The Rose Project welcomes President Barack Obama as the newly inaugurated 44th President of the United States.

Rose, the inspiration for The Rose Project, was a young Kenyan woman who died of AIDs in 2003.  The Rose Project celebrates its common link to Kenya and to President Obama.

This theme for 2008 “Dignity and justice for all of us”  reinforces the vision of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as a commitment to universal dignity and justice. It is not a luxury or a wish-list.

The UDHR and its core values, inherent human dignity, non-discrimination,equality, fairness and universality apply to everyone, everywhere and always.

Teh Declaration is universal, enduring and vibrant, and it concerns us all.

Letter from Mary Donohoe as published in The Irish Times Wednesday Dec 10th:

Dear Madam,

The greatest challenge to healthcare delivery in African countries is the acute shortage of healthcare workers, in particular doctors and nurses

In many cases healthcare systems have been brought to their knees as a result of HIV and associated TB infections.

In Malawi for example, there is one doctor and 56 nurses per 100,000 patients.

In this the 60^th anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights, we in the developed world need to create healthcare partnerships with these struggling nations, that will facilitate the delivery of healthcare and in turn reduce the unconscionable level of human suffering.

Direct marketing firm Dialogue create a new concept and design as a fundraiser for The Rose Project.  This Dublin based direct marketing firm generated the idea of high quality giftwrap, designed by a series of top Irish designers, for use throughout the year.  The giftwrap celebrates the talent of Irish design and the progress made by The Rose Project in its first five years.  The giftwrap has been well received by the public and by Irish retailers.

Current stockists of The Rose Project Giftwrap include Clerys, Avoca, Reads of Nassau St Dublin, Brown Thomas Dublin, Arnotts, Donnybrook Fair & supermarket chain Fresh.  The giftwrap can also be bought on line through ‘Ways to give’ and ‘Donations’, on the Rose Project website: www.roseproject.org.  All funds from this programme will go to fund a maternity hospital under construction in Lilongwe, Malawi.

The Rose Project team thanks the entire Dialogue team for their great creative leadership and support to this fundraising programme - noting the input from Fiona Ryan and Jennifer King in particular. 

We take this opportunity to also thank our long term printing partners RR Donnelley who have consistently supported The Rose Project throughout the last five years, leading the product, promotion and point of sale printing for this programme - in particular Tom Ryan and Dave Furney.

Click here to see Mary Donohoe on TV 3 Ireland AM show

Mary Donohoes message for World Aids Day: Help needed to address acute shortages of doctors and nurses providing health care for those living with HIV or AIDS in African countries.

Mary Donohoe founded The Rose Project five years ago.  In this time, over 6,000 mothers in East and Southern Africa have been tested for HIV and where neccessary, received treatment.  Despite this significant progress, The Rose Project faces continuing challenges in preventing mother to child transmission of HIV and delivering support to its 28 programmes.

Marys message on the eve of World Aids Day:  “The single biggest obstacle to providing healthcare to people living with HIV or AIDS in African countries, is the acute shortage of doctors and nurses. Countries in the Northern hemisphere, need to examine their policies in relation to recruitment of healthcare professionals from Developing countries and in addition, look for ways they can assist these countries in the  current crisis.”

All support and donations are appreciated.  Please check out Ways to Help on this website. Thank you.

Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV - World Aids Day 2008

The Rose Project has launched a multi-level media campaign this week to raise awareness of their work to prevent transmission of HIV from mother to child in East and Southern Africa.

This multilevel awareness campaign will raise the profile of The Rose Project and their new ‘Mother to Child’ campaign on World Aids Day 2008, using TV, press, radio and web.   The intent is to attract interest to contribute to The Rose Project by buying their new ‘Rose Project Giftwrap’, This will then fund access for 50,000 expectant mothers to antiretroviral treatment by 2010.

The media campaign will include radio and TV interviews with national broadcaster RTE, and media partner Newstalk.  Opinion pieces and interviews in press will raise awareness on key issues relating to HIV and AIDS in Eastern and Southern Africa.

The Rose Project welcomes interest from business, media, schools and most vitally, the public in support of its programmes.  A new website has been developed to launch around the time of World Aids Day 2008.  All visitors are encouraged to spend some time understanding the work of The Rose Project through project descriptions, video and photography, and to consider ‘New Ways to give’.  All support is appreciated.

The Rose Project has a group on Facebook. Join the group and keep informed about what we’re up to. Or if you’re a Twitterer, follow us on Twitter and we promise we’ll only give you good news!