CAOF Quarterly

Fall 2004                                                                         Volume 2   Issue 3

FUNDRAISING UPDATE 

As of November, 2004, through the generosity of our donors, the China AIDS Orphan Fund has raised more than $74,000!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! 

In this season of thanks, we are most grateful for our donors and the many fine people with whom we have been able to partner in order to bring much needed relief to hundreds of Chinese children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic. Thank-you! Your simple act of caring makes a big difference in the lives of these kids. 

Over the past few months, volunteers in areas of Minnesota outside the Twin Cities, and in Seattle, New York and Philadelphia have hosted our AIDS Orphan Art Exhibit: Living Dreams in a Dying Village in a variety of venues. CAOF board member, Brian Hammer files this report on the exhibit and related activities currently happening in Seattle: 

On display since October 25, the Living Dreams in a Dying Village exhibit at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle has already received requests to coordinate its movement to additional venues around the city.

The UW exhibit was made possible with the generous support of the UW China Studies Program and the Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, which not only offered free space but also funds to produce a color copy brochure containing vignettes translated from “Father, Mother, Home” (fuqin, muqin, jia), an ethnographic piece by Zhang Juqing originally published in Shanghai on International AIDS Day 2003. 

Creating further energy around the plight of children affected by HIV/AIDS in Henan, Shao Jing (Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Chicago) delivered the lecture “Empowering HIV Positive Villagers in China’s Henan Province” as part of the China Colloquium series. Dr. Shao’s talk brought together an audience of 40 university and broader Seattle community members to the exhibit space for an impassioned discussion on November 4. Copies of an earlier paper prepared by Dr. Shao (“Blood Money, Fluid Labor”) and/or the translated vignettes are available on request. 

Exhibit location: Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, Communications Building, Suite 206, University of Washington. Contact: Brian Hammer, 206-616-2759 

If you or your organization is interested in hosting an exhibit, please contact PegHelminski@aol.com to schedule the dates that work best for you. 

CAOF Legal Counsel, Thomas W. Ting of Henson & Efron, P.A. www.hensonefron.com reports that our efforts to gain recognition and the support of people outside of the Twin Cities area and to continue to raise awareness of our cause are expanding. We have been investigating various strategies to expand The China AIDS Orphan Fund into different cities.  One strategy involves growth through various community foundations (similar to The Minneapolis Foundation) and the licensing of our trademarked name, China AIDS Orphan Fund.  While our goal is to expand our network of supporters and to build name recognition, our efforts will be methodical and deliberate as to avoid compromising our mission.  Please feel free to contact Tom directly if you would like more information on establishing a local CAOF fund in your area. 

We are also in the process of setting up several local CAOF chapters in areas remote to the Twin Cities. These local chapters would hold educational and fundraising events similar to the ones we have held in the Twin Cities. This would allow folks in areas outside the Twin Cities to partner in our efforts and receive guidance and benefit from our experience, while also remaining fairly autonomous in their choice of activities. 

CAOF Board Member, International Gender Specialist and UN NGO Delegate, Lois Herman provides these relevant highlights from A Joint Report of New Orphan Estimates and a Framework for Action published July 2004 by UNICEF, UN AIDS, USAID:

CHILDREN ON THE BRINK 2004

AIDS is the leading cause of death worldwide for people ages 15 to 49.

Millions of children have been orphaned or made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS.

While the proportion of orphans in Asia is much less than in sub-Sahara Africa, the absolute number of orphans in Asia is much larger.

The number of children orphaned by AIDS will continue to rise for at least the next decade.

The large majority of orphans and other children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS live with a surviving parent and siblings, or within their extended family; and the overwhelming thrust of effective response must be to give direct substantial support to the millions of families who continue to absorb children who have lost parents. After losing parents and caregivers, children have an even greater need for stability, care, and protection. Family capacity - whether the head of household is a widowed parent, an elderly grandparent, or a young person - represents the single most important factor in building a protective environment for children who have lost their parents to AIDS ad other causes.

Included in strategies is:

*Ensuring access for orphans and vulnerable children to essential services, including education, health care, birth registration, and others.

"Middle Childhood:  Middle childhood begins around the time a child enters primary school...........During middle childhood, school attendance is essential for progress in learning and problem solving. However, the impacts of HIV/AIDS prevent some girls and boys form going to school or affect their ability to study. Orphans are more likely than other children to be excluded from school, with household poverty, age, and relationship with the guardian all affecting school attendance."

A VERY IMPORTANT INCLUSION IN THIS PUBLICATION:

PROPOSED INDICATORS FOR MONITORING THE NATIONAL RESPONSE FOR CHILDREN ORPHANED AND MADE VULNERABLE BY HIV/AIDS.

The Report chart indicates that for children from birth to age 17, in
2003, China had some 20,600,000 orphans, which is 6% of all children. At
this time, there is no disaggregate for AIDS ORPHANS in CHINA.

The entire report is available online at http://www.unicef.org 

BRIEF NOTES ON BOARD MEMBER ACTIVITIES 

Board members Echo Huang and Dan Berg, Foundation Development Officer of the Minneapolis Foundation, have worked together setting up a donor-advised fund for one of her clients who gives to schools and churches regularly.  Echo, a CPA and Certified Financial Planner practitioner is prepared to help others who need consultation on charitable giving in a tax-efficient manner.  Estate planning and the creation of a personal legacy are an important part of financial planning.  Further questions may be addressed directly to Ms. Huang by email at echo.huang@lpl.com or telephone (952) 854-9230. 

In October, The Minneapolis Foundation hosted the national conference of community foundations.  At a concurrent session on global giving through Donor Advised Funds, CAOF vice president, Dan Berg featured the story of CAOF and encouraged other community foundations to consider hosting similar funds. 

On October 23, CAOF Board member Dan Berg addressed 25 visiting mayors and government officials from Jiangsu Province on the activities of the CAOF and other interaction between The Minneapolis Foundation and the local Chinese community.  

NEW CAOF PARTNER - THE AMITY FOUNDATION  

China Aids Orphan Fund (CAOF) is pleased to partner with the well-respected Amity Foundation in helping children in Henan Province, China, orphaned by the AIDS epidemic in the province.  CAOF made our first grant of $5,000 to Amity in August 2004 for their continuing support of AIDS orphans and AIDS affected families in Henan Province.  

The Amity Foundation is an independent Chinese voluntary organization created in 1985 on the initiative of Chinese Christians to promote education, social services, health, and rural development from China's coastal provinces in the east to the rest of the country.  Its headquarters is in Nanjing.  CAOF is especially interested in their orphanage support project, although Amity is broadly involved in projects such as blindness prevention, delivery of healthcare and education in rural areas, disaster relief and rehabilitation, support of children with mental retardation, cerebral palsy, hearing loss, and leprosy.  In recent years Amity added a new focus on AIDS Prevention, breaking the silence in dealing with this horrible epidemic.  For details of their work, please visit their website http://www.amityfoundation.org/. 

In December 2003 CAOF committee member Florence Wong met with the Amity staff in their Hong Kong office and gained a good understanding of their operation.   We commissioned Give2Asia to complete the due diligence in the summer prior to sending our grant to them.   

We look forward to further collaboration with this new partner.   

CHINA AIDS ORPHAN NETWORK

In an effort to maximize our effectiveness as well as enhance the overall service delivery to Orphans through the work of other organizations and individuals also involved in humanitarian aid to China’s AIDS orphans, we have formed the China AIDS orphan network e-mail list. This list is composed of China scholars, international health experts, AIDS researchers, representatives of several orphan relief organizations, students in the US and China, adoptive parents and others concerned about the growing crisis facing AIDS orphans in China. It is our hope, that by sharing our knowledge we can further enhance the work being done in China, not only by our organization but by all others involved in similar goals.

To join the list, go to: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/CAOF_Network 

UPCOMING TWIN CITIES EVENTS IN THE WORKS 

A Twin Cities winter event is currently in the planning stages! Details will be sent via special e-mail announcement to all subscribers and posted on the web site once the specifics are finalized. 

SUBSCRIBING AND UNSUBSCRIBING 

If you do not wish to receive future editions of the CAOF Quarterly, please E-mail PegHelminski@aol.com and simply write Unsubscribe China AIDS Orphan Fund in the subject line. We’ll take care of it promptly. 

And, if you have a friend you would like to invite to join our list, go to ChinaAIDSOrphanFund-subscribe@yahoogroups.com  

If you need to contact the CAOF for any reason, do not reply to this newsletter. You may contact the editor at PegHelminski@aol.com or visit our webpage www.chinaAIDSorphanfund.org for further contact information.