Resources

Use the available material (and make your own!) to get people involved in the campaign and your events. 

You have:
- a poster (pdf)
- an activity sheet (pdf)
- Fundraising tips
- Online Donations User Guide (pdf) NEW
- Charitable Donations: Local Committee’ FAQs (pdf) NEW
- Sample letter to bike shop (.doc)
- ICAD Behind the Pandemic Education Kit
- Bike for AIDS FAQs (pdf) NEW
- Planning an Event tip sheet (pdf) NEW
- The Bicycle” NFB film (on-line) NEW

Donate or run a campaign on-line


Articles from Malawi
Bicycle Ambulances Save Lives in Mchezi – Malawi
Story and pictures by Macdonald Mbicholo, WUSC-Malawi

MASO Asks for more Bikes for AIDS Support
Story and pictures by Macdonald Mbicholo WUSC Malawi

Examples of what Local Committees have done:
- “Wax for AIDS” at Grant MacEwan >>

Here are some HIV/AIDS awareness resources:

- World AIDS Campaign >>

- Stephen Lewis Foundation >>

- World AIDS day chat with Taking IT Global >>

- Youth AIDS Coalition World AIDS day event organizing kit >> (pdf)

Campus

Bike for Aids

Bicycles, especially if outfitted with a stretcher, can help those living with HIV/AIDS in Malawi.  Raise funds to purchase bicycles and stretchers while creating awareness of HIV/AIDS and Millennium Development Goal #6 on campus.  Sometimes a little money can go a long way … especially on wheels!

In Malawi
In Sub-Saharan Africa, 80 % of the population lives in rural areas where bicycles are the primary mode of transportation. In rural Malawi, community-based volunteers trained as HIV/AIDS educators, caregivers and advocates travel to neighboring communities and homes.  Their ability to serve people is limited by their lack of transportation. By using a bicycle a health care worker can see up to 5 times as many patients. 

Bicycle-ambulances
If a person living with HIV/AIDS needs medical attention and is unable to walk, getting to the clinic can be very difficult.  In the absence of bicycle-ambulances, wheelbarrows are used to carry patients to hospital. The bicycle-ambulance addresses this problem.  A lightweight trailer and a removable stretcher are attached to a bicycle, enabling bed-ridden or injured people to be safely transported. 

Gender and HIV/AIDS
Gender is a very important issue to consider when addressing matters surrounding international development.  Poverty and health issues often affect men and women differently.  53%  of HIV/AIDS cases in Malawi are women, and more strikingly, 9.4% of all women aged 15-24 are infected, in comparison to only 3.4% of men who are.  By bringing awareness to gender issues, you can help to achieve MDG #3. 

The bicycle ambulances are also used to transport pregnant women to receive medical attention, and now 30 % of the bicycles received from the Bike for AIDS project are designed specifically for women.

Results to date
Here are some of the current accomplishments of Local Committees since the project started in September 2005:
- 118 bicycle-ambulances purchased and distributed to community organizations
- 77 bicycles purchased and distributed
- 68 Community Based Organizations are putting these bicycles to use

How to contribute to this project
By raising awareness and funds on campus, Local Committees can make a difference in the lives of Malawian people living with HIV/AIDS, their families and affected rural communities. $200 will buy a bicycle and $380 will provide a bicycle-ambulance (bicycle and stretcher). These amounts include the cost of delivering the bicycles and bicycle-ambulances, and contributing to CAP AIDS. 
 
What you can do
Here are a few ideas to get you started, but don’t forget to check out www.uniterra.ca/campus for more!

Awareness raising activities
People will donate to causes they know and understand.  Make raising awareness of HIV/AIDS and the MDGs an integral part of your fundraising activities. 
- Invite past and up-coming Seminar participants to present on HIV/AIDS in Africa
- Host an event on campus on Millennium Development Goal #6
- Work with local HIV/AIDS groups in your community

Fundraising activities
Here are a few fundraising ideas:
- Host a speaker in collaboration with local HIV/AIDS organizations
- Organize a bike-a-thon on campus or across town
- Collaborate with campus or city cycling teams for a larger fundraising campaign.  Try and set targets as to how many bicycle-ambulances or bikes you would like to purchase.

Don’t forget to invite the media to your activities!  Also, write articles and take photos for the World Wide WUSC newsletter and your campus newspaper.  For more ideas and strategies on how to fundraise effectively, see the Fundraising Tip Sheet.
Want to get involved?

Using the online Activity Sign-up Form on My Committee, your Local Committee must identify a contact person for this activity in order to receive support, tips and tools from other committees and the WUSC campus engagement team.

Bike for AIDS was developed in partnership with CAP AIDS, an organization whose mandate is to develop partnerships between Canadian and African non-governmental organizations and AIDS service organizations to help Africans resist, survive and overcome the HIV/AIDS epidemic.  Five percent of the funds raised by the project go to support CAP AIDS in its Bike to CAP AIDS initiative.