PLEASE PRAY FOR THIS CHILD!

Dear All,
Alexandra came out of a fire alive, but now has to fight for her life and a normal future. She is 14 months old and she has burnt skin all over her body, damage facial bones (as a result of very high temperature). She does not have half of her face. She is in hospital in Krakow-Poland and one of the best specialist is looking after her. However she still has to go through many surgeries and then long rehab. Unfortunately her parents do not have any more money.

Therefore we are asking for your help. For each forwarded email her parents will get 3 cents. Please help them and forward that email to as many people as you can! How many ways can we count our blessings..Pray for this child.

GLOBAL FUND FOR CHILDREN'S NEW BOOK, FAITH. BUY NOW!

Faith helps young readers explore religious diversity and tolerance through images of their peers around the world: Bahá’í children in Mongolia help harvest a community garden; a grandfather in the United States teaches his grandchild how to braid challah bread for the Jewish Sabbath; a child arranges an intricate offering of fruits and beans at a Jain ritual in India; and in Uganda, a Muslim girl and her Christian best friend laugh and whisper to each other.
With striking photographs and compelling text, this book explores the themes of hope, worship, and peace while highlighting the practices that make each faith unique.
Faith is already generating buzz: Kirkus Reviews called the book “impeccably designed,” and stated, “This introduction to world religions deserves a wide audience.”
Buy Faith at our online bookstore (enjoy a sneak preview of the book on our homepage). Proceeds from the sale of this and other books benefit The Global Fund for Children.
Yours sincerely,
The Global Fund for Children Team

AGAINST ALL ODDS
"sing along"

2008 was quite eventful, compared to its preceding year which gave birth to the Text project of 2007.
The project achieved part of its aims that year and the feedbacks that we got gave us the impetus to run the tracks again this year. And as usual, we ran on the WIN-ning lane.
Besides reaching out through SMS alone in the Text project -era, we moved a step further in the later part of 2007 (based on the earlier outcome of our research) to expand the project into something that could reach out to more people at the same time, in a more relatable way they would live to remember. And through our efforts, the “ Sing along Project ” came into existence.
The Sing Along project was however expected to give birth to an album of HIV/AIDS comprehensive issues in twelve (12) months, but in its twelve months, it could only boast of a single track on radio.
Reasons for the album deadlock
Lack of funding; this was a major contributor to the inability of the set goal to be met. And this can be attributed to the fact that as young people who are still in school, we were unable to fund such a massive project on our own.
Lack of support; we wrote to numerous organizations but got no favourable response from those were kind enough to reply. The majority of those approached never gave us a feedback.
Also, the individuals approached to assist gave us excuses as to why they cannot be involved in assistance or by any other means. Some even went extra-length advising us to quit, as there are no prospects of financial profitability at the end of the project.

However, besides this enumerated reasons for failure to put the album compilation together, we went ahead and did creditably well with the song (Think-Twice) in 2008. We had it on a couple of Radio stations in Lagos, Ogun and Ibadan and it enjoyed considerably airplay for a while.
Challenges
It is believed that so many international organizations were funding youth-led projects on HIV awareness/advocacy. And for us to appear as a formal organization as Wellbeing Initiative Nigeria (WIN), it must have been a well grounded Non Governmental / Not for Profit Organization (NGO/NPO) with strong financially backing. Hence, at every point in time, we were billed based on that basis of an organization doing business with a media house.
We had to meet people, especially music D.J’s on individual basis and had to change name and approached them as an artist so that the charges could be reduced. The strategy did work for a while but the airplay the song was enjoying stopped when they weren’t getting tipped by us anymore.
Successes
On having the song on Radio for a couple of months, we were invited for two notable interviews and a couple of public performance both in and out of school.
We also dropped a copy of the song at the Journalist Against Aids (JAAIDS) office at Ogba-Lagos.
The first ever interview we had was on MUSIC-MAKERS, a programme anchored by Bunmi Osotekun on Voice of Nigeria (VON) Lagos.
The Voice of Nigeria Lagos is a national station
transmitting live on the internet and on the short wave band.
The second interview was on Splash 105.5 fm, a privately owned media house of international standards. It transmits from the largest city in West Africa, Ibadan-Oyo State.
The programme – MAD HOUSE, hosted by Femi Ojo, Mr Desmond and the Nutty Professor is an unparalleled interactive youth programme with massive followership in the whole of south-western Nigeria.
Thirdly, we had a great time teaching about HIV/AIDS with practical experiences and performing advocacy songs at the Digital Peers International (DPI)’s DIGITEST 2008 programme. DIGITEST is a national programme on information technology and its relationship with other aspect of human existence is annually organised for young people aged 8-18. This year’s edition hosted in lagos state was a massive success. And with close to a thousand participants as our audience, nothing could have been more satisfying. This audience sang every song along with us, and you could see a sea of appreciative faces, that were grateful to have been present at the hall.
There was this young boy of about age 10 or thereabout, who penned down useful points while the teachings were on, sang every song with us religiously and requested a copy of our C.D so he could take home for his siblings.

The song’s been done a couple of times at school gigs. And we have forwarded it also to FLAVA, a BBC sponsored programme now on 110 radio stations nationwide.
Also, we have the full-downloadable version of the song (think-twice) on www.ilike.com/dametrows, www.facebook.com , and on www.hi5.com

HISTORY OF WORLD AIDS DAY
Remembering Those with HIV/AIDS on December 1

For twenty years, World AIDS Day has stood as a time to remind people of the AIDS crisis and to rembmer those who have been lost to HIV/AIDS.

Every year on December 1, organizations, groups, and individuals around the world plan events to participate in World AIDS Day. These events highlight the overwhelming number of individuals suffering from HIV/AIDS and honor those who have passed away. Many organizations also use this time to focus on prevention efforts.

The First World AIDS Day

The first World AIDS Day was organized by the World Health Organization on December 1, 1988. Originally, the day was organized by UNAIDS. UNAIDS chose a new theme each year after consulting with other HIV/AIDS organizations to determine the most pressing topics. In 2005, UNAIDS officially gave responsibility of World AIDS Day to The World AIDS Campaign (WAC), an independent HIV/AIDS organization..

Since WAC took over the campaign, the theme has been “Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise.” This theme is meant to target policy makers and health authorities to encourage them to meet the targets that have been set on the way to providing universal access to HIV treatment, care, support, and prevention services by 2010. The theme “Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise” will continue until 2010, with sub-themes chosen each year.
Past World AIDS Day Themes

The following have been the themes of World AIDS Day for the past 20 years:
2008 - Stop AIDS; Keep the Promise – Lead- Empower- Deliver
2007 - Stop AIDS; Keep the Promise - Leadership
2006 - Stop AIDS; Keep the Promise - Accountability
2005 - Stop AIDS; Keep the Promise
2004 - Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS
2003 - Stigma & Discrimination
2002 - Stigma & Discrimination
2001 - I care. Do you?
2000 - AIDS : Men make a difference
1999 - Listen, Learn, Live: World AIDS Campaign with Children & Young People
1998 - Force for Change: World AIDS Campaign With Young People
1997 - Children Living in a World with AIDS
1996 - One World, One Hope
1995 - Shared Rights, Shared Responsibilities
1994 - AIDS & the Family
1993 - Act
1992 - Community Commitment
1991 - Sharing the Challenge
1990 - Women & AIDS
1989 - Youth
1988 - Communication
World AIDS Day 2008

For World AIDS Day 2008, the sub-theme is “Lead- Empower- Deliver”. This is the second year that the theme has focused on the topic of leadership. This theme is meant to highlight the fact that many individuals and organization have already offered up their leadership skills, and now policy makers need to find the resources to deliver on their promises. The campaign is calling on everyone, including families, communities, civil society organizations, and governments to take the initiative in helping meet the target goals.

References:
World AIDS Campaign Official Website

SAVOURING THE EXPERIENCE!
Its another conference year, and this time all road leads to Dakar, the capital city of Senegal for the 15th International Conference on Aids & STI's in Africa (ICASA 2008) which will hold from 3-7 Dec,where His excellency Prof. Souleymane Mboup would be welcoming delegates to His wonderful country, as the chief host of the event. This conference which stands out as Africa's leading forum for discussion of HIV developments and trends, is the place of hope for africa’s future in defeating the challenges of HIV & AIDS, and its is a “flower-bed” for emerging leaders that will write the new world order in every sphere. All had been done at W.I.N for our reprsentative to attend this year’s conference, but are lack of funds thwarted our plans and efforts. So,we are savouring the unforgettable past experience of the last edition of the conference in Abuja-the Icasa 2005.
Many are those who think, the International Conference on Aids and STI’s in Africa, is all about health talks, analysis, abstract presentation and stories about ARV’s and Microbicides. But, alas! It is more than that. Because, it is a melting pot where great ideas for Africa’s liberation lies. We had an experience of the conference in 2005, and we have since then understood the reason why we (young people) need to be involved in this cause to safeguard the future. Our future!
For more than three years, we have been voluntarily involved in the fight against the spread of the HIV/AIDS infection in Ogun state, Nigeria. Now known as the Wellbeing Initiative Nigeria, we began our journey with a campus group known as the Campus Students Against Aids (CASAA) in early 2005.After which we moved to become part of the pioneer members of the EDUTAINMENTORS, a student organisation with a broader perspective of health issues.particularly , awareness/advocacy on HIV & AIDS in september 2005. The EDUTAINMENTORS had three functional wings; the music,drama/poetry & dance, with all focusing on educating,entertaining and becoming mentors to our peers and younger target audience. And all these we strived to acheive.
In december 2005, Abuja, the beautiful capital city of Nigeria played host to the prestigious 14th edition of the ICASA programme, tagged “Hiv/Aids and the family”. Actually we had prepared a theme song (titled-hope is here) for the conference, but logistics and some other vices beyond us, outplayed our efforts & desire to render the song at the conferences’opening ceremony . But fortunately,though a young, not well recognized organization of young people, we were opportuned to perform some of our powerful songs at the conference's film festival centre and the community village also known as the Yar’adua centres respectively. And on several occassions, irrespective of thier age, status and number,we sang to the amazement of several wonderful and extremely appreciative audiences. The performance at The Foursquare Gospel Church Asokoro (including Hiv/Aids awareness songs) crowned the strings of a wonderful conference experience.It was life changing, and we sure left the audience at every performance, better equipped with useful information, than we found them.
We also had the opportunity to dine with participants of the conference who are living positively with the disease, at their lounge. it was sure an eye opener and an unforgetable experience for all of us present at the lounge.
We met with quite a number of people which we can't remember all by names now, but the few we can’t forget includes; Mr.Richard Mofe Damijo-a veteran Nollywood star,who gave a talk at a seminar at the film festival venue, Dr.Femi Soyinka, Seun Kuti-son of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti,the legendary afrobeat king, Ambassador Dayo Israel-ADYF, Miss Catherine- a canadian delegate, Mr Felix, Apostle Emmanuel Etim-CEO,Center For Development Action International, Mr Tony Ajibade(lounge coordinator), Mr Joe-president of YASIA/N, Mr Femi George-leader of the SURVIVOR team,Mr Buzuz-member of the survivors team, that did awareness walk from lagos to abuja for the conference. Pastor Mrs Ibukun Odusote, Pastor B.B Olowodola-presiding pastor 4square gospel church asokoro district, Hope Worldwide representative from kenya, Queen Williams, Miss Jaqueline-the representative of Ithaca films USA. Ali baba-Ace Nigerian comedian, Miss Samantha-a delegate from swaziland, and the President of the 14th ICASA conference,Professor Soyinka, amongst others.
The International Conference Centre , The Yar’adua Centre,The Merit House, The National Radio House, Rockview Hotels, Le-Meridien, Sheraton Hotels, all in the beautiful city of Abuja, were among notable places, where notable events that we cannot forget in a long while took place. Icasa2005/Abuja- the place of the paradigm shift!

WHAT IS MALARIA?

Malaria is an infectious disease caused by a parasite, Plasmodium, which infects red blood cells. Malaria is characterized by cycles of chills, fever, pain and sweating. Historical records suggest malaria has infected humans since the beginning of mankind. The name "mal 'aria" (meaning "bad air" in Italian) was first used in English in 1740 by H. Walpole when describing the disease. The term was shortened to "malaria" in the 20th century. C. Laveran in 1880 was the first to identify the parasites in human blood. In 1889, R. Ross discovered that mosquitoes transmitted malaria. Of the four species of malaria, the most serious type is Plasmodium falciparum malaria. It can be life-threatening. The other three species of malaria (P. vivax, P. malariae, and P. ovale) are generally less serious and are not life-threatening.

HOW IS MALARIA TRANSMITTED?

The life cycle of the parasite is complicated (for life cycle details, see http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/biology/life_cycle.htm) and involves two hosts, humans and Anopheles mosquitoes. The disease is transmitted to humans when an infected Anopheles mosquito bites a person and injects the malaria parasites (sporozoites) into the blood. Sporozoites travel through the bloodstream to the liver, mature, and eventually infect the human red blood cells. While in red blood cells, the parasites again develop until a mosquito takes a blood meal from an infected human and ingests human red blood cells containing the parasites. Then the parasites reach the Anopheles mosquito's stomach and eventually invade the mosquito salivary glands. When an Anopheles mosquito bites a human, these sporozoites complete and repeat the complex Plasmodium life cycle. P. ovale and P. vivax can further complicate the cycle by producing dormant stages (hypnozoites) that may not develop for weeks to years.

WHERE IS MALARIA A PARTICULAR PROBLEM?

Malaria is a particular problem and a major one in areas of Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. Unless precautions are taken, anyone living in or traveling to a country where malaria is present can get the disease. Malaria occurs in about 100 countries; approximately 40% of the world population is at risk for contracting malaria. To get information on countries that have current malaria infection problems, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) has a constantly updated website that lists the problem areas in detail: http://gis.hhs.gov/website/mrisk9/viewer.htm

WHAT ARE THE SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF MALARIA?

The symptoms characteristic of malaria include flu-like illness with fever, chills, muscle aches, and headache. Some patients develop nausea, vomiting, cough, and diarrhea. Cycles of chills, fever, and sweating that repeat every one, two, or three days are typical. There can sometimes be vomiting, diarrhea, coughing, and yellowing (jaundice) of the skin and whites of the eyes due to destruction of red blood cells and liver cells.

People with severe P. falciparum malaria can develop bleeding problems, shock, liver or kidney failure, central nervous system problems, coma, and can die from the infection or its complications. Cerebral malaria (coma, or altered mental status or seizures) can occur with severe P. falciparum infection. It is lethal if not treated quickly; even with treatment, about 15%-20% die.

WHAT IS ASTHMA?

Asthma is a chronic disease that affects your airways. The airways are the tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs. If you have asthma, the inside walls of your airways are inflamed (swollen). The inflammation (IN-fla-MAY-shun) makes the airways very sensitive, and they tend to react strongly to things that you are allergic to or find irritating. When the airways react, they get narrower, and less air flows through to your lung tissue. This causes symptoms like wheezing (a whistling sound when you breathe), coughing, chest tightness, and trouble breathing, especially at night and in the early morning.

Asthma cannot be cured, but most people with asthma can control it so that they have few and infrequent symptoms and can live active lives.

When your asthma symptoms become worse than usual, it is called an asthma episode or attack. During an asthma attack, muscles around the airways tighten up, making the airways narrower so less air flows through. Inflammation increases, and the airways become more swollen and even narrower. Cells in the airways may also make more mucus than usual. This extra mucus also narrows the airways. These changes make it harder to breathe.



Asthma attacks are not all the same—some are worse than others. In a severe asthma attack, the airways can close so much that not enough oxygen gets to vital organs. This condition is a medical emergency. People can die from severe asthma attacks.

So, if you have asthma, you should see your doctor regularly. You will need to learn what things cause your asthma symptoms and how to avoid them. Your doctor will also prescribe medicines to keep your asthma under control.

Taking care of your asthma is an important part of your life. Controlling it means working closely with your doctor to learn what to do, staying away from things that bother your airways, taking medicines as directed by your doctor, and monitoring your asthma so that you can respond quickly to signs of an attack. By controlling your asthma every day, you can prevent serious symptoms and take part in all activities.

If your asthma is not well controlled, you are likely to have symptoms that can make you miss school or work and keep you from doing things you enjoy. Asthma is one of the leading causes of children missing school.

MALUMFASHI IN RETROSPECT.
by segun daniel..
Unless you have been there and have had a first hand experience of this most welcoming, warm and accommodating set of people dwelling in northern Nigeria, you will continually hold a wrong impression of them. Considering my background as a member of an anti AIDS club from school in the south western part of the country, the NYSC posting to the home state of our amiable president-Umar Musa Yar’adua, while he was still the executive Governor of Katsina, was a privilege and an opportunity to reach out to the youth population about AIDS and its devastating effect on our future as youths. As a UNICEF trained peer educator and the president of the UNICEF ANTI AIDS CLUB, we moved around with our awareness campaign throughout the length and breathe of the Malumfashi zone, Katsina state Nigeria and here are some of the events in retrospect.

AT THE FCS RALLY .
Influencing your peers positively was the theme of this annual one week camp programme organised by the fellowship of the Christian students in Malumfashi zone in Katsina state. the programme which was a religious one encouraged our coming to speak, convince, inform and educate their members about health issues most especially the reality of HIV/AIDS in our society. So on the final day of the rally we were invited to talk to this cross-section of young adolescents from the entire Malumfashi zone of Katsina state on positive values for better living and health related issues such as Aids. The participants benefited from a number of topics ranging from right decision making, assertiveness, being focused, goal setting, building a sound self esteem, making the right friends and so on. and these topics were spoken on and taught by these resource persons ;Mr. Abu Fred, Mr Ularan and was led by Mr Segun Daniel, who also talked about pertinent issues of HIV/AIDS as it relates to all the mentioned topics. However, there were IEC’s that were distributed to all the participants present....

AT THE GOVERNMENT SECONDARY SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF.
At this event that took place at the Government Secondary School for the deaf, a large number of students benefited from this one of a kind HIV/AIDS awareness campaign which was organised and conducted with a view of reaching out to all and sundry with this advocacy message about AIDS. We were warmly received by the school and the teeming population of students who have been anxiously waiting for our arrival, in order to learn and enrich their young minds with the relevant information they needed to have about AIDS –the possible ways of infection, prevention and most especially vital issues of their reproductive health, which ordinarily have been relegated to the background by the society around them. Though it was extremely challenging, it was worth it. The question/answer session was very interactive and with sign language, pictorial illustrations, posters, handbills, and a standby interpreter who was put to use for the benefit of those with partial hearing disability, the point was driven home that AIDS IS REAL and easily contractible but PLAYING SAFE IS KEY to prevention.


SPREADIND THE MESSAGE AND NOT THE VIRUS at G.U.S.S.
On this beautiful, bright and sunny day it was time for another life changing HIV/AIDS awareness session and this time it was about “SPREADIND THE MESSAGE AND NOT THE VIRUS” campaign. And guess what! Right inside the dinning hall of the Government Unity Secondary School Katsina, issues of the HIV/AIDS and reproductive health was being broken down to bits and was served to the student in their hundreds not leaving out their teachers who were in attendance as well. It was a session of simple approach interaction like never before as it was made to be a wonderful on-the-hot-seat interview-like session. And surely it was an unforgettable outing in the duty of advocacy and awareness campaign in our entire Katsina state experience. The student were enlightened on what hiv/aids is, what STD’s are, how one can fall into danger zone of contracting HIV, out-lining risky behaviours that could make one vulnerable [like premarital sex],issues of peer pressure and hiv, modes of protection and prevention ,why we need to go for voluntary counselling and testing, why there should be no need for discrimination and stigmatization against infected people, how to educate other people with what they know and have learnt about HIV/AIDS and reproductive health issues-[which happened to be the most endearing to these students] and so forth. I must confess that it was quite an experience with these students who were hungry for knowledge about the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and with the fun part of quiz and question and answer session and folksongs on AIDS rendered, YOU CAN BE SURE THAT WE LEFT THEM BETTER THAN WE FOUND THEM.


GOVERNMENT SECONDARY SCHOOL KANKARA
In yet another school this time, it was the turn of the government secondary school Kankara located in a remote town in Katsina state. The acceptance was mind blowing and awesome, it was as if the messiah that knows all things had come to teach and show them the way. uttermost and most commendable was the leadership virtues that was put in to play by the principal of the school who joined in and stayed with us till the end of the campaign, leaving all official matters to rest as long as the we were there. That was an exceptional character of leadership by example on display. He even took it upon himself to do the job of interpreting and thoroughly explaining all that is being said, in the native language [Hausa], so as to make sure that none of his students go home with an excuse of not understanding some terminologies that were sometimes used in driving home a point.
With the assistance of the principal the campaign was successful as the students gained tremendously from the interpretation done by the principal, and now they are equipped to stand against the ignorance that has kept them in the dark for too long a time. Also, we are convinced that with people like the principal around the kankara community would not be the same again for education about HIV/AIDS would set the people free from the scourge that would have been feeding fat on their ignorance.

*Some of the participants and the coordinator,at the HIV/AIDS and Sexual Reproductive Health training 2005..

The UNICEF/NYSC Anti AIDS Club 2005/2006 president-Mr Segun Daniel receiving a certificate of recognition, presented by the NYSC resident inspector for malumfashi zone, Mr.Okoliko in appreciation of the various awareness and sensitization campaign programmes on HIV/AIDS carried out throughout the zone.

In all of this i and my team at the Anti AIDS Club are sure that we left all of these people in Katsina, better than we found them. And that is fulfilment on our own part..