Valentine's Day Love Resources

Valentine’s Day is a day that reminds us of the importance of loving and taking care of others. Firelight regularly sends a Newsflash with resources, tools, and opportunities to our grantee partners. Today, we're sharing it here for all those who can benefit from them.

Happy Valentine's Day.

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” --Nelson Mandela

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(Call for Nominations) World for Children call for grant proposals
(Call for Proposals) UHAI calls for proposals from East African organizations working with sexual minorities
(Call for Proposals) IIECL and the Emily Sandall Foundation call for applications for mini-grants to support activities to eliminate child labor
(Call for Proposals) Beyond Sport Awards 2011: Using Sports to create positive social change
(Article) South African NGO LoveLife launches Valentine’s Day Campaign highlighting the importance of self-love
(Article) Tanzania: Artists use music to promote maternal health
(Article) Zimbabwe launches Valentine's Day blood drive
(Article) Manchester police volunteer to help African street kids
(Article) Fraught Valentine's Day ahead for Kenyan rose farms
(Article) Zimbabwean dating service for HIV-positive individuals discusses the impact of HIV/AIDS on Valentine’s Day for those who are “positive”
(Video) How Valentine’s Day is celebrated in Africa
(Resource) Love is in the Ear
(Resource) A Positive Woman’s Survival Kit

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(Call for Nominations) World for Children calls for nominations for the World for Children Awards recognizing individuals making a difference in the lives of children across the globe

World of Children is dedicated to dramatically improving children's lives by identifying and recognizing extraordinary individuals who work on behalf of children in need. We are committed through our Awards program to search the United States and the rest of the world for these selfless change makers. The World of Children Awards program was created to recognize and elevate those selfless individuals who make a difference in the lives of children here in the USA and across the globe, regardless of political, religious or geographical boundaries.

Deadline for nominations is April 1, 2011. For more information, go here: http://www.worldofchildren.org/index.php/awards

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(Call for Proposals) The East African Sexual Health and Rights Initiative calls for grant proposals from organizations working in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi

The East African Sexual Health and Rights Initiative (EASHRI) is a grant making initiative, which aims to provide flexible, accessible resources to support civil society activism around issues of sexuality, health and human rights in the East Africa region.

UHAI will prioritize funding for organizations and programs led by and focused on sexual minorities and MSM/WSW health and rights within East Africa but will also consider project grants for organizations, which are working with sexual minorities but not necessarily led by them.

Deadline is March 18, 2011. For more information, go here: http://uhai-eashri.org/our-programmes/grantmaking/peergrants/call-for-proposals.html

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(Call for Proposals) The International Initiative to End Child Labor (IIECL) and the Emily Sandall Foundation call for grant proposals from those working to eliminate child labor

The International Initiative on Exploitative Child Labor (IIECL), also commonly known as the International Initiative to End Child Labor, is a US-based, not-for-profit organization, founded in 1998, that conducts and/or provides education, research, resources, and evaluation services to public and private institutions and agencies, non-governmental organizations, and international programmatic institutions that seek to eliminate the worst forms of child labor in the United States and around the world.

If you are a young person, a teacher, a school, or a non-governmental organization working with children and/or youth and need a small amount of funds to support a project idea to help end exploitative child labor, we want to hear your ideas.

Deadline is March 31, 2011. For more information please visit: http://endchildlabor.org/?page_id=310

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(Call for proposals) Beyond Sport Awards 2011: Using Sports to create positive social change

Beyond Sport is a global organization that promotes, develops and funds the use of sport to create positive social change across the world. Currently, it is accepting entries under 12 categories covering the entire sporting spectrum of health, social inclusion, corporate and social responsibility, and philanthropy.

Deadline is March 15, 2011. For more information please visit: http://www.beyondsport.org/the-awards/

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(Article) Lovelife launches “I dig me” Valetine’s Day Campaign

South Africa’s largest national HIV prevention initiative for youth combines a nationwide campaign, focused on media outlets to reach youth, with community-level outreach and support programs to promote healthy, HIV-free South African teens. Lovelife recently launched a Valentine’s Day campaign focused on promoting self-life among youth.

To read the article and watch the television commercials, go here: http://www.lovelife.org.za/press/releases/article.php?uid=3081

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(Article) Tanzania: Artists use music to promote maternal health

A group of artists from the United States and Tanzania have teamed up with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to raise awareness, through music, on the need to have better maternal health services in the East African nation, where deaths related to childbearing remain a serious challenge.

The collaboration, made possible with the help of the global network of artists known as MDGFive.com, just concluded a three-day music workshop with the production of a song calling for increased attention to maternal health in the country.

Or visit http://mdgfive.com/

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(Article) Zimbabwe launches Valentine's Day blood drive

Zimbabwe launched a blood drive on Valentine's Day in an effort to ease dire shortages at the national blood bank.

Officials say 130,000 blood donors are needed for this year's "give love, give blood" campaign, which started Monday and runs for two weeks. Last year, only 57,000 people gave blood to the state blood transfusion service.

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(Article) Manchester police volunteer to help African street kids

Twenty-one Greater Manchester Police officers and staff travelled to Ethiopia to help restore a drop-in centre to be used as a refuge for street children in Ethiopia.

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(Article) Fraught Valentine's Day ahead for Kenyan rose farms

With armed mobs marching down the street outside his flower farm, and just four of his 700 staff turning up to work, Billy Coulson surveyed endless rows of roses grown for romantics in Britain and realised there was only one thing he could do: throw them all away.

A total of 800 million flowers are due to be flown from Kenya to Europe in the run-up to Valentine's Day next week and Mother's Day in March. Kenya is the world's largest producer of roses and the source of more than one third of all cut flowers sold in Europe. With Kenya's two other major industries – tourism and tea – lying in tatters, the country can ill afford flowers going the same way.

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(Article) HIV-positive Zimbabweans find love

A dating service for HIV-positive people in Zimbabwe has made a successful start with its first couples having been matched up. The agency, called Hapana, was launched two months ago and is challenging attitudes that society holds towards those living with the virus. As one client states, “you really have to deal with the reality of HIV an AIDS at midnight on Valentine’s Day”.

To read more go to: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5216864.stm

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(Video): “How Valentines Day is celebrated in Africa”

This video from Africa News interviews people from Kenya, DRC, and Cameroon to see how people on the African continent celebrate Valentine’s Day.

To watch, go here: http://www.africanews.com/site/Valentines_Day_in_Africa/list_messages/23196

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(Resource): Love is in the ear

Inaugurated last year by Deutsche Welle, a radio project called “Learning by Ear” is reaching into parts of Africa where computers are yet to be seen. Today, more than 33 million people on the African continent are able to listen to this distance-education programme. Its popularity lies in its unconventional format and true-to-life stories that embrace diverse themes depicted in the form of features, interviews and even soaps. Deutsche Welle Journalist Susanne Fuchs presented the story of these African-made radio shows at eLearning Africa 2009

For more information, go here: http://www.elearning-africa.com/newsportal/english/news197.php

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(Resource) Toolkit: A Positive Woman’s Survival Kit

This toolkit was created by the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW) and is based on the shared experiences of women living with HIV around the world. It is designed to provide guidance for women with HIV/AIDS.

To read, go here: http://www.icw.org/files/Survival%20Kit.pdf

Firelight NewsZanele Sibanda KnightFebruary 14, 2011HIV and AIDS, Zimbabwe