Every Copper Counts

Every Copper Counts

Last year I had the opportunity to visit Nairobi in Kenya with Tré Sheppard – lead singer of the Christian band Onehundredhours. The experience was very humbling and I’ve since decided to become an advocate for the work of the iThemba AIDS Foundation.

Every Copper Counts is a new fund raising initiative launched by the band in association with the web community EngageHIVAIDS.com. It is aimed at young people encouraging them to save money for the work in Africa.

HIV/AIDS is causing suffering and despair throughout the world. We can simply change the channel and ignore the reality of the situation, or we can do something about it. Engagehivaids.com is a response to this crisis. It’s a web-based community bound together by a common desire to see hope and life in the midst of such pain.

We’re asking young people to collect coppers and donate the money to the work of iThemba AIDS Foundation through the Engage network. Every copper will quite literally count because 100% of your donation will go to the work on the ground in Africa, bringing hope to people affected by the devastation of HIV/AIDS. The iThemba trustees cover the running costs of the charity so all the money you collect will make a difference to people’s lives. And please don’t stop at coppers – we wouldn’t say no to silver or notes as well!

The idea is to use bottles, jars or tins to collect the money and we will provide you with Every Copper Counts stickers to decorate your collecting tins. You may like to leave them with friends, family, local businesses, schools and churches and then just collect the money regularly and pay it into the bank.

Stickers can be ordered from info@engagehivaids.com or collected at any Onehundredhours concert venues.

The idea behind Every Copper Counts came from 14 year old Engage member Emma, from Northern Ireland. She says: "I really wanted to get involved with EngageHIVAIDS and be a part of bringing hope to Africa but I didn't have much to give personally. I knew I could give my time and my action though, so I just started asking my friends and family for all of their pennies... I figured that all of that small change added up would make a difference. And that's how I came up with the name... because every copper does count!"

Thank you for your prayers and support so far. You can find out more information about the projects supported and the ethos of iThemba and Engage on the web at:
Engage Website: http://www.engagehivaids.com/
Engage on myspace: www.myspace.com/engagehivaids
iThemba: http://www.ithemba.org.uk/