AHOPE FOR CHILDREN NEWSLETTER

SPRING 2007

 

Dear AHOPE Friends and Supporters,

 

AHOPE LAUNCHES CAPITAL CAMPAIGN WITH MAY 10  SEATTLE FUNDRAISER:  Enclosed  is an invitation to our May 10^th event in downtown Seattle, WA.  We are very excited about this opportunity to share the mission of AHOPE and to officially launch our $1.5 million dollar Capital Campaign.   This first event will be a free, family-friendly and fun-filled evening at the Seattle Children’s Theatre with an original Improv theatre performance, an Ethiopian dance troupe, a special appearance by J.P. Patches and the opportunity for those in attendance to learn more about our plans to expand the AHOPE Ethiopia mission and to meet Sidisse Buli, the director of AHOPE Ethiopia.  We are so grateful to Penny LeGate, Seattle’s KIRO-TV news anchor, for inspiring us to involve the Seattle area community and for agreeing to be the AHOPE focus speaker for the evening.

          Please RSVP early to the invitation to ensure your reservation.  Although the event is free, we will be requiring tickets as the attendance is limited to 500.  Driving directions will be included with the tickets.  If you are available to volunteer either before or during the event, please contact our fundraiser consultant and event planner, Patricia Birgen-Redwolf, at development@vashonisland.net, or patricia@redwolfstrategies.com .

 .   Patricia has been instrumental in getting this fundraiser off the ground with nearly all of the associated costs donated, and is also helping us with plans for a more upscale, by-invitation-only benefit dinner and silent auction, again in Seattle, sometime this fall or winter as part of the Capital Campaign strategy.

     There are also plans being made for another major fundraising event in Washington, D.C. in July (more information next newsletter—save July 19, 2007 if you would like to attend) and if supporters in other areas of the country would like to have fundraisers, large or small, your efforts would be most welcome.  Please contact Susan (see “connections” at the end of the newsletter) or the AHOPE for Children office if you have ideas and plans for such events.  We have to raise a LOT of money!

      In December, KIRO Channel 7 Seattle aired Penny LeGate’s wonderful documentary on Ethiopia that featured AHOPE Ethiopia orphanage among other projects.  We are hoping to have copies of this program available on CD for use in fundraiser events.  Contact the office for more information.

 

THE CAPITAL CAMPAIGN WILL PROVIDE A NEW AHOPE FACILITY FOR OUR EXPANDING SERVICES TO ETHIOPIA’S HIV+ ORPHANS:  AHOPE has grown into a highly successful model of care for HIV+ orphans in Ethiopia with a top-notch staff and board of directors in Addis.  We have reached the stage where we feel ready and able to take the organization to the next level in terms of  both size and overall mission.  The need for AHOPE’s services continues to grow and we want to become instrumental in helping families to keep HIV+ children at home.  Currently, many children are abandoned to orphanages because of the stigma that HIV disease continues to have and also because of the lack of the support services necessary for families caring for an HIV+ child.  AHOPE Ethiopia has recently launched a community care program, which helps relatives care for an HIV+ child at home by providing educational services; links (including transportation) to medical facilities and organizations, especially Worldwide Orphans (www.orphandoctor.com ), which provides the anti-retroviral medications; help with adequate nutrition, etc.  Our hope is that in the future, we can make institutional care a true last resort for HIV+ children and that most will be able to remain healthy and well-cared for at home with loved ones. 

Currently, we have an architect working on concept drawings for a new AHOPE facility to house the children we care for as well as our community library/outreach facility and the additional clinic and office space that will be necessary for the community care program.   At the new facility too, the children in care will live in more family-like settings—small cottages with “house parents”— than has been possible with our previous rented compounds.   Concurrent with the development of the plans, Sidisse is working with her board of directors to locate an appropriate piece of land upon which to build this new facility.  We will share more specifics about all of these exciting developments as details progress. 

 

IN THE MEANTIME:  Here are some of the milestones of  the last few months that have helped to inspire us to dream big for the future. 

New Vehicles:  Through the generosity of long time supporters Carol Barekman and Marie Queen, AHOPE has a new staff car.  In addition, there will soon be a new van for transporting the children thanks to the wonderful Isolde Motley’s request that donations to AHOPE be made in lieu of her retirement party from Time, Inc.  Both vehicles were badly needed and the AHOPE Ethiopia staff is extremely grateful to have reliable transportation. 

Time, Inc. Employee Charity Drive:  Thanks again to Isolde Motley of NY for helping to get AHOPE selected as one of the 5 charities to benefit from Time, Inc.’s 2006 Employee Charity Drive.  In the end, AHOPE was the number one charity selected and our share of the total amount donated was $136,000.  We are looking forward to receiving the first installment very soon and planning to earmark $100,000 as the cornerstone of our new building fund.  The remainder will be used as required matching funds for a grant application now in progress (more news on that in a subsequent newsletter). 

Hyelom Love’s Bingo Party:   Hyelom is a nine -year old Ethiopian boy adopted by the Love family of New York three years ago.  He learned about the AHOPE mission this winter and decided he wanted to sponsor a child because he remembered how HIV disease affected his family and community.  When he and his new family brainstormed about how he could raise the yearly cost ($360) of a sponsorship, they came up with the idea of holding a bingo party for his friends, classmates and teammates.  Thanks to his heartfelt invitation, his parents’ amazing organizational skills and the incredible support of the entire community of Rye, NY, Hyelom’s Bingo Party raised over $14,000 for AHOPE!!  His mom, Carol Love, was also generous enough to share her strategy for organizing the event and we’d love it if more kids and families were inspired to take on similar projects to raise both money and awareness.  Contact our office if you’d like more how-to information and we will be putting photos of the event on our website soon.

          Children in care and Adoption Activity:   Our many new sponsorships and holiday donations have enabled Sidisse to accept a number of new children in desperate need of care.  There are now approximately 80 children at AHOPE’s facility.  That number though is in constant flux because adoption inquiries continue to increase.  At the present time, with the help of Adoption Advocates International (www.adoptionadvocates.org) , at least a dozen children are in the process of joining their new families here in the U.S. and a number have already arrived.   We are so grateful for the growing awareness that adoption of HIV+ children is possible and that medical experts continue to expect that with good care, they will lead healthy and productive lives.   

 

2007 promises to be a very exciting year for AHOPE!  As always, we are so grateful for your continued support and interest.

 

With gratitude to all of you who are making such a difference to our wonderful, deserving children,

 

CONNECTIONS:

 

Susan Poisson Dollar, Director of Development, Yahoo AHOPE Support Group Coordinator: spdfish@nycap.rr.

Erin Henderson, (new) Supplies Coordinator with big thanks to Joan Petit, former Supplies Coordinator,  who did a marvelous job and is bringing Erin up to speed on her new responsibilities: ahopesupplies@gmail.com

Pat Murray, Volunteer Coordinator (who has just returned from Ethiopia where she located new housing possibilities for our volunteers):  murraypa@earthlink.net