today is faced by deprivation of basic needs, corruption, violence and conflicts, abuse of office and resources, greed, ineffective leadership and lack of respect for basic human rights, all of which have contributed to prevalence of poverty, hunger and diseases mainly HIV/AIDS within impoverished families and societies&. We consider youth: nurtured and supported into responsible adults at an early stage, as important actors, most active, dynamic, creative, innovative, and accountable, committed to the reconstruction of a participatory civil society to recapture the values and practices that embrace all stakeholders, and ready to pass over such practices to the next generation in search for a just and fair society. We are a co-operation Circle of the United Religions Initiative (URI) based in USA. We are a YES (Youth Employment Summit) country coalition. We are affiliates and partners with a number of prominent and outstanding local and international organisations including Youth Service America, AW. 60 Charitable Trust in the UK, Young Peoples Ministry of the United Methodist Church USA, World vision Uganda, Kings Foundation UK, Life Ministry Uganda, Free To Charities UK and many more. We were verified, approved and certified by Idealist a global and largest on-line volunteer access. How do I register to host a dinner party? Just fill out the form to register as a host. Also don't forget to read more about the event and learn more of what is involved. As a host, do I have to contribute a donation? The host does not have to contribute money, but if your meal takes a different angle and you wish to donate, it is absolutely fine! However, because we know as a host you are likely to supply the food. So it is only your guests to donate. What about the costs of actually hosting my Dine to Save a Life event? We know that hosting a meal, especially a bigger event can incur costs that may not be financially feasible to cover yourself. So we encourage you to reduce the costs of your dinner party by preparing simple meaningful meals. We have also compiled some ways to reduce your hosting costs that will be contained in your information pack that you will receive after registering as a host. Can I have less than 5 or more than 10 people at my dinner party? Although we would encourage you to have more people for your party, but depending on your situation and for both the sake of raising money, and for the sake of your event, you can have less than 5 people at your dinner party. Initially we didn't think that less than 5 people would be much for your party, we had put 5 guests as a minimum. However, if you wish to host a dinner party for more than 10 people then that is great! The more the merrier! We are grateful for any participation in Dine to Save a Life. Whether you have 2 guests, or can find 200, 400 we're grateful for your participation! What maximum amount of money can each of my guests contribute? There are no restrictions on that one! The AIDS orphaned and affected children need as much help as you, and we, can offer them. So we welcome any amount of money your guest can offer, let it be higher. My guests can't afford or don't want to pay $30? Can I have them pay less? If your guests can't afford to pay for a meal we can understand that some of them might be strapped for cash (in most cases the students out there!), it is for this reason that we have settled on $10 USD as a suggested minimum donation amount that will hopefully not inconvenience someone, but will still have a great impact on a child's life. However, you can definitely host an event for less than $10 a head, if you find it more appropriate and calling to throw a successful event. Given the fact that we want to raise as much funds as possible for this cause, we would however, strongly encourage a minimum of $10 person! What are the rewards / prizes for my efforts? Very huge one! Anyone who raises $600 or more from their event will be entered into a draw where two grand prize winners will have the chance to travel to Uganda and have hands on the programmes for which funds have been raised. They will officiate the announcement of the donations raised. For 20 runners-up will receive a Dine To Save A Life T-Shirt and a cap each. All category winners will be announced immediately after the returns of the event. What next after my dinner party? How do I get the money I raised at my dinner party to Youth with a Vision? Do I get any notification when it arrives? We will be sending you a series of updates concerning the event addressing all the logistical questions, taking you through the entire process and providing information as how to submit the money you have raised and the process the funds will go through after all donations are collected by Youth with a Vision. If sending by a wire transfer, you will get a transaction note of which details you will pass over to us to check with our Bank and we will gladly confirm that the money has been credited into our account and received. For Western Union after receiving a transaction note from you, upon receiving the money we will immediately confirm to you that we have received the money. A list of all donations will be compiled and copies will be sent to all hosts. I can't host this event on 1st December 2008; can I host it on another date? Initially we though that the international AIDS day would be more significant and attract many people. However, if you wish to host your dinner party on another significant and convenient date then that is great! The more guests the merrier! We are grateful for any participation in Dine to Save a Life. Whether you host the party in November but with a component of the AIDS day, we're grateful for your participation! Please let us know the date you intend to host your party. I cant participate in this years event but would like to make a donation. How can I make it? We understand that not everyone can participate in hosting a party. Youth with a Vision will gratefully accept your donations. Just contact us for details. How the money raised from Dine to Save a Life' will be spent? At Youth with a Vision we try our best to keep administration costs to a minimum so that we can spend as much money as we can directly on the projects that we are conducting. However, in order for an organisation like ours to run efficiently we inevitably incur some administrative and other costs. Of course the majority of the money that Dine to Save a Life' raises will go directly to the work of the AIDS 75% Directly to Project This will be spent on the child sponsorship programme, training and welfare of the target children, as well as the expansion of the Youth Centre for Skills Development providing developmental skills training to at risk children to better their lives. 25% Operations This will include administration, monitoring, community education and fundraising Unfortunately I cannot participate in this years event. Are there other ways I can get involved? At Youth with a Vision we have numerous ways that each individual can contribute. Please feel free to visit our website www.freetocharities.org.uk/ywav to find out the other ways you can get involved. Alternatively contact us for a guide containing other ways how you can get involved. I heard of the Grand Prize who is eligible for this prize? A registered host who raises a minimum of $600 is eligible for the grand prize drawing. FACTS ABOUT AIDS IN UGANDA
Source: UNAIDS www.unaids.org Uganda AIDS Commission www.aidsuganda.org |