Found out about this great way of supporting a cause using mobile phone technology - texts/SMSs - and all homegrown here in Wellington, New Zealand!

A group of young entrepreneurs is using mobile phone technology to address world poverty issues.

The win-win situation sees mobile users receiving promotional text messages, relevant to their fields of interest, in exchange for ‘credit’, that can either be used to top-up their mobile phone account or support World Vision education projects.

It’s part of a service called SchmallTxt, provided by Small Change Enterprises. Five Wellington College students established the business, as part of the Young Enterprise Scheme (YES), with a good deal of initiative and a heart for the poor.

The tech-savvy students understood that many traditional advertising mediums, such as flyers and print ads, are rarely read by young people. By using mobile phone text messages as an advertising medium and tailoring the messages they send, advertisers receive a better response rate.

With the incentive of ten cents credit from each message received to use as airtime or as a donation to World Vision’s education projects, new customers have not been difficult to come by. Happily, one third of new customers have chosen to donate their credit to World Vision.

Click here to read more....or just go check out their website at www.schmalltxt.com

Hooray! We got into the NZ Herald : ) ..heh, so, maybe the late nights are paying off.. thehinitiative's World Vision tees were featured in the Wednesday 11 June NZ Herald's Viva magazine. We're trying to get our hands onto a copy of it - will post it up when we do. In the meantime, there's always the online snippet at the Herald's website : )

New Zealand label thehinitiative has launched a street wear T-shirt range together with World Vision New Zealand, in support of the Children in Crisis program.

Li Ling Ng, director of thehinitiative (pronounced “The H Initiative”), says the T-shirts are to help raise awareness about global child poverty and for fashion consumers to buy great T-shirts while contributing towards a life-changing cause for children.

“You can Look Great in a T-shirt and, at the same time, Do Good by making a real difference in a child’s life”, says Li Ling. “For example, buying one of these T shirts could contribute towards a 2,000 litre water tank that provides water storage and access to safe drinking water for school children in Africa”.

The T-shirt range consists of the designs in men’s and women’s styles, with organic and fair trade cotton t-shirts offered as part of the range. Designs are based off the top three entries of the 2007 World Vision Art 4 Aid t-shirt design competition.

Art 4 Aid is a World Vision initiative raising awareness of global child poverty through art. Entrants were given themes to work from, designed to bring to mind images of poverty, war and peace, and children living in crisis situations in developing countries, such as those orphaned by HIV and AIDS.

The top design, Freedom Dove, was designed by Laura Cibilich, a 26-year-old graphic designer based in Auckland. Laura’s entry was chosen as the winning T-shirt design for its simplicity of design and message: “This design symbolises peace using a well-known symbol: the dove. It flies upward towards its freedom, leaving the pieces of war behind it. White ink printed on a black T-shirt symbolises the dove breaking out of the darkness of war.” The runners up designs were Jamie Wong’s My Heart and Olivier Perkins’ Peace Inside.

All three designs are available for purchase online via the website thehinitiative.co.nz, with nationwide and worldwide delivery. 25% of all online sales are given to World Vision.

T-shirts are also being stocked at fashion retail shops Rex Royale (Wellington) and Starfish (Wellington). Starfish was the Emerging Sustainable Business Leaders (SME) category winner of the 2007 NZI National Sustainable Business Awards.

ENDS

Contacts:

Li Ling Ng
Director, thehinitiative
021 313 880
liling at thehinitiative.co.nz
(High res celeb images available from Li Ling on request)

Catherine Healy
Press Officer, World Vision New Zealand
09 580 7747 / 021 545 638
catherine.healy at worldvision.org.nz

World Vision tees seen on Sarah Hughes (and supporting guitarist Ben) at her first official gig in March '08 : )

By now, everyone's probably heard about the crisis in Myanmar, especially with the noise about their government seemingly comfortable turning a blind eye to everything and not allowing a lot of foreign aid through.

But, we found out during a meeting with World Vision last Friday that World Vision has been able to get through! Phew!

According to World Vision, the agency's history of aid and development in the country means it is one of three international humanitarian organisations (including Unicef and JICA) invited by the government of Myanmar to respond.

"This means our staff have already been involved in getting clean water to those affected by Cyclone Nargis, and our international relief staff are working to get more aid distributed." says Lisa Cescon, World Vision CEO. (Source: World Vision website)

World Vision New Zealand is currently appealing for $1 million - click here to donate to World Vision or for updates on aid to Myanmar.

We're happy to say that in the first three months (Dec'07 - Feb'08) of thehinitiative's new World Vision Children in Crisis range, we were able to give just over $200 to them! ($207.34 to be exact) This is the equivalent of providing:

A 2,000 litre water tank that provides water storage and access to safe drinking water for a school. It will also help with hygiene, and provide water for school vegetable gardens. AND 12 chicks, that when grown will produce eggs that provide protein and ongoing income (a few chickens are enough to support a whole family).

OR

10 insecticide-treated mosquito nets. Mozzie bites in parts of Africa can be fatal. Did you know that 2 million people, mostly children under five, die from malaria each year? Insecticide-treated mosquito nets will keep malaria-carrying mosquitoes away from children and others as they sleep.

OR

A new loo! More than 2.5 billion people in the world live without adequate sanitation. A Ventilated Improved Pit latrine is both cost effective and user-friendly, limiting smell and fly problems and making it more hygienic - and much appreciated by its users!

Thanks to everyone who has bought one of the t-shirts from the range! It's going to make a positive difference in a community abroad : )

Credit: thanks to World Vision for providing the info.