Réva Mivasagar: 2009

Check out the wonderful work that Hoax Couture in collaboration with the Stephen Lewis Foundation have been doing to fight AIDS in Africa:

"In October of this year we participated in an incredible event at LG Fashion week - Dare to Wear Love - a collaborative show featuring 25 of Canada's top fashion designers in support of the Stephen Lewis Foundation. The foundation raises money to help people in sub Saharan Africa affected by HIV and AIDS.

We , along with 24 other designers, were given 6 yards of African fabric and told to create an outfit - and the results were spectacular!

--- photos are available here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/44228681@N04/sets/72157622595323629/ ---
We are trying to raise $100,000 to fight the AIDS pandemic. Every little bit helps - we have enough raised to date (about $40,000 in cash and corporate sponsorship) that we can fund ONE new project start-up in Africa. We would like to raise more money so we can do more.

This money would be assisting ORPHANS - in any possible way - from the payment of school fees and supplies, to support for their guardians, most often grandmothers and older teenagers.

It could be helping these children cope with their grief and then work to build their self-sufficiency through vocational and life skills training.

For WOMEN with HIV/AIDS, the money backs initiatives that provide counselling, and necessities such as gloves, soap, clothing, sleeping mats, nutritious food, and drugs for opportunistic infections. For the neighbours, relatives and older women who are struggling to care for the dying, there is training for home-based care, social support initiatives, home and hospital care visits, daycare and respite care, and money for income-generating projects to help women with HIV/AIDS support their families.
There are other initiatives that help the GRANDMOTHERS that are left to care for communities that are ravaged by the disease, Grandmothers single-handedly care for millions of children orphaned by AIDS, sometimes as many as ten to fifteen in one household. These magnificently courageous women bury their own children and then look after their orphan grandchildren, calling on astonishing reserves of love and emotional resilience. But they do so with almost no support."

There is more information about these and other projects at www.stephenlewisfoundation.org

To donate and support this great cause, please go to www.daretowearlove.com - All donations receive a tax receipt