Wentworth Miller Fans for Charity

FINAL TOTAL

2008-08-04T18:07:06Z

We’re pleased to announce that the final total raised by fans was a fantastic $13,526*. With the addition of the $5,000 donated by Wentworth, this project raised a grand total of $18,526 for needy children around the world.

On being advised of the final total, Wentworth sent the following message for his fans:

I'd like to thank the fans for their generosity, and I'd also like to thank all the people who worked so hard to put this project together.

The results have been truly remarkable, and we should all be very proud of what's been accomplished here.

Thank you for your participation.

Yours sincerely,

Wentworth Miller

We also received warm thanks from UNICEF:

We were honored when UNICEF was selected as the beneficiary of the Wentworth Miller Fans for Charity project, and are most grateful for the fans’ outpouring of support. Your generosity is helping UNICEF save children’s lives around the world. Thank you.

Alisa Aydin, Director, Interactive Marketing, UNICEF USA

Congratulations and thank you to everyone who worked so hard on this effort, and to those who donated so generously.

For the purposes of full disclosure, the amounts raised by country are listed below. All amounts given below are in US$. Currency conversions into US$ (where they were not provided by the reporting project liaison) were made using Google Currency Converter on 23rd July, 2008.

Belgium: 245
Canada: 354
China: 1,066
France: 541*
Italy: 528
Korea: 1,396
United Kingdom: 1,651
United States & all other countries: 7,745

Total: $13,526

* A necessary note regarding the French total: Unfortunately, due to a technical problem on the part of UNICEF France, tracking information for donations made to this project via the French online donation page prior to the 1st June 2008, were not saved by UNICEF France. Therefore, these donations, while safely made, were not able to be counted towards the total. This situation was completely beyond the control of the organisers of this project, as the French online form was provided by UNICEF France. As soon as we were made aware of the situation, we addressed it with UNICEF France, and corrections were made which allowed all donations made via their onine donation page between 1st June and 30th June to be counted.

Unfortunately, of course, this means that a significant number of donations are missing from both the total for French donations and the overall project total. The project organisers understand that there may be French fans who made donations via the French online form between 1st April and 31st May, who may be concerned that their donations have not been counted towards the final total. In order to try and assist these fans, the project organisers have set up the following procedure.

Fans who feel they may have been affected in this way, and would like their donations counted, should send an e-mail attaching their e-mail receipt of donation to frenchdonations@wentworthfansforcharity.org. The French project organisers will then make a record of the affected donations. Any further questions concerning this matter should also be sent to this e-mail address. Please note, unless you can provide a copy of your e-mail receipt of the donation you made, please do not ask the project organisers to include it. Anyone who wishes to contact the organisers in this way must do so by 31st August, 2008.

Once the French project organisers have totalled any missing donations advised, an announcement will be posted on the project LiveJournal page advising of the additional French donations.

UNICEF Report - Supporting Young Women

2008-06-25T15:32:07Z

Whilst researching the work of UNICEF for these blogging posts, those stories that have struck me the most are those telling of how UNICEF has helped young women and girls who have found themselves in terrible and difficult situations, due to the extreme hardships of their lives in cultures which are often so much more punishing to females than our own.

Protecting children from traffickers

One such story is that of Nang (the name has been changed for her protection), a sixteen year old girl from a poor, remote corner of Laos. Nang was offered work as a sales assistant in Thailand. The conditions sounded good, the pay was reasonable, and, because the offer came from a woman she knew in her village, she felt safe accepting the job.

It was only when she found herself in Thailand that she realized that she had been deceived.

After crossing the border – legally – Nang was taken to a house where there were about 30 other Lao girls. Two days later, she was taken to a hotel by a man who locked her in a room and raped her every day for a week. After that, she was forced to provide sexual services to clients up to ten times a day. The horror of her life is almost unimaginable.

Nang was fortunate enough to escape and return home, but – like thousands of other Lao girls who are trafficked each year – she was left to heal her physical and psychological wounds alone.

Stories such as Nang’s prompted UNICEF to create programs in Laos to protect children who are vulnerable to predators, and to make sure that trafficked victims receive the support they so badly need. UNICEF has provided trained counsellors to work with victims of trafficking, rape and abuse at UNICEF-supported shelters.

Also, the Lao government has worked with UNICEF, making use of the organisation’s expertise to draft an anti-trafficking law in order to protect children like Nang. The anti-trafficking laws are now in place in the courts, and UNICEF continues to educate local law enforcement officers and members of Laos’ legal community about child protection issues. It also monitors trafficking cases as they appear in the Lao courts.

Khamsay Lemsouthi, UNICEF Child Protection Officer, is part of this process: “Since the law has been passed, several trafficking cases have already been prosecuted, and this has been widely publicised. That’s the first time this has happened in our country. It’s a major step forward.”

Giving young mothers-to-be a safe place to turn

Another young girl helped by UNICEF was Ismari Yare, from rural Nicaragua. She was sixteen and pregnant, and worse, it appeared she had been abused. To add to the horror of her situation, her family disowned her.

“My family no longer loves me,” she said. “They threw me to the streets and I don’t know why.”

In Nicaragua, as in many of the world’s poorest countries, the problems with rural pregnancies are serious and many. Women often live many hours by bus from any medical care, let alone a safe place to give birth. They are also often victims of domestic violence, and most are extremely poor.

Fortunately Ismari had a place to turn – the UNICEF supported Cihuatlampa Maternal Home. There are 41 maternal homes in the system, and more are being built. There are currently 25 mid-wives and 60 volunteers. In 2006, the UNICEF-supported network served 6,750 women.

“Here, not only do women receive medical services, lodging and food, they receive education and are taught job skills. Also, they are taught how to take care of their babies, and how to breastfeed them,” explained Dr. Claudia Maria Granja, a UNICEF Nicaragua health staffer. “They can go to the hospital, have their babies, come back to the maternal home and stay here while they recuperate.”

For Ismari Yare, the UNICEF home has been a godsend. “I feel taken care of by the people working here in the maternal home,” she said. “I can see it in all the other pregnant women like me. I see the love they are given. I can feel it myself.”

Unshackling girls’ minds in Afghanistan

Of course the real key to the advancement of women’s status is education. In Afghanistan, only 40 percent of primary school-age girls actually attend school, which means 1.2 million of them are being denied an education. What’s more, from 2006 to 2007, more than 120 schools were targets of violence, including bombings, and teachers have also been targeted.

This dreadful situation is a remnant of the time when the ultra-conservative Taliban government kept girls and women from receiving an education, allowing only boys to attend Taliban-set up religious schools.

In the face of daunting odds and sometimes grave danger, UNICEF has been working to try and reverse these trends. UNICEF has opened 95 literacy centers across Bamyan Province, including the Said Aabad Center. Here 20 girls and women are learning to read for the first time; a vital development in a province where only 6 percent of the women can read.

UNICEF has also trained hundreds of literacy teachers to work in these centers, and has provided blackboards, desks, school books, paper and pencils.

Atefa, one of the students attending a UNICEF center, walks for more than an hour each way to get there. Although the walk is long, she brings her two year old daughter with her.

“Under the Taliban, I was forbidden to learn,” she says. “I want to be educated now, and I want my daughter to learn to read and write. I want her to become a doctor or a teacher. I know these things will be possible if she gets an education”

“Education can put women on the path to economic and social empowerment,” explains Catherine Mbengue, UNICEF Representative. “Educated women tend to marry later, and have fewer children. They are more likely to understand what they must do to protect themselves and their families against poverty and disease.”

These inspiring stories are just some of the thousands of ways in which UNICEF helps children and young people around the world every day. The donations made to this charitable drive will help UNICEF keep doing their extremely worthwhile work.

Information taken from "UNICEF - Life Stories"

Wentworth Fans For Charity - Final Week

2008-06-23T20:37:36Z

A reminder that there is now just about a week left of the charity project to raise funds for UNICEF. All donations must be made by the end of Monday, 30th June in order to be counted towards the final total. Anyone who would like to make a contribution should go to the project donation page to do so.

Thank you to everyone who has donated so far. There have been thousands of dollars raised for a very worthwhile cause.

As soon as the project closes, the organizers will pull together the numbers for the final total, and announce it shortly thereafter. In the meantime, updates and information will continue to be posted at the LiveJournal site, and any questions or comments can be left there, as well as at the affiliated websites.

Congratulations to everyone who has worked so hard on making this project a success.

UNICEF Report - Helping Refugees

2008-06-19T20:58:42Z

As tomorrow is World Refugee Day, it seems like a good time to highlight some of the work UNICEF does with refugees.

As well as the usual work providing food, water, healthcare and shelter, UNICEF’s ‘Schools-in-a-Box’ are invaluable to children in crisis.

During the genocide in Rwanda, 800,000 people were killed, 95,000 children were orphaned, and the country was reduced to ruins. The children of Rwanda were victims of unspeakable violence, many losing parents and siblings to add to their suffering. As a result, villages and refugee camps overflowed with devastated boys and girls.

“Establishing some sense of normalcy for these kids was a top priority for UNICEF,” explained Daniel Toole, a UNICEF representative in Rwanda during the crisis. “Getting them back to school was a fundamental way to do just that.”

In response to this need, UNICEF developed a simple solution that proved instantly effective. It’s called School-in-a-Box. This is a comprehensive kit designed to aid the continuation of children’s education immediately following an emergency. The kit includes basic school supplies, such as exercise books, pencils, erasers, and scissors, along with other items such as counting cubes and educational posters. This is all supplied in a locked box, whose lid can double as a blackboard. The kit contains enough content for one teacher and up to 60 students.

UNICEF distributed thousands of School-in-a-Box kits throughout Rwanda, helping more than half a million children.

“I felt so much pain, I couldn’t think straight,” said one ten year old Rwandan girl. “But now that I’m back in school, I’m beginning to feel much better.” Of course being in school also helps provide children with a sense of community, continuity and the friendship of their peers.

“Through education, kids can begin to understand what’s going on around them – from there they can begin to heal,” said Toole.

UNICEF’s School-in-a-Box program continues, having been implemented successfully during emergencies such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and in Darfur.

Information taken from UNICEF “Life Stories”

UNICEF Report - Success Through Efficiency

2008-06-09T20:32:48Z

With help from the wonderful Alisa at UNICEF, I’ve been researching some of the fantastic work done by UNICEF around the world, and thought some of you might be interested in the kinds of ways in which your money will be spent.

In this post I will be reporting on some of the aspects of efficiency and organisation which enable UNICEF to deliver the help it does around the world, and in some follow-up posts I’ll be reporting on some specific success stories which show how UNICEF brings invaluable aid and assistance to children in desperate need.

How organisational efficiency helps UNICEF speed lifesaving help to children around the world…

In early 2007, two particularly pressing emergencies needed urgent attention. The humanitarian crisis for Iraqi children was worsening, with water, vaccines, nutrition and school supplies scarce in many areas. At the same time, in Darfur, the plight of mothers and children was ever more urgent. They, too, needed vaccines, clean water and school supplies.

As with so many other emergencies, UNICEF was able to manage these crises swiftly and efficiently.

The principle reason for the organisation’s ability to respond in this way is UNICEF’s extraordinary supply system, anchored by its central warehouse in Copenhagen. Equipped with the latest logistical technology, the warehouse is 25,000 square meters in area, stocked with more than 900 different kinds of supply items, and staffed with a team of experienced supply and emergency response experts.

Amongst other aid, during these crises, UNICEF rushed measles vaccine for 3.6 million children to Iraq, and polio vaccine for 1.3 million children to Darfur.

Whether the challenge is to get nutrition into a country during a food crisis, or to move vaccines into a region after a hurricane, UNICEF takes on the task. It’s why UNICEF has saved more children than any other humanitarian organisation in the world.

From its Copenhagen warehouse, UNICEF:

- Supplies 40 percent of the world’s children with vaccines.

- Supplies more lifesaving anti-malaria mosquito nets than any other humanitarian organization.

- Supplies 49 AIDS-stricken countries with life-extending antiretroviral drugs.

- Supplies more oral rehydration salt than any other humanitarian organization. (These salts reverse the effects of life-threatening diarrhea.)

These are, of course, just some of the elements of the essential, life-saving work organized from this supply center.

Thanks to careful planning and a long history of creativity in the face of crisis, nobody is better equipped to come through an emergency than UNICEF.

Information taken from UNICEF “Life Stories”

Project Update

2008-05-22T07:36:23Z

We are pleased to announce that the amount raised by the project during April was $5,450. Thank you and congratulations to everyone who donated. This money will help save a lot of young lives.

Wentworth has also made his promised donation of $5,000, and of course we would like to extend our thanks to him for this.

For anyone who wishes to make their donation in time for Wentworth's birthday, remember that you have until June 2nd to do so. Please go to the main project website to donate. Anyone who wishes to leave a birthday message for Wentworth as part of their donation can do so either here (please leave a comment to this entry) or at the MySpace site, or at any of the affiliated sites offering this service. We will make sure that these messages are passed on to him.

Also, a reminder that the LJ and MySpace sites have updates posted on an ongoing basis.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in the project so far. Let's keep up the momentum and make this project the greatest possible success.

UPDATE - 9th APRIL

2008-04-10T03:09:30Z

We're pleased to announce that UNICEF China has just setup online donations for WMFFC.
Please visit the Chinese donation page for more instructions.

Also UNICEF Korea has posted to their website an announcement about the charity project. Many thanks to UNICEF Korea for their help in promoting this endeavor.

Some great promotional videos

2008-04-09T21:29:35Z

A couple of great videos made to publicise the project on YouTube. Thanks so much to the makers for their time and effort with these projects.

UPDATE - 7th April

2008-04-07T12:09:06Z

We're pleased to welcome the following affiliates to the WMFFC project:

Prison Break 101
Wentworth Miller 101
Wentworth Miller Fan
Wentworth Miller France
ウェントワースミラープリズンブレイクマイケルを演じる男の魅力

UPDATE - 2nd April

2008-04-02T17:25:58Z

UNICEF U.S. have posted in their blog about the project. Thanks so much, Alisa!

They are planning to do another blog post in a couple of weeks updating us on money raised in the U.S., so let's all do what we can to get things off to a great start!

There have also been a number of other sites and blogs who've posted about the project, so thanks to all those people for the shoutout. Here's a random (but not complete) selection:

tv.popcrunch.com
Hollywood Scoop.com
Uptown Liz
French Yahoo
prisonbreakbuff.com

WENTWORTH MILLER FANS FOR CHARITY PROJECT ANNOUNCEMENT

2008-03-31T14:34:55Z

This message has been approved by Wentworth's representation for the announcement of this project:

____________________________________________

WENTWORTH MILLER FANS FOR CHARITY PROJECT ANNOUNCEMENT

The participants in the project, Wentworth Fans For Charity, would like to invite all of Wentworth's fans to join them in raising money in Wentworth's name for the children's charity, UNICEF.

The project was conceived as a way for Wentworth's fans to show their appreciation and support for their favorite actor by donating to a favored charity nominated by him.

While expressing his deep appreciation for the offer, in response to the suggestion, Wentworth advised that rather than him nominating a charity of his choice, he would like the fans to select the charity, and he would make a generous donation to that cause along with them. View Wentworth's letter.

The charity which was chosen is one which is not only an eminently worthwhile cause, but also, due to its vast international reach, is one which hopefully will appeal to the greatest majority of Wentworth's fans around the world. UNICEF's goals for children are broad and all-encompassing. Their mission is to advocate for the protection of children's rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential. UNICEF is guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and strives to establish children's rights as enduring ethical principles and international standards of behavior towards children. More information on the organization can be found at UNICEF.org.

Wentworth has also sent a message for fans with regard to this project:

"It's my privilege to be a part of the entertainment business, an industry that has reached out to and touched the lives of billions of people around the world. It gives me tremendous pleasure to think that many of those same people have been motivated to reach out to others in turn.

This charitable effort was conceived, organized and executed by a group of generous fans willing to donate their time and energies to a worthy cause. I'm honored to participate in this process, and I thank you for doing the same." – Wentworth Miller

This project will run from 1st April, 2008 until the 30th June, 2008, so that anyone who wishes to make a donation to this cause in lieu of a birthday gift to Wentworth may do so. At the project close, donations from around the world will be tallied, and the amount raised will be published on the various supporting websites and be communicated to Wentworth with our best wishes.

Full details about how to make a donation can be found at the project website. Please click on the link for your country, or, if your country is not listed, please click here.

Thank you to everyone who has worked so hard in organizing this project, thus helping to raise money for this very worthy cause. We hope that all Wentworth's fans will give their consideration to making a donation, and will enjoy making a contribution.

Full details on the project can be found at wentworthfansforcharity.org

Many thanks to everyone who participates.

____________________________________________

This thread will be dedicated specifically to thoughts and responses on this project. If you would like to leave a message for Wentworth in relation to this project, you can leave it here and all relevant messages will be collated and forwarded to him by the project organizers, via his representation, at the project close. Please mark any messages you wish to be conveyed to him, "Message For Wentworth".

Please do be sure to use the links provided at the project website in order to make your donation, or the amount will not be counted towards the final tally for the project.

And of course, feel free to repost the announcement and the project website links to any other sites or boards you frequent. Obviously the more we spread the word, the better for the success of the project.

Huge thanks to everyone who participated in the organization of this project. It's been a real team effort, and we all hope that Wentworth's fans will unite to ensure that this project is a success.