“Every 2.2 seconds, a child loses a parent due to war, natural disaster, poverty, disease and other causes. Today, there are 133 million children who have lost one or both of their parents, and 15 million are orphaned due to AIDS.”
This week is World Orphan Week (October 5-11, 2008), and in support of the week SOS Children's Villages-USA has launched a new child welfare centered project. The project is an online video contest, which SOS established to aid in increase the visibility of the issues faced by orphaned children.
The contest runs from September 2 to October 5, 2008, the winner will be announced Tuesday, October 21. The contest winner will recieve $1000, their video will get exposure on the SOS-USA Web site and SOS' Facebook and MySpace pages, as well as being featured in an announcement on mediabistro.com, the official video contest partner. The full contest rules and all details can be found at www.WowUs.org.
In addition to the video contest, SOS is rallying US citizens to sign a petition to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This petition will be directly delivered to the next president of the United States.
The worlds orphans often remain voiceless and marganalized, however World Orphan Weeks seeks to bring their faces out of the shaddows. Take an opportunity this week to use your resources to aid those children in need by using your skills to create a video to bring awareness to the issues that plauge millions of orphans, sponsor a child or orphanage, donate your time and volunteer to work with orphans, or better yet look into adoption and share your love with a child in need.
