#HelpGreeceNow Campaign Raises $100,000 to Support Children and Families in Greece

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 7, 2015

MEDIA CONTACT: Stephanie Rendon, srendon@sos-usa.org, 786.222.0406

Organizations come together to raise over $100,000 to support children and families in Greece

Washington, D.C.  – SOS Children’s Villages – USA (SOS), an organization that builds families for orphaned and abandoned children, announced today that over $100,000 has been raised in just two days to support children and families affected by the Greek economic crisis. Individuals donated through SOS’s peer-to-peer platform and online in response to a $50,000 challenge gift awarded  to SOS Children’s Villages by The Jaharis Family Foundation, Inc.

The challenge was met quickly after Chicago-based Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC) launched its #HELPGREECENOW campaign, which raised over $50,000 for SOS in just two days through grassroots efforts. The success of the campaign inspired HALC’s founder to launch a challenge gift of his own.

“The Greek diaspora and many Philhellenes have proven their commitment to stand by Greece. The fact that hundreds of Hellenes and Philhellenes donated over $50,000 in less than 50 hours is awe- inspiring for me,” said Nikos P. Mouyiaris, Founder of HALC and MANA Products. “Having met the $50,000 challenge of The Jaharis Family Foundation to SOS Children’s Villages, I would like us to keep the momentum going.  That is why I am issuing another $50,000 challenge gift for this effort to benefit SOS Children’s Villages in Greece.”

“We are proud to work with SOS Children’s Villages – children are always the most vulnerable in any crisis, war or economic,” said Endy D. Zemenides, Executive Director of HALC. “SOS throughout its history has made a difference in lives of vulnerable children and we are excited to stand with them on behalf of children in Greece.”

Since 1975, SOS Children’s Villages has been in Greece working to ensure that every child grows up in a loving family environment. The economic crisis has forced many children and families into a dire situation. To support their needs, SOS has expanded its programs in Greece and now provides critical support to over 1,000 families annually across its seven community centers.

“Children and families are living in devastating conditions due to this economic crisis. Many parents are jobless and are finding it difficult to provide for their families. We are grateful to The Jaharis Family Foundation for leading this giving challenge and the Hellenic American Leadership Council for being an amazing launch partner and kicking off the campaign with such enthusiasm and success. ,” said Kathy Kladopoulos, ‎President at The Midas Exchange and SOS Children’s Villages – USA board member.  “This initiative is part of a larger board fundraising campaign to support these families, and to educate the American community about the situation in Greece and inspire them to take action.”

Funds raised will help SOS expand its services to double the number of at-risk families who currently receive support at seven social centers; expand SOS’s food aid program to support vulnerable families across the country; and help families recover and rebuild their lives as the crisis subsides.

Click here to donate to the #HELPGREECENOW campaign to support vulnerable children and families in Greece.

Source: http://hellenicleaders.com/

Ate Charina’s Avilon Zoo Tour with Tao Kids

Written by Kuya Harvard

The sun finally came out last Saturday after a series of rain and cloudy weather!  It was indeed an ideal time  for a tour at the Avilon Zoo in Montalban, Rizal. We partnered with Tao of Human Caravan to reach out to 25 kids who live within the proximity.

Ate Charina Tan and her family were our sponsors. Ate Charina is a long time friend of our President, Ate Te Candano. Ate Charina planned this birthday event quite early. You can say that she was excited and really willing to bless kids.

Together with Ate Charina’s group and U! Happy Events volunteers, we were able to partner with every kid on the trip. We divided them into groups. Trivias were given from time to time during the tour, so everyone was very attentive. After almost two hours, the kids were in high spirits, all smiles and hungry. We had the same teams eat lunch together.

After ice cream, we tested each group’s learning experience. To our surprise, almost all questions were answered during our games. Group 5 won and the kids got story books from our partner Adarna Publishing. All kids received a school supply set plus a school bag of goodies which contained vitamins, notebooks, chips and slippers.

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Volunteer in the Philippines and make a positive impact.

Mandela Day Making and Creating

Madeleine, the Aftercare manager in Grabouw (Western Cape), set the children on a new craft project...

The children had NO idea what the outcome of the project was to become...
All they knew was that they had to fill in some shapes on a white sheet with bits of blue paper...

The children busily set about cutting, gluing and sticking...still without knowing what they were making...

Can you guess what they've made?

Madeleine started assembling the different A4 sheets and the children began guessing... Can you see who or what it is yet?

It's none other than Tata Madiba!

The children did this project to celebrate Mandela on his up and coming birthday and International Mandela Day!

We all miss you Tata Madiba!

Source: http://sosafrica-children.blogspot.com/

- Nicolas | U! Happy Events Child Sponsor & Volunteer

“I Love Street Children.” How To Help A Disadvantaged Family In Manila, Philippines

In Manila for work or vacation? Why not bring over a few bags of food, a small donation for medicine, clothes or anything that will help the amazing kids at I Love Street Children. Here’s a quick recount of my last visit, and how you can help make a difference in a needy child’s life.

How You Can Help

I Love Street Children is a shelter (more shelters to come!) in Makati, Manila founded by Just Projects founder, Bryan Thomas, May Gomez, and Eiselle Pascua (EJ). The I Love Street Children shelter supports families by giving mothers and their children a safe place to stay, off the streets. Some of these children are attending school for the first time in their lives, and the mothers have more flexibility to work and earn knowing their children are in a safe environment.

Let’s start this blog by telling you what you can do to help, and how to do it.

Give Directly

You know that good feeling you get when you help somebody who is in trouble? (Just think of how you felt when you taught somebody kinda old how to use their new iPhone). Well take that feeling, multiply by 100, and that’s the feeling you’ll get when you walk into the shelter carrying the gift of food, a few cool toys, school supplies, or offering any specialized skills you might have (to all you doctors and dentists out there!)

To give directly, contact the people working via the ILST Facebook pages I Love Street Children or  I Love Street Children Campaign. Tell them how you want to help (making sure this is, in fact, the kind of help they need now) and just take a taxi over to the Cash and Carry Mall (click, or see below). They will meet you there and show you the way to the shelter…and help you carry the groceries as well, if that’s what you help with.

Give Indirectly

1. Share this blog post (How self-serving is that, eh!). Share the ILST Facebook pages. Like their posts. And generally help them engage and build their presence so more people find out about this shelter and others they are now working to build.

2. Send a donation. All of the banking information is below. Personally, I did both. I brought over a bunch of food, and also made a small donation.

The Details

And here are some details written by Bryan Thomas that I borrowed from the ILST page.

1. You can make a direct deposit from your bank account to The I Love Street Children account:
*** Swift code: BDO Bank BNORPHMM

Bank account name: Just Projects Philippine Foundation Inc. In the Note or under the name: “For ILSC”

Savings Account: 05400186999
Checking Account: 005408014972

2. Write a check to: Just Projects Philippine Foundation Inc. (underneath that or next to it: For ILSC). Deliver it to May or EJ at the Shelter Home at 3380-D Ibarra Street, Palanan, Makati (2 blocks from Cash & Carry), or contact them via one of the ILSC Facebook pages to set up a time to deliver the check.

3. If you are in the USA or another country outside of the Philippines, go to our Foundation websites, Project AK47 or Just Projects in the USA and click a button to make a donation for these children by credit card. Write that the gift is for ILSC, and our staff will forward the finances to I Love Street Children. If you want to check on your gift to make sure it has been forwarded, you can call our office at 1-615-212-2547 or 1-615-261-8223 (note: one number is for JPI and the other for Divine Inheritance – sister foundations – either will work.)

Visiting the Shelter

Here is a short video of my visit and the kids. When my students in Japan complain about their lives…I just show them this video. Families who have faced incredible hardship, but who have never given up and still laugh and smile. It’s both humbling and inspiring.

Before posting pics from my own visit, here is a link to some more professional photos on Flickr taken by a new addition to the ILSC volunteer group, Nick Conneff. Thanks, Nick!

On that note and without further ado, here are a few pics of my visit to the I Love Street Children shelter in Makati, Manila, Philippines.

Source: http://asiatravelbug.net/

Dance Workshop with Tahanan ng Pagmamahal

At U! Happy Events, we believe in furthering our mission of providing support to children by connecting our volunteers and sponsors to a wide network of beneficiaries–and so we are constantly reaching out and building relationships with various charities, foundations, and the like, enabling more individuals to know and support them. We also do this to establish closer relationships with the kids and the organizations, for us to further know their needs. Last July 12, we headed over to Tahanan ng Pagmamahal to do exactly that, through a dance workshop.

It was our second visit to the Pasig-based orphanage, with 30 kids aged 5 to 15 joining us for the workshop that afternoon. Before anything else though, we first did our customary Getting to Know activity as we grouped the volunteers and the kids into five teams, so they could bond and find out more about each other. Once the groups got acquainted will all their members, we wasted no time and followed it right away with the dancing, which I was privileged to lead. To start off the workshop, we first did our warm up dance, which included stretches and basic hiphop grooves, to get our heart rates up and for our bodies to be limber. Once everyone got pumped, we then learned choreography to dance Taylor Swift’s hit song, Shake it Off. The kids and their ates and kuyas had a grand time following and reviewing the steps, and it was so heartwarming to see the volunteers leading the kids, helping them remember the routine. After a few rounds of practice, we were then ready to dance the entire choreography! The volunteers and kids did a very good job performing the dance, with everyone concentrating on the steps while enjoying the music. Once done, we then did the cool down exercise to get our heart rates to normal, and just relax our bodies.

To our surprise, the dancing wasn’t over yet! The kids of Tahanan requested to dance the Nae Nae, which we happily obliged to. It was such a happy and spontaneous moment that the kids then asked their ates and kuyas to dance as well! After all the fun and excitement, we then proceeded for merienda to refuel everyone’s tired bodies.

Capping off the day, we had our group photo followed by giving school supplies to the children, to which the children responded with a final surprise–a ‘thank you’ song for the volunteers! The gratitude was reciprocated with warm hugs all around, as everyone bid each other goodbye. It was definitely a fulfilling afternoon and we are excited to go back to Tahanan ng Pagmamahal with more workshops and volunteers in tow!

Little Ones on Their Way to Big Things

If you’ve been out and about in New York City over the past weeks, you’ve probably seen them: teenagers looking their very best and decked out in cap and gowns. They are collecting their high school diplomas and quickly approaching the next chapter in their lives.

But they’re not the only ones celebrating milestones right now. Hundreds of young youngsters are taking part in “Stepping Up” ceremonies at Children’s Aid sites across the city, marking another year of educational and social-emotional development. Hundreds will graduate to kindergarten in the fall. Others will ascend to the next level in our Early Childhood programs, having a lot of fun while learning the valuable skills that will put them in a position to succeed in kindergarten and beyond.

These events are certainly cute, as you can see in the photo gallery, but they are also a critical moment in their young lives that tells them what they are doing is important and that their parents and teachers are proud of them. So please wish these kids the best as they set out to do wonderful things.

Source: http://www.childrensaidsociety.org/

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Share your blessing by helping children go to school. God bless!

Short Hair, We Care! :)

Love is in the Hair!

This is in partnership with JCI Manilena and their partners Nuvohair, Lynelle Salon, Reyes Haircutters, Technoholics and Props. The proceeds goes to patients battling Alopecia. It is an autoimmune disorder where the immune system attack’s the person’s hair follicles.

Here’s how you can share your glory in 5 easy steps:

1. Donate a minimum of Eight (8) inches of your hair to be a valid submission. Hair must be tied in a ponytail, enclosed in a ziplock, and labeled with U! Happy Events, your name, address, mobile number and the branch where the hair was submitted.

2. Bring to any Reyes Haircutters branch within Metro Manila or any of the 3 Lynelle Salon branches (Greenhills Shopping Center, Dela Rosa Street Makati City or Fishermall Quezon City). You can also have it shipped to us at 2610 Raffles Center, F. Ortigas Road, Ortigas Center, Pasig City. Deadline of submission is August 31, 2015.

3. To further the cause and encourage support, post a Before and After photo of yourself on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and use the official hashtags #shorthairwecare #uhappyeventshair. The Three (3) most creative shots/poses will be given a free rebond treatment. :)

4. For those who want to help but do have enough hair to donate, you can give a Financial Donation of any amount to U! Happy Events accounts. Please send your deposit slip so we can acknowledge at shoutout@uhappyevents.com.

U! Happy Events BDO 286-024-9210 / Unionbank 00-157-000-1150 or BPI 9821-0050-83.

Interested parties, we would love you! Please send us a message at 0917 8874278 or email as at shoutout@uhappyevents.com :)