AHOPE FOR CHILDREN NEWSLETTER

SUMMER 2007

 

THE BUILDING FUND CAMPAIGN HAS BEEN LAUNCHED. On May 10, the Celebrate AHOPE  fundraiser at Seattle Children’s Theater brought AHOPE to Seattle’s attention.  (click here for pictures) 400 guests, young and old, many from Seattle’s Ethiopian community and the local and national adoption communities (so many beautiful Ethiopian children) enjoyed the evening of good food and wonderful entertainment. Honored guest, AHOPE Ethiopia Director Sidisse Buli, was warmly received by all and had so many invitations to speak and to visit that she will just have to come back to Seattle for our second Seattle fundraiser that is being planned for late fall. (Thinking ahead: We need table captains for the November fundraiser; if you could help in this way, please contact us soon.)

      OUR GOAL for this year is to raise $1.5 million towards building AHOPE Children’s Village.  We have a lot of work to do; we have just begun.  Many thanks to all who helped make the May 10 event such a success and many thanks to so many people who are now planning fundraisers big and small to help achieve our goal.  Click here for the initial architect concept drawings of AHOPE Children’s Village, or click here for pictures.  The plans include 16 cottages where children will live family style with house parents, 6 transitional homes designed for older teens and young adults who are being prepared to enter adult society, administrative buildings, library, clinic with isolation rooms, classrooms and an auditorium for events, including community events. We hope to obtain land from the Ethiopian government and will build as the money comes in.  This project is a real stretch for our organization but the need is very great and we know how to do what needs to be done.  Please spread the word and help us provide a wonderful facility for the HIV orphans of Ethiopia.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

JUNE 17, CORVALLIS OREGON:   The 5^th Annual Student Choreography Benefit Concert for AHOPE will be held at 7 PM in the  historic  Majestic Theater, 115 SW 2^nd Street, Corvallis, Oregon. Tickets will be available at the door.  Adults $10, Students $5. Donations accepted and all proceeds go to AHOPE.  Many thanks to Ashley Selvey, who has organized this year’s concert and to all the dancers and other persons who have donated their talent and their time to our children through this event.

 

JULY 19, WASHINGTON, DC  There will be a fundraiser for  AHOPE at Johnny’s Half Shell Restaurant, 400 North Capitol Street, NW, Washington DC (located across the street from Union Station, where Amtrak comes in from Penn Station) 6:30 to 8:30.  Sponsorships are $2,500 and tickets are $150 per person.  There will be a silent auction and Ethiopian music. For reservations, contact  Julie Wadler 703-683-7500 or jwadler@epiphanyproductions.com.

JULY 6 FIRST FRIDAY ART WALK AND JULY 14 STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL, VASHON ISLAND, WASHINGTON  There will be an exhibit of art work created by HIV positive orphans in Ethiopia, including the children of AHOPE Ethiopia at the Presbyterian Church in downtown Vashon.  The exhibit includes the traveling collection of the When I Grow Up I Want To Be Foundation. Eric Blome, noted sculptor and proud parent of an Ethiopian child, created the foundation to provide children’s art workshops led by local professional artists at orphanages in Addis Ababa.  The young artists express their losses, fears, hopes and dreams in their distinctly Ethiopian creations. Recent works by AHOPE Ethiopia children will be added and the show will feature a painting by local artist Paige Heinen, who was commissioned by TheMemory Project to do a portrait in memory of our beloved Amelezewd.  Prints and note cards will be available for purchase.  Donations to benefit AHOPE accepted.

 

AHOPE ETHIOPIA NOW HAS FOUR RENTAL COMPOUNDS.  (WE REALLY NEED TO BUILD AHOPE CHILDREN’S VILLAGE!!!) A house not far from the two AHOPE orphanages has been rented to provide office space and counseling rooms for the Community Outreach Program. The first nine children have been enrolled in the outreach program that assists what is left of their families to keep them at home rather than abandon them to institutions. The goal is to enroll 100 children by the end of the year.  The building will also provide a temporary home for the Children’s Community Library. Many thanks to Rich Hehn for setting up the library catalog system and to the many donors who have given books to start the library, especially Hannah Qualls, who organized a very successful book drive at the University of Idaho. The Volunteer House, also newly rented, and very convenient to both AHOPE orphanages, will be ready for the first lodgers in mid-June.  Volunteers add so much to the AHOPE Ethiopia program and now we can provide an affordable, convenient and comfortable place for them to stay.

 

 AHOPE NOW HAS AN IN-HOUSE PEDIATRICIAN three days a week.  Barlow Clinic continues to oversee the prescription and administration of the anti-retro-viral medications, but day to day medical oversight is now provided by our new pediatrician and our full-time nurse.

 

SO MANY people are doing so many good things to help the children of AHOPE Ethiopia.  Special thanks this month to three young men from Bountiful, Utah; Wyatt Frasier, Colton Kilpack and Mackay Lasall, who held a spaghetti supper and raised more than enough money to purchase a much-needed clothes dryer.  

 

THANK YOU wonderful donors and sponsors! You make all this good news possible.

 

CONNECTIONS

Susan Poisson-Dollar, Director of Development, Yahoo AHOPE support Group Coordinator spdfish@nycap.rr.com

Erin Henderson. Supplies Coordinator   ahopesupplies@gmail.com

Pat Murray, Volunteer Coordinator  murraypa@earthlink.net

By-invitation-only Internet group for parents and prospective parents of HIV+ children:  contact the AHOPE for Children office.