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 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 1, 2003
WORLD VISION LAUNCHES NATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO MOBILIZE AMERICANS TO TAKE ACTION AGAINST GLOBAL AIDS
Campaign kicks off in April to help turn the tide against
AIDS in the developing world
CHICAGO – World Vision, one of the world’s largest, most effective relief and development organizations, announced today THE HOPE INITIATIVE, an unprecedented nationwide campaign to inform and mobilize millions of individuals from both the Christian community and the general public to take action to help turn the tide against GLOBAL HIV/AIDS.
Through the Hope Initiative, World Vision is asking Americans to join together to care for orphans, vulnerable children, and widows affected by HIV/AIDS around the world. With events taking place in 15 cities, World Vision will:
- Inform Americans about the plight of tens of millions of individuals affected by AIDS around the world;
- Encourage the public and church congregations to initiate and support effective HIV/AIDS programs in developing countries, which provide community-based care and prevention services. World Vision’s work has led to the care of more than 40,000 orphaned children in Africa throughout the last 15 years.
- Mobilize Americans to contact their member of Congress to support President Bush’s $15 billion/ 5-year Emergency Plan for HIV/AIDS.
“Although the world is focused on Iraq, the greatest weapon of mass destruction in the world right now is AIDS,” said Richard Stearns, president of World Vision. “It is, without a doubt, the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time. Every 14 seconds a child loses his or her parent to AIDS. We lost nearly two and a half million people in Sub-Saharan Africa to AIDS last year alone. Surely those suffering from HIV/AIDS in the developing world deserve our nation’s attention and response, even in the midst of conflict in Iraq.”
World Vision’s Hope Initiative is an integrated communications campaign that will reach millions of Americans in 2003. Highlights include:
- 15 city "Hope Tour" featuring awareness events with WV senior spokespeople, AIDS experts and well-known Christian musicians across the United States.
- A Global AIDS Forum in Washington, DC June 11-12 that will bring together Evangelical leaders from throughout the U.S. to demonstrate the President Bush, Congress and the nation that the American Evangelical community is concerned and mobilized to care for AIDS victims and help prevent its spread.
- National concert tour featuring the Christian group 4-Him and several other artists in more than 30 cities – March through May 2003.
- Radio and television advertising campaign in select markets with specific calls to action for Americans to respond to the AIDS pandemic.
- Series of nationally televised public service announcements featuring such celebrities as opera star Jessye Norman, JEOPARDY! host Alex Trebek, and former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop.
World Vision has 15 years of experience in working in AIDS-impacted communities. Through programs that strengthen community efforts to care for orphans within their own homes or extended families, World Vision has brought basic education, nutrition, shelter, protection and hope to more than 40,000 orphan children in Africa. Through partnerships with local churches, World Vision is expanding its prevention, care and advocacy work to care for those affected by HIV/AIDS in the developing world.
“Experience tells us that the church has more potential than any other institution to promote HIV prevention and provide care to those suffering from or left behind by the disease,” Stearns said. “What’s needed now is widespread support from the American public – especially from the American church – to come alongside local congregations battling the disease at the grassroots level.”
The Hope Initiative will be kicked off with events in Chicago and Minneapolis the first week of April, followed by local events in Charlotte, Knoxville, Seattle, Washington, DC, Pittsburgh, Boston, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco, New York City, Houston, Dallas, Miami and Atlanta through the summer and early fall.
To view PSAs and other advertising spots, please click here.
CONTACT: mediainfo@worldvision.org
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