World AIDS Day is on 1 December, and was set up in 1988 as the first international health-awareness day.  It remains one of the only health days that is recognised globally.  The symbol of World AIDS Day, the Red Ribbon, is universally identifiable and proves a great way to involve pupils and raise vital funds for NAT.

Your support has never been more crucial to us at NAT:

• There are over 900 children under the age of 15 living with HIV in the UK
• Over 20,000 children live in a family where someone has HIV
• Research shows that 90% of people in the UK do not know all the ways that HIV can and cannot be transmitted

Therefore we are writing to ask for your help this World AIDS Day to try to promote our World AIDS Day initiatives for young people throughout the UK in order to raise awareness if HIV in the UK and also raise vital funds for NAT (National AIDS Trust).  This year we have produced a World AIDS Day Red Ribbon Poster Challenge for high schools to take part in all over the UK. 

The posters must be a maximum of A1 size and must include the symbol of the red ribbon as well as conveying the theme of this year’s World AIDS Day: Act Aware.  The poster competition can be run at the same time as raising money from our collection boxes where pupils pay a donation in exchange for a red ribbon which they can wear to show their support of people living with HIV.  It will be a fantastic opportunity for the students to become motivated to learn more about HIV, and will tie in with this year’s theme of ACT AWARE.  Therefore, the main aim of this Poster Challenge is to raise awareness of HIV in the UK whilst also concentrating on the importance of fundraising for the World AIDS Day cause.  Students will be told that they are all ambassadors for World AIDS Day and therefore to be creative in order to raise vital funds for the HIV cause in the UK!  

Please look at our World AIDS Day Fundraising pack for schools on the World AIDS Day website which can be used to approach teachers at schools throughout the UK to join our poster challenge initiative.  We would be very appreciative if you could help us to raise awareness by informing your schools of this initiative, as well as our other fundraising ideas in the pack.  We can provide free resources for those schools who take part, such as:

         A collection box and 100 red ribbons

         A newly updated ‘HIV in Schools’ information pack which is designed to help teachers include HIV in the national curriculum for key stages three and four (available electronically and in hard copy)

         An assembly plan, including PowerPoint speaking notes and accompanying lesson plan specifically produced for World AIDS Day 2010 – a great way to introduce the Red Ribbon Poster Challenge.  The Act Aware Assembly is available to download from the World AIDS Day website: www.worldaidsday.org

          A tailored ‘World AIDS Day Fundraising Pack’, downloadable from www.worldaidsday.org which includes fabulous ideas and tips to ensure a fantastic fundraising event!

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me, or if there are any other people who you think might be interested in this then please do let me know. 

Jo Murch
Fundraising Officer
NAT
New City Cloisters
196 Old Street
London EC1V 9FR

T: +44 (0)20 7814 6735
F: +44 (0)20 7216 0111