World AIDS DAY
1st December 2020
Why it is important to us
HIV and RAYS
How YOU can help
This is how YOU can get involved ONLY TODAY!
Sweat for RAYS
Join the Sweat for Rays fundraiser – where yogis all over the world come together, get sweaty and raise money for kids living with HIV+ in India. All classes are TODAY ONLY!
Virtual Red Ribbon
The red ribbon is the universal symbol of awareness and support for people living with HIV. Wearing a ribbon is a great way to raise awareness on and during the run-up to World AIDS Day. This year, many of our amazing fundraisers are unable to distribute fabric ribbons for us and some of our retail partners are closed for lockdown. So, for this World AIDS Day we’ve created a virtual red ribbon.
Download the ribbon below and add it to your email signature, change your profile picture, or print and place in your window. The choice is yours!
Why is this important to us?
Epidemic
India has the third largest HIV epidemic in the world, with 2.1 million people living with the virus of which about 170,000 are children under the age of 15.
Stigma
Government orphanages in India do not accept HIV positive children. This forces displaced children to turn to child labour, begging and prostitution to survive.
Awareness
Due to a lack of knowledge about the virus, many HIV positive parents are untested, undiagnosed and therefore unmedicated. Which means many of these children are orphaned when their parents die of AIDS or abandoned because their parents are too sick to care for them.
RAYS Home for children with HIV
RAYS is a charitable organisation that cares for children who were born with the human immuno virus (HIV). Many of these children lost their parents or were abandonded by their families. RAYS welcomes these children into its family and gives them a home, cares for their medical needs, their education and counsels them towards a life of possibility, positivity and hope.
Our family were lucky enough to spend a week with these lovely children in 2016 and then again in 2017; they are now our family.
Our vision is to increase the happiness of the RAYS children as best we can.
Our Mission is to fundraise for RAY, to visit them every year, to raise awareness of RAYS and HIV and to spread their love to anyone else who wants to get involved.
Our Value is for every soul we encounter to be encouraged and inspired to enable every soul within the RAYS family to shine.
