NEW YORK - July 11, 2007
NetAid and Cable Positive, the cable and telecommunication industry’s AIDS action organization, today announced the winners of its “What’s Your Angle: Teens Take on AIDS” contest. Kicked off on World AIDS Day, the contest launched as an innovative vehicle to educate teens about the pandemic and challenge them to explore local and global ways to combat the disease. NetAid is an initiative of the global humanitarian agency Mercy Corps that educates and empowers young people to fight global poverty.
Students from public high schools around New York City were challenged by to create a compelling HIV/AIDS-related public service announcement (PSA). The winners are: Teandra Vincent (age 16) and Jamellah Rimawi (age 17) of The High School of Law Enforcement and Public Safety; Jaclyn Soto (age 17) from Bayside High School and Shakiesha O’Neal (age 17) of Thomas Edison High School. The winning team’s members all belong to the Child Center of New York Teen Impact Prevention Program in Jamaica, Queens. Their PSA titled “Why?” urges its viewers to question why HIV/AIDS has had such a devastating impact on young people in the US as well as worldwide, it begins by asking, “Why are nearly 6000 youth world wide infected with HIV everyday?”
The team wins expert guidance on the techniques of shooting, directing, and film production to transform their video into a professional PSA. The “Why?” PSA is now being produced professionally in partnership with Kismet Films, and will be available on both the Cable Positive and NetAid web sites. The students will also receive a state-of-the-art video camera that will be presented at the NetAid Global Action Awards event on July 26, 2007.
“We see great promise in providing a creative and innovative venue for young New Yorkers to think critically about HIV/AIDS in their own backyards and make the connection to how it destroys communities in impoverished countries around the world,” stated Adriana Fernandez, Director of the global humanitarian agency Mercy Corps’ NetAid initiative.
The “What’s Your Angle” PSA contest received support from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS, and the New York City AIDS Fund of The New York Community Trust.
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About Cable Positive
Founded in 1992, Cable Positive is a non-profit organization dedicated to unifying the talents, resources, access and influence of the communications industry to raise AIDS awareness; to fund AIDS education, research and care; and to promote a more compassionate climate for people whose lives have been affected by HIV and AIDS.
About NetAid, an initiative of Mercy Corps
NetAid [www.netaid.org], an initiative of Mercy Corps, works nationally to educate, inspire and empower young people to fight global poverty throughout their lives. Using technological innovation, peer-to-peer education, and leadership training, NetAid provides the knowledge, perspectives, and skills to create new generations of informed global leaders. In 2006, Mercy Corps and NetAid joined forces to radically alter the way young people learn about and respond to the challenge of global poverty. Mercy Corps is a global humanitarian agency that works amid disasters, conflicts, chronic poverty and instability to unleash the potential of people who can win against nearly impossible odds. Since 1979, Mercy Corps has provided more than $1.3 billion in assistance to people in 94 nations.
About The New York Community Trust
Since 1924, New Yorkers and their professional advisors have relied on The New York Community Trust to help them turn their charitable passions into meaningful and effective philanthropy. It is the country's largest community foundation, with assets of $1.9 billion and almost 1,800 individual charitable funds established by individuals, families, and businesses. Formed in 1988, The New York City AIDS Fund is a consortium of foundations and corporations that provide a coordinated approach to AIDS grantmaking. The AIDS Fund has been one of the City’s most important sources of private funds in support of a community-based response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
About the Council of Fashion Designers of America
The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc. (CFDA) is a not-for-profit trade association and the CFDA Foundation, Inc. is a separate not-for-profit which was organized to raise funds for industry activities and charitable concerns including efforts that respond to HIV and AIDS.
About DIFFA (Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS)
The Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS is the oldest and one of the largest funders of HIV/AIDS Service and Education Programs in the U.S. Since its founding in 1984, DIFFA has mobilized the immense resources of the design communities to provide more than $35 million to hundreds of AIDS organizations nationwide.
