The 1 Million + Campaign Goes Live!

We’ve come such a long way since our founder, school teacher Kathy Smedley, returned from Africa 7 years ago. She was absolutely devastated by the AIDS crisis in Uganda and the impact it was having on a continent she loved. During a 3 week visit to Uganda with her church in the year 2000, she found herself living amongst those that AIDS has hit hardest; women who were condemned to a future with no hope, men who were infected because of lack of education, and children who were born with the legacy of AIDS.

On her return to the UK it didn’t take much to persuade husband Martin, a professional actor, and a few close friends to help her to set up Act4Africa to fight against the AIDS pandemic. Since recruiting and training our first team of Africans to deliver AIDS Prevention and Behavioural Change Programmes in Jinja, Uganda, Act4Africa has gone on to employ additional teams in Kasese, near the Congo border and Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania. They are working with the young and the vulnerable in schools, communities, army and prison camps to give whole communities hope for a healthy future.

We’ve launched “Act4Africa Overland” an annual three month expedition which takes teams from the UK into some of Africa’s most difficult to reach regions. Working alongside our African teams we are striving to ensure that communities across Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are given an honest and comprehensive understanding of the HIV virus and how to prevent it from spreading. We are also leading cultural change and empowering women to take control of their sexual health, whilst giving peace, hope and comfort to thousands who have been devastated by AIDS.

Act4Africa Overland Heads to Malawi and Zimbabwe

Later this year, we will also lead our first overland expedition into Malawi and Zimbabwe too. The desperate need for help, support and health education in these countries has been well documented.

We’ve achieved a lot. But it’s not nearly enough. Whilst Africa is:

• Home to only 10% of the world’s population, but 60% of the world’s AIDS population
• Home to over 12 million AIDS orphans
• Home to a population of teenagers, 1 in 5 of which is HIV positive (and most will die before their 21st birthdays)

Our Hope is Not to Need to Exist

….our work to combat the scourge of a disease which is robbing a whole continent of a future will continue, sadly, for many years to come. Our goal, like that of many other charities, is not to exist. Our hope is that:

• Wealthy western pharmaceuticals give generously to Africa and ensure that anti-retroviral drugs are readily available to the poor.
• Scientists find a cure or a vaccine for HIV.
• Education will be free for all, whatever your creed, wealth or status.
• Those living with HIV will no longer be stigmatised but will be treated with respect and be given the love and support they so desperately need.
• World governments work with honesty and integrity for the good of all of those suffering in the developing world.

Yet whilst we dream that these goals become a reality, we know we’ve got a mountain to climb and we’ve only reached the foothills.

Which is why we hope you will join our 1 Million Lives + Campaign to ensure that, by World AIDS Day 2008, we’ve delivered HIV and AIDS education to over 1 million young Africans.

A £1 Can Save a Life

To enable us to achieve our goal, Act4Africa needs to secure £400,000 of new funding. With a need to reach another 400,000 Africans with AIDS Prevention Education by World AIDs Day 2008, that works out at a cost of £1 per African. Not much when you think of the potential life saving consequences.

Can you help us to achieve our goal? Would you like to work with us to ensure that many more Africans don’t die of ignorance?

In 2007 and 2008 we will be staging:

A series of “1 Million Lives+” Red Ribbon Days. Click here to order your Red Ribbons and collection boxes from Act4Africa and sell them to friends, family and colleagues.

Donate “A Lunch-a-Month” Days. Could you donate the cost of a lunch each month for a year to Act4Africa to ensure that we are able to deliver HIV and AIDS education to a whole family each month in your name? You’ll be slimmer, fitter and, by the end of the year you’ll have given 12 families hope for a healthy future without AIDS! Click here to download a direct debit form.

Combating AIDS at the Coalface

You will be helping us to step up our work and reach into new territories over the next 2 years. We intend to:

• Extend our work in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, reaching into new communities, schools, prisons and army camps.
• Increase the hours of 2 of our African teams, enabling them to work full time to reach more young people and communities with our AIDS Prevention Programmes.
• Reach out into new territory and take our AIDS Prevention Programme into Malawi and Zimbabwe for the first time.
• Launch a new train-the-trainer programme to enable our work to spread further and faster afield, ensuring that more communities understand how to protect themselves from AIDS and how to care for those who are currently suffering.

Sponsorship and Cause Related Marketing Opportunities

Interested in working with Act4Africa to combat AIDS?

Would you like to discuss sponsorship opportunities for any of the events listed on this website?

Join Big Tank Productions, The Comedy Store, The Printing House, Tongue in Cheek Comedy, Pennant Plc and 20 of the UK’s best comedians who have already signed up to support Act4Africa’s 1 Million Lives+ campaign.

We’d love to have your company onboard too. There are plenty of cause-related-marketing opportunities which can increase awareness of your brand whilst raising funds to fight AIDS at the coalface in Africa.

Click here to contact Act4Africa about opportunities for corporate sponsorship. Or write to:

Lesley-Ann Newman,
Act4Africa,
The Orchard, Grange Lane
Whitegate, Cheshire CW8 2BQ

Or call Lesley-Ann on (01606) 883383

AIDS is an extraordinary disease which calls for an extraordinary response. Thank-you for taking the time to find out about our work. We hope that you’ll join us and give over a million young Africans hope for a future without AIDS.

I can stand at the bottom of the cliff and try and catch those who fall, or I can go to the top of the cliff and try and teach them not to jump.