Darfur San Diego chapter to be started

Apart from starting and continuously raise funds for Africa through Designers4Africa, April is starting a San Diego chapter for Darfur.org. We all know and are aware of Darfur and the cause can use all the help it can get. I will post more details about the chapter but if you want to help or participate in any capacity, please email to April .

Fundraiser details

Sorry for the long silence. We were waiting for some more details on the auction and thought we will pictures soon and so waited....:) But you know how it goes...we still don't have pictures from the auction but thought atleast we will post a thank you note for all the designers who donated for this occasion:

The auction was for an event called water for sudan & d4a donations went direct to The San Diego South Sudanese Center....the center provides services like after school tutoring & help in filling out employment applications as well as giving the community a place to gather as they are new refugees as well as children of & there is culture shock & the need for a place to keep up their customary traditions & network with others here who volunteer in helping them in their resettlement.

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR GENEROUS DONATIONS. I will post more details as to how much was raised that day etc once we get details from the SD south Sudanese Center.


Me & ro
Kukivi
Bijou biju
K amato
Lily baubles
Tracey matthews
Roundtree & richardson
Wendy culpepper
1313
Etre Designs
In the raw
Inpeloto
Urban dencity
Ethnic rocks
Isharya
Julia bristow
Shama Designs
April star davis jewelry
Penncentral west

Calling all designers....for the first auction of 2008

It's D4A's first auction of the year!.

When: March 27
Whom: The South Sudanese Center
Cause: Build wells in Sudan to provide drinking water
Benefit: apart from that great feeling of being part of the great cause, your company's name will get more audience, your logo and link to your website will be placed in D4A website, list of companies with a small blurb will be published in D4A blog.

The last auction in Oct 2007 was a huge success and managed to raise enough funds for turnabout pump which is bringing safe water to a school of over
1,200 in Uganda. This time there are even more designers participating but we can use more designers to raise even more money to help with the cause.

It doesn't need to be your hottest design. Even designs from the last holiday season would be a great contribution. Please send an email to April@aprilstardavis.com to sign up.

We are trying to get more press for the event too. And there is a good possiblity of having some celebrities attendign the event!

Note from John Travis of Dropinthebucket

When Drop in the Bucket first started their Myspace page one of the first friends that we made was Designers4Africa who had such an amazing and simple idea that it amazed us all that it hadn't been done before. Creative people create and are not always the best at marketing or selling their art so they often end up with great things that they have put time, effort, love, thought and often money into. At the end of their season they are often left with things that they wish people could see and enjoy.

Designers for Africa provides a way for creative people to put these items to use doing something positive, raising money for great causes. Drop in the Bucket was honored to be the recipients of the first auction donations from Designers for Africa, April, Kuumba and all of the designers were a joy to deal with we ended up with an amazing auction that was full of a wide variety of jewelry and even a book signed by the author. The range of prices made it possible for everyone to be able to bid on items and feel part of the event, including people working at the venue, but also helped us raise a good amount of money.

At the end of the night we had raised a lot of money and we were able to credit the Designers4Africa part of the auction with having raised sufficient funds to put a roundabout pump on the well at the Masafu Primary school in Masafu, Uganda.
Drop in the Bucket feels very fortunate to have connected with April Star Davis and all of the designers involved with Designers4Africa and looks forward to working with them in the future, it is an amazing concept and an incredible organization.


Sincerely,
John Travis
www.dropinthebucket.org

Musings from April and request for sponsors

John Prendergast has had a huge influence on me. John is an American human rights activist focused on bringing international attention to the genocide in
Sudan and the atrocities of the Lord's Resistance Army in Northern Uganda. Inspite of an always full schedule, he had still given me the time and encouragement in starting d4a & its my sincere hope to have d4a donate items to any fundraiser ENOUGH needs them for.

Volunteering in refugee resettlement & currenntly trying to get family members of a good friend Ida Toe (Liberia) reunited are the fuel that keeps me striving to do all I can to help orgs serving Africa.

Although I havent met or spoken with Mr . Prendergast in person, I hope to when he is lecturing next in Calif. I dont know how to thank him or tell him the huge impact his work has on me personally but will try & put words into action.

Our first d4a fundraiser in Oct 2007 helped to bring safe water to an orphanage in Uganda that serves over 1,000+ kids. I guess thats how to thank him best! I wont stop there though. There's so much to be done & thru my jewelry I sincerely hope to contribute as much as possible.

In Oct 08 I am planning (if funds come thru) to go to Uganda & meet Jolly again from Invisible Children & together we will start micro business for women in Gulu.

Im looking for sponsors to help with the cost as well as to start this program. Please contact april@aprilstardavis.com for more information on this upcoming program or interested in sponsoring.

- April
www.aprilstardavis.com

International Rescue Committee - The IRC

Another organization that D4A will be working with to raise funds is The IRC . IRC works in multiple countries across the world helping refugees/displaced families including Iraq and Congo where there is a lot of violence and terrified families.

While going through the site, came across their blogs about IRC helping in Jordan where they opened doors for Iraqi refugees recently. It had a sweet story by Melissawinkler of a happy moment there. In another blog, another story unveiled that is so disturbing and makes you wonder what is going on in Africa. This story is about raping of Congo women and girls which just shows how many different problems that great continent is facing. Hundreds of thousands are displaced in North Kivu due to violence particularly in the Rutshuru district and the nearby hospital is under-resourced (ofcourse!) while lot of cases are coming in with malaria, respiratory infections that could be life-threatening if not treated.


In the Invisible children case, children couldn't sleep at home in fear of terrorists abducting them and so walk miles to a city/town to sleep in the hospital and bus parks. In the Congo women's case, they too are afraid of sleeping at home and so go into the forest to sleep. IRC is responding with emergency aid and launching counseling services and training health workers on clinical care for victims or rape. It must be equally hard on the aid workers too to be in the middle of war zone and provide the counselling and medical aid.

While I can't imagine how long and how many organizations/people effort its going to take to get all these regions settled and restore peace and basic human needs, I keep wondering how many years/generations its going to take to actually heal these deep wounds on their hearts!.

Kudos to IRC for providing such awesome services everywhere there is a need.

-Sheela

Fundraiser for Drop in the Bucket

It took a little while to streamline everything and get the blog added to the Designers4Africa website. April sent some pictures from the annual fundrasier for "Drop in the Bucket" to share with everyone. "Drop in the Bucket" is another non-profit organization that D4A supports. Its an organization started by a group of friends and their mission is to provide safe drinking water to African villages. It started in Fall of 2006 (just a little over an year) and already have 6 wells done and working on their 7th one. Check out their website for more info.

Quite a few designers donated exquisite pieces for this fundraising event. Ivy and Natalie of Dixie Chicks were there. Sounds like a fun party:)

I will try to get more juicy details about the party but thought I will share some of the pictures of the jewelry. Here's one by AprilStarDavis jewelry. Beautiful Smokey Quartz roundelles handwrapped with a Labradorite pendant. Gorgeous isn't it.



This is an exquisite necklace by Kuumba Divine Jewelry. A choker of gold vines with chockful of Pearls to make any woman feel special. I love the wild look of it yet the Pearls somehow make it delicate.




This elegant beauty was donated by Me&Ro and is called "Loveheart" with a Sterling Silver heart pendat in the center and Garnets individually handwrapped and is sure to make anyone peek at it twice.



This Limited Edition necklace set is by TraceyMathew designs. Simple coral in its natural shape with a few drops handwrapped - would make a great addition to anyone's jewelry collection.

Lastly, here's a pciture of how funt he party was....