Birthday celebrations for ALL

I'd like to wish my good friend Simon a Happy Birthday for January 11th. I can't say it on the day as he'll be cycling through Egypt taking part in the Tour d'Afrique enjoying an incredible experience as well as raising money for their foundation and AVIF too.

To help in fundraising, prior to flying off to Cairo Friday, Simon is hoping to set up his FaceBook Birthday Cause. [That link shows Amy Sample Ward's page explaining more]. Causes, the social change application belonging to Facebook, now sends all users a message two weeks before their birthday encouraging them to set up a cause asking people to donate to their favourite charity rather than send a card or buy a gift.
Brilliant idea!

The technology behind the Birthday Cause page allows access to the charity's own page as well as telling the charity who the donor is. It will also be wonderful for Simon to be able to log on on rest days [this "rest day" list also illustrates just exactly HOW COOL this experience will be] :


[click pic to view larger]

Egypt
Friday January 16th Luxor
Sudan
Sunday January 25th Dongola
Friday January 30th Khartoum
Ethiopia
Friday February 6th Gondor
Monday February 9th Bahir Dar
Sunday February 15th Addis Ababa
Friday February 20th Arba Minch
Kenya
Saturday February 28th Marsabit
Saturday March 7th Nairobi
Tanzania
Tuesday March 10th Arusha
Wednesday March 11th Arusha
Thursday March 12th Arusha
Friday March 20th Iringa
Malawi
Thursday March 26th Chitimba Beach
Wednesday April 1st Lilongwe
Zambia
Tuesday April 7th Lusaka
Saturday April 11th Victoria Falls
Sunday April 12th Victoria Falls
Botswana
Saturday April 18th Maun
Namibia
Friday April 24th Windhoek
Wednesday April 29th Sossusvlei
Sunday May 3rd Felix Unite

End - 9th May 2009 Capetown

Thats what I call a Welcome to a New Year.

BEST WISHES, Simon & ASANTE SANA FROM ALL OF US ASSOCIATED WITH AVIF

xx

Merry Christmas x

Christmas Greetings

Thanks to Animoto

Thorntons and AVIF

Luxury Christmas & Chocolate Gifts at Thorntons Your loved ones are dreaming of a chocolate Christmas... Continental selections, limited edition Christmas gifts and hampers brimming with delicious festive treats, Thornton’s has everything you need to make Christmas taste great. Thornton’s is offering 3 for 2 on selected gifts and free standard delivery on orders over £40 when you quote code XAF3. You can also get gift-wrapping and product icing on selected gifts and take the hassle out of Christmas by having the gifts delivered direct. Visit www.buy.at/AVIF for more great offers from over 150 top retailers.

Forward this mail on to help AVIF raise funds. Please forward this mail on if you think that you know people who would like to receive it. Responsible emailing Remember if someone receives this mail from you, then tells you they don't want to receive a similar one again you must not send them future messages. If you are considering forwarding it on you must do so only to people who you consider would like to receive it and to whom the content is relevant. If you have a formally-managed list you must only send it to those who have expressed that they wish to receive such mail from you. Purchases made through www.buy.at/AVIF are made according to the information and terms provided by the company making the sale to you. Further details on using the buy.at shop are provided on the site.

TouchGraph

AVIF is a big network of people so when I first heard of FaceBook and got involved it made a massive difference to us all. Social networking can be harnessed to do good in many ways, here's my Guru Beth Kanter with a few tips. Latest to hit my NewsFeed (despite its creation way back in 2001) is New Jersey based TouchGraph. This discovery comes at a really ace time of year, Christmas!

Touchgraph works through FaceBook to create a large (png. format) pictograph of the network that IS your friends & family.



Here's a small version of mine. Click on it to link to the main picture on the AVIF website. The software utilises Java 1.5 to launch a browser on your pc after Adding the App from FaceBook. It then create stats of your network as well as the "powerful visualisation" of your "relationships between people, organisations and ideas". I'm not sure at this point how it rates friends but it is great fun, especially at the time of year when people should be sending greetings and thinking about friends & family & others. As Touchgraph quote "the greatest insights can be achieved not by sifting, but by looking at the big picture to see how items are connected."

touchgraph, facebook, social networking

3 for 2 at www.buy.at/AVIF

3 for 2 at Marks and Spencer. Choose anything, at any price, from any range in the Marks and Spencer 3 for 2 Christmas shop and you'll get every third item free. From beauty gifts to books, boys' toys to decorations for the home, there's a wealth of ideas for Christmas. It's even better value when you buy 6 or more gifts. With the Marks and Spencer 3 for 2 you get every third product free, in descending price order.  This means that if you buy nine gifts, the ones you get free are the 3rd, 6th and 9th most expensive, not the three cheapest. Don’t forget that every purchase you make will result in a donation to AVIF. Visit www.buy.at/AVIF for more great offers from over 150 top retailers.

Forward this mail on to help AVIF raise funds. Please forward this mail on if you think that you know people who would like to receive it. Responsible emailing Remember if someone receives this mail from you, then tells you they don't want to receive a similar one again you must not send them future messages. If you are considering forwarding it on you must do so only to people who you consider would like to receive it and to whom the content is relevant. If you have a formally-managed list you must only send it to those who have expressed that they wish to receive such mail from you. Purchases made through www.buy.at/AVIF are made according to the information and terms provided by the company making the sale to you. Further details on using the buy.at shop are provided on the site.

Save Resources, Save Money & Send Greetings with Gifts

This Christmas budgets are tighter so EveryClick has come up with an ingenius way for people to help others and have a Considerate Christmas sending free Christmas greetings to all family & friends, anywhere on the globe, while supporting charities.





Simply visit AVIF's homepage and you can send Christmas greetings to anyone with an email address, donating to us if you can. You can even upload a video for real-time greetings.

• Everyclick Search lets you search the web and raise money for AVIF
• Use Everyclick Donate to make an online donation
• Everyclick Sponsorship lets you launch an appeal and organise sponsorship
• With Everyclick Shop you can shop online with leading retailers
• Everyclick eVouchers are a simple way to give friends a cash gift that they can give to the charity of their choice
• Everyclick Greetings send an online greeting with a donation attached.

132,848 fundraisers have used Everyclick

toraise over £584,336.36 for charity so a

Merry Christmas for many !!

christmas, christmas card, AVIF, everyclick

The fight continues

My good friend, Mama Brique, is back from Kenya after a whirlwind tour and press frenzy, to see how things are progressing in reclaiming the Virginia M Buena Childrens Centre in the slums of Nakuru from the tyrant, Philip Ndeta. I've included that link but am hoping, after reporting his profile to LinkedIn that it won't be active for much longer.

AVIF had dealings with Ndeta in 2006, after volunteers staying at the centre highlighted the management problems, albethem small. We had no idea of their real plans at the time.



Brique is Director of LLK, a german purely voluntary organisation whose vast achievements include raising over EU380,000 from wellwishers and friends to construct a home for more than 500 children in Nakuru's Mwariki estate.

Ndeta was given charge of the Centre but went on to register it secretly in his own name, evict the majority of children there and take it over. Unfortunately he has many contacts after trying and failing to run for office in the local elections, he put out an order prohibiting Brique to enter the premises, which are named in momory of her own Mother. When she arrived to take photos of the centre, Ndeta's "forces" tried to lock the entire party inside .. press and all??

The 2 year fight continues despite apologies from Vice President Moody Awori and the Director of Children Services. Ndeta still dismisses the accusations as "lies", saying he "built the centre himself".

All is not lost, however, as while Ndeta struggles to keep the ruined centre intact, LLK have reallocated almost all the children into another school with full feeding programs and regular support to make life easier for all those enrolled. We commend LLK and friends for all that they are doing during these difficult times and wish them well in their endeavours. With Brique's passion and spirit they're all in good hands.

LLK, AVIF, Nakuru, Kenya, poverty, volunteer

Christmas offers from www.buy.at/AVIF

Christmas offers which will help to save you money Here is a selection of the most popular offers available in our webshop. Every purchase made at www.buy.at/AVIF will result in a donation to AVIF, don’t forget every purchase counts. Don't forget not only do these offers help you to save money; every purchase you make will raise funds for AVIF. Visit www.buy.at/AVIF for more great offers from over 150 top retailers.

Forward this mail on to help AVIF raise funds. Please forward this mail on if you think that you know people who would like to receive it. Responsible emailing Remember if someone receives this mail from you, then tells you they don't want to receive a similar one again you must not send them future messages. If you are considering forwarding it on you must do so only to people who you consider would like to receive it and to whom the content is relevant. If you have a formally-managed list you must only send it to those who have expressed that they wish to receive such mail from you. Purchases made through www.buy.at/AVIF are made according to the information and terms provided by the company making the sale to you. Further details on using the buy.at shop are provided on the site.