PROGRAMS

Public Awareness & Donor Outreach

The Firelight Foundation is committed to sharing the work of our grantee-partners and the issues facing children and families affected by HIV/AIDS with a wider audience. Firelight uses a variety of strategies to raise public awareness and to promote donor giving. Through our publications, website, fundraising activities, outreach events, and Youth Together Against AIDS/Pen Pal Exchange, we aim to increase knowledge and support of the rights and needs of children and communities affected by HIV/AIDS.

We produce informational materials describing our mission and activities, including a website, a grants list, a brochure, and materials describing our programming principles and application process. These resources also identify ways that individuals can make a difference in the lives of African children and communities coping with HIV/AIDS. Starting in 2003 Firelight has produced an annual calendar featuring images of children, with the aim of celebrating children’s rights, resiliency, and inherent potential. These materials are distributed to grantee-partners, our network of peer organizations, and interested individuals. They also help Firelight respond to the many inquiries we receive about how to help children in need.

Through the Youth Together Against AIDS/Pen Pal Exchange (described on pages 16-19), Firelight also promotes HIV/AIDS awareness and activism and fosters dialogue between youth in the United States and Africa. Globally, young people aged 15-24 represented 42% of all new HIV infections in 2002. We view the Youth Together Against AIDS peer exchanges as important contributions toward the goal of an “AIDS-free generation.”

Lastly, Firelight holds periodic fundraising and outreach events featuring speakers from our Advisory Board and visiting grantee-partners. These events allow people working in different African communities to share their stories of how HIV/AIDS affects children and what community-based organizations are doing to respond.

In September 2002, Kerry Olson hosted a luncheon in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Approximately 40 guests gathered to hear Firelight Advisory Board Member Beatrice Were of the National Association of Women Living with AIDS in Uganda (NACWOLA) share her experiences developing the memory book program and living as an HIV-positive mother.
In March 2003, Firelight Advisory Board members Geoff Foster, Natasha Martin, and Tim Jackson shared their experiences of working with Firelight. They described the power of small grants given at the grassroots level to effect positive, lasting changes in the lives of vulnerable children and their caregivers. More than 30 guests attended this gathering in Los Gatos, California.

In May 2003, Mary Makokha, founder and director of the Rural Education and Economic Enhancement Programme (REEP), and Advisory Board Member Natasha Martin spoke at a donor event in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The Firelight Foundation gratefully accepts donations from the public. For more information on how to support Firelight, please refer to the Making a Difference section of this report (pages 101-103), or contact us at info@firelightfoundation.org.

Fully 100% of donations received are applied to our grantmaking programs; all overhead and administrative costs are covered by our endowment.