CAOF
Quarterly
Winter 2006 Volume 4 Issue 1
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2. Fund Update
3. The
Second Annual Peony Festival is Coming Soon!
5.
HIV Rates Rise in Chinese Women
7.
International Health Conference at Yale
University in April 2006
9. Subscribing
and Unsubscribing
We
are pleased to announce that during the December meeting, the CAOF Board voted
to make a new $35,000 grant to the Chi-Heng Foundation. This organization continues to do good work
as a leading force both in advocating for AIDS Orphans and in directly
providing for their needs. The demands
on Director, Chung To’s time have grown so rapidly,
however, that this small organization lacks the internal infrastructure to
adequately respond to outside organizations and provide reports in the
streamlined and timely system of accountability that is needed in order to
maintain an effective, ongoing relationship with CAOF and other funding sources. Therefore, the board stipulated that $5,000
of the money granted to Chi-Heng should go toward building improved internal
structure and systems. These changes
will also increase their capacity for
fund-raising and the efficiency of the delivery of service. The remaining $30,000 should go directly towards
Chi-Heng project programming focusing on the ongoing needs of AIDS orphans in
In addition, the board of the China AIDS Orphan Fund
recently approved a $15,000 grant to the China
Orchid AIDS Project to fund the entire first year of a village resource and
activity center. The center’s goals are
to bring together families affected by HIV/AIDS and those who are not affected
by the disease, to provide education, resources, emotional support and some
community building to benefit the children orphaned by AIDS.
A description of the village center and the China
Orchid AIDS Project, were presented in our previous issue available on our CAOF
web page. You may learn even more about the China Orchid AIDS Project from
their web page: http://www.chinaaidsorphans.org/en
. We are quite enthusiastic about this project and feel that by building
systems of caring and support in the orphans’ home communities it has the
potential to help many children to live productive lives despite the loss of
significant family members and the cascading loss of personal resources and
educational opportunities that follow such a devastating loss.
Shortly after we announced
our decision to Grant their funding request, Jane Cohen, Director of Foreign
Affairs for the China Orchid AIDS Project let us know that they received an
additional grant from the U.S. State Department for purposes of capacity
building and another grant from the
Clinton Foundation. This is an organization that is well on its way to doing
great things and we are glad to be part of their growth.
Ms. Cohen also mentioned
that a book by French journalist Pierre Haski, Le Sang de la Chine—(The Blood of China) has just come out. If any
of you read French, she highly, highly recommends this book. It is all about
the crisis in
We hope to provide ongoing
reports of their progress in future issues of this newsletter.
As of January 2006, through the generosity of our donors, the China
AIDS Orphan Fund has raised approximately $146,400!
Our annual fund raising
campaign letter was mailed in November 2005. About 300 letters were
sent. To-date the campaign raised more than $26,000. If you have
not received this letter and wish to do so, please contact Florence Wong at
fnwong@yahoo.com and send her your mailing address.
Xie-Xie! Thank you so much!
The Second Annual Peony Festival Is Coming Soon!
Plans are already underway for our second annual Peony Festival to be
held at Radisson Plaza Hotel in downtown
If you want to be part of the Peony Festival 2006
Planning Committee or become a sponsor, please contact Echo Huang, Chair of
Peony Festival 2006 at (952) 693-2647.
We are looking for companies and individuals to be sponsors at various
levels from $150 to $5,000. A
tax-deductible donation (such as gift items, merchandise, fine dining gift
certificates, event tickets, services, etc.) will make a wonderful contribution
to a successful and exciting silent auction.
Over 225 guests attended last year’s Peony Festival
and we raised over $22,000 just from this event! We believe that Peony Festival 2006 will be
bigger and better. However you choose to participate, please put May 25, 2006
on your calendar now and join us for a fun filled evening of adventure—while
helping support this very worthwhile cause!
UNICEF to
By Sun Xiaohua (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-01-05 06:11
Ministry of Civil Affairs and the United Nation's Children's Fund (UNICEF) will
strengthen their co-operation in the next five years to help more street
children in Zhengzhou, capital of Central
China's Henan Province, and spread the city's successful experiences in
rescuing homeless kids.
UNICEF will contribute about US$100,000 each year to six projects, such as
developing training centers, setting up a national level workshop on the city's
methods, and updating published
information, sources from UNICEF said.
They will try to enhance co-operation on helping homeless children avoid
violence and AIDS.
"
"And they also face violence in the street. That is why we want to teach
the street children and work staff to avoid violence."
"We also underline the importance of our support to HIV/AIDS prevention as
street children are one of the most vulnerable groups in society," he
said.
"Although we don't really have figures in
Achievements have been made in
The city has set up a multi-level protection model, which due to its innovative
rights-based approach is now being replicated in different parts of the
country.
The model introduced approaches such as a 24-hour drop-in center for street
children, an outreach program among university students, community-based
residential care, and foster care. All of these things were a first for
Statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs indicated that in 2002,
About 70 per cent were boys and more than 80 per cent came from
poverty-stricken areas with very little education.
Currently
The focus of their work has gradually turned from taking in street children to
protecting their rights.
(
HIV Rates Rise in Chinese Women
According to a report by BBC
NEWS,
In the 1990s the male to female ratio of HIV/Aids
infection was 5:1, but the figure is now closer to 2:1. In some areas, there
are now a similar number of women as men infected, the China Daily said.
The new focus on women is part of a government
initiative marking World Population Day.
"The number of women infected with HIV/Aids is
climbing," Wei Jian'an, an official with
"Most of the recent infections in women have
been sexually transmitted. Some of them belong to the high-risk group of
prostitutes, while others are just ordinary housewives or career women,
infected by their husbands," she said.
Many women also became infected from selling blood in
the 1990s.
Health Minister Gao Qiang blamed the increasing
numbers on a lack of knowledge about the disease, especially among women in
poor rural areas.
"Women on the whole know less about the disease
than men," Mr. Gao reportedly told a recent
But international groups believe the real figure is
much higher.
The United Nations' Aids agency says that up to 10
million Chinese people could be infected by 2010 without more aggressive
prevention measures.
On January 18, 2006,
Matthew Razak of the Loudon Connection, VA Newspaper reported on our exhibit in
an article entitled, Exhibit Shines Light
on AIDS in China
Our documentary art exhibit, "Living Dreams in
"We're bringing this documentary art exhibit to the D.C.-metro area in
hopes to create awareness that there is a HIV/AIDS epidemic in
Razak quoted CAOF vice president, Dan Berg as saying, "The schools would
do art projects and the children drew pictures of their futures, of what they
would like to see. It's a lot like drawings that kids would do here, mostly
crayon on paper, but it's the stories that are great. There are some themes
running through them, kids wanting to be doctors to help their community."
As
Razak makes clear, “The art at the exhibit may be that
of children but both Berg and Haygood agree that the point is not the artwork
but the message. ’We started calling it a documentary exhibit because you don't
come to see this for the art. It's the emotional impact of the thing,’ said
Berg.”
The
full text of Matthew Razak’s article may be found at:
http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=60903&paper=67&cat=104
International Health Conference at
"Empowering Communities to Bridge Health Divides”
When: April 1-2, 2006
Where:
Theme: "Empowering Communities to Bridge Health Divides"
Who should attend? Anyone interested in children's health, women's
health, medicine, health education, health promotion, public health,
international health, international service, eye care, nonprofits, or
microenterprise
Conference Goal: To empower conference attendees to identify health
needs and to develop solutions to improve access to care for the medically
underserved
How to Register - Early Bird Registration! http://www.uniteforsight.org/2006_annual_conference.php
Early Bird Registration
Rate: $35 student
rate; $50 for all others *Rate increases after January
Complete schedule
can be seen at http://www.uniteforsight.org/2006_annual_conference.php
New Board Members Needed
Have you been reading these newsletters for some time and
thinking, “I wish I could do more?”
Do you have an area of expertise, experience or enthusiasm that could
strengthen our efforts?
Are you
interested in being an active member of a hard working, deeply committed,
really nice group of volunteers?
Are you willing to commit to monthly
If so, we want to talk with you!
The China AIDS
Orphan Fund is seeking new board members to fill some recent vacancies. If you feel you would like to help in our
efforts in a more direct, hands-on way, please call Communications Coordinator,
Peg Helminski 651-335-7207 or e-mail PegHelminski@aol.com.
She will answer your
preliminary questions and schedule a time for you to meet the other members of
the board so that we may explore together the possibility of a good fit for
your volunteer efforts.
SUBSCRIBING AND UNSUBSCRIBING
If you do not wish to receive future editions of the CAOF
Quarterly, please E-mail http://health.groups.yahoo.com/unsubscribe/chinaaidsorphanfund
and simply write Unsubscribe in the subject line.
If you know someone who used to subscribe but
whose address was inadvertently deleted, or who might like to receive our
E-newsletter and periodic updates, simply have them send an E-mail to:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/chinaaidsorphanfund
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the China
AIDS Orphan Fund or issues presented in this newsletter, please feel free to
contact Peg Helminski, CAOF Communications Coordinator, PegHelminski@aol.com