Cakes, Concerts & a Common Cause: Little Travellers having a blast in Korea!

The Month of May will be the biggest for the Little Travellers in Korea yet! There are two great events planned for this month, with high hopes of selling a record number of pins for our Korean chapter.

Bake-Off!

The first event, a Little Travellers Bake-Off will be held Sunday, May 18 at Wien Cake House in Itaewon. Bakers who enter their delicacies stand a chance to win some awesome prizes. Cakes, muffins, pies, cookies or anything sweet and baked are welcome. For those who prefer to indulge: pay 10,000W at the door, receive your Little Traveller and get a chance to sample the desserts and vote for your favourite dish. Doors open at 3 o’clock.

Interested bakers should fill out the entry form on our webpage. Also, please read the rules and guidelines for the contest, also available on our website.

If there are any questions or request in regards to the entry-form or rules please contact: korea@littletravellers.net or phone 010-8694-6561 (English assistance) or 011-9029-3094 (Korean assistance).

A Common Cause!

May 31^st will see the Little Travellers largest event to date as it teams up with KHAP (Korea HIV AIDS Prevention Center) for “A Common Cause”. The Wolfhound, Rocky Mountain Tavern, and B One will host this special night. Cover will not be in effect, though patrons who pay 10,000 won at the door will receive their very own Little Traveller, a raffle ticket, and drink discounts at ALL the bars ALL night! An abundance of sweet raffle prizes will be up for grabs at each location. As for bang for your buck, The Wolfhound and Rocky Mountain Tavern will offer 5000 won house doubles, with B One selling Samubuca, Tequila, Jagermeister, and Jack for 3000 won to those sporting their Little Travellers. But wait, there’s so much more. Korea’s biggest youtube celebrities, EV Boyz will perform “Kickin it in Gumcheon” alongside their newest single “A E I love u”, at both The Wolfhound and Rocky Mountain. RMT will also host The Bellows in their last night on stage in Korea. Of course, DJ’s at B One will entertain the masses that dance the night away. To increase awareness of the AIDS situation in Korea, KHAP will supply free condoms and information leaflets.

Our Sponsors:

Thank you to The Wolfhound, Rocky Mountain Tavern, Mikes and Pita Time for sponsoring these events!

LT Photo Contest: Winners!

Anyone who has faced the formidable task of selecting a Little Traveller amongst dozens of his or her  may be able to sympathize with the judging panel’s task of choosing a winning photo from the amazing entries we received for our first ever Little Traveller Photo Contest.

Since launching our first ever Little Travellers Photo Contest in July, we’ve had photos pouring in of the very pettite voyageurs taking in sights of every corner of the globe!

Breathtaking photos were sent in of LT’s on the white salt-flats of Bolivia, the redwood forests of California, and the barren-yet-beautiful tundra of Nunavut (Canada); we received photos of LT’s on safari in South Africa, admiring ancient and modern architecture in Asia, sailing on the Indian Ocean off Mozambique, befriending the storied blue-footed boobies in the Galapagos, and experiencing the marvels of Europe. 

Amongst all of the talented and lovely photos that we received, however, there were three photos that the judges deemed were extraordinarily special.

 And so, the winners of the first ever Little Travellers Photo Contest are…

1) Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada – by Raphael Nepomuceno

2) Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Canada – by Albert Wisco

3) Na Pali coastline, Hawaii – by Sheldon Baines

 

Thank you to everyone who participated for taking your Little Travellers on a trip and for sharing your photos with us!  The number of entries we received was really encouraging, and the quality of the photos astounding!  We are so glad that so many Little Travellers are seeing the world and sharing their stories of unity, hope and courage in the face of harship and suffering. 

To see all the entries that we received visit our gallery at http://www.littletravellers.net/your-photos.  Please check back soon, as this was so much fun that we are bound to do it again soon!

Little Travellers mark World AIDS Day around globe

To someone affected by the pandemic, “AIDS day” is not something that comes and goes with the turn of a calendar page. Similarly, Little Travellers are dedicated to support these individuals – particularly those affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa – each and every day of the year.

These beaded Lilliputians, however, are known to pounce at each and every opportunity to highlight the plight of South Africans infected/affected by HIV/AIDS. Thus, volunteers of the Little Travellers HIV/AIDS Initiative around the world commemorated Saturday, December 1st, 2007 – World AIDS Day – as a special opportunity to admire the courage, resilience and dignity of those personally touched by this pandemic, and to celebrate the hope and happiness that is being restored to their lives through the travels of these beaded dolls around the globe. Here is a run-down of how Little Travellers spent World AIDS Day:

In South Africa, Little Traveller dolls relaxed on a fine summer day as the Hillcrest AIDS Centre hosted a market and tea garden to mingle with the neighbours.

Meanwhile, in spite of the chilly weather, Little Travellers in Canada were kept cozy by the warm-heartedness of students at McGill and Concordia Universities in Montreal, as well as the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, where they were sold throughout the week.

In America, Little Travellers North Carolina were the beneficiaries of a special “Shop, Share & Care” evening at One World Market, in Durham; the evening was made even sweeter by delicious samples from Divine Chocolate – a farmer-owned, fair-trade chocolate company dedicated to achieving fair wages and livelihoods for African cocoa farmers.

In Israel, in cooperation with the Sackler School of Medicine New York State American program Physicians for Human Rights chapter, the Little Travellers Israel chapter handed out informational pamphlets, distributed red ribbons, sold baking, and helped find new homes for the ever-popular Little Travellers (see photos below). In addition, a speaker/workshop on AIDS hospice and education in Israel was hosted on Thursday.

Finally, in Korea, World AIDS Day marked the official debut of Little Travellers in the Land of the Morning Calm. Both Koreans and expatriates living in Korea have shown a keen interest in the uniqueness of the dolls along with the goodwill they inspire. Little Travellers Korea successfully hosted its first event on December 1^st to coincide with World AIDS Day (see photos below). The Benefit was held at Mike’s Cabin in the Shinchon area of Seoul. Several local musicians donated their time and talent with original melodies to the delight of all attendees. It was a great success in both creating awareness about the project and finding new homes for the dolls. More than 250 dolls were sold raising over 1.3 million won ($1440 Cdn) for families in South Africa. A further 316 000 won ($350 Cdn) was raised through a raffle to help pay for marketing and operating expenses of the chapter in Korea.

Little Travellers are now available in every country with a post office, and chapters of volunteers aiding in their journies have emerged in countries, such as Canada, USA, England, Israel, South Korea, Japan and Australia, to name a few! To connect to a chapter near you, visit our website for details.

Israel:

Korea:

A little travelling goes a long way

Suthentira Govender
	The Sunday Times     Published:Oct 28, 2007
POSITIVE JOURNEY: Some of the Little Travellers made by the Woza Moya crafters in their container workshop A tiny beaded doll has given HIV- positive Thandi Chamane hope and a reason to live. Four years ago Chamane, on the brink of death and facing homelessness, went secretly to the Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust, Durban, for counselling. Here she became part of a group of crafters whose lives have been turned around by their minuscule creations — The Little Travellers. The range of beaded dolls, not more than 5cm long, is in such demand that the centre produces about 3 000 a month to keep up with international orders from as far afield as Canada, the US, Australia, Germany and the UK. The range, which includes Rastas, wedding travellers, Zulu traditional warriors, sangomas and gogos (old ladies), is created in a metal container by the Woza Moya crafters in the heart of the Valley of a Thousand Hills. For crafters like Chamane, the Little Traveller dolls translate into food on their tables, roofs over their heads, education for their children and much-needed medical care. The dolls come complete with specially designed passports. They have already inspired a short documentary and a fashion range by top local designer Karen Monk Klijnstra. “They may be small, but they have made a big difference to me and my family,” Chamane says. “I was dying when I started making them; I was so sick and I had nothing to live for. My husband, who is also HIV-positive, my two children and I lived in a tiny bedroom in my friend’s house. “When I started making the dolls, I started getting money and I am feeling better. I now have a house, my children are going to school and I have a reason to live.” Chamane recently realised one of her dreams — owning a big- screen television. She bought it with her earnings, which varies between R300 and R1 000 a week. She is the creator of the mother- and-child travellers, the Zulu warrior and the Makoti traveller. “I get my ideas from my dreams. I get out of bed and draw them in my book and then make them. My life would not be good without them,” she said. Paula Thompson, one of Woza Moya’s coordinators, said the Little Travellers “are unique in that they have had such a powerful effect on so many people in so many different ways”. She conceived the idea with her crafters four years ago, but little did they expect it to turn into a success story with positive spin-offs. Traditional healer Joyce Mthethwa, 53, says her healing powers “were weak” before she started making her little dolls. “Today they are strong again and I am able to help people and myself. I have money now to put food on the table for my children. I can survive now,” she said. National courier company Churchills International Express has given the Little Travellers free passage to their destinations around the world.

Link to the Sunday Times’ online article: http://www.thetimes.co.za/article.aspx?id=598052

Glimpse into ward moved him to act

Winnipeg Free Press, Oct. 20th, 2007

Click here for Article about Ilan Schwartz, founder of the Little Travellers HIV/AIDS Initiative.

Little Travellers fight big problems

The Manitoban Online

September 19, 2007

Little travellers fight big problems

U of M students help fight AIDS in Africa

EVAN JOHNSON, STAFF

 

“People know that there’s this thing called AIDS in Africa, but I don’t think most people have any idea of the extent of the impact it has on families and on communities and on individuals,” said Ilan Schwartz, a 25-year-old University of Manitoba medical student and creator of the Little Travellers HIV/AIDS Initiative, a unique fundraising project that has, since its inception in 2005, raised over $100,000 for HIV/AIDS relief in South Africa.

Little Travellers got its start after Schwartz returned to Canada from a stint volunteering at Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust, a non-profit, non-governmental relief centre located in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, a region with a particularly high prevalence of HIV infection—about 40 per cent in the province and an estimated 60 per cent in the area around Hillcrest.

One of the excellent programs undertaken by Hillcrest is their income generation craft project, in which women affected by HIV/AIDS earn an income by constructing various craftwork items, including a variety of small, adorable beaded dolls (Little Travellers), several of which Schwartz brought with him upon returning to Canada. He started to get offers from people wanting to buy the dolls and agreed to sell them on the condition that the money go to Hillcrest. Then, realizing that he had stumbled across an excellent fundraising opportunity, he decided to take action.

With a group of his generous Bannatyne campus classmates, Schwartz started a group called Simunye—Zulu for “we are united”—and was able to get the initiative started.

“Our first shipment was 1,000 dolls and everyone thought we were crazy, that we’d never sell 1,000 dolls,” he said. “It turned out that those 1,000 dolls were sold out in about three days.” The dolls sell for five dollars each.

Now, Little Travellers has sold over 21,000 dolls, and the project has nearly 100 beaders earning a living creating them. Because 100 per cent of the money raised through the sale of the dolls goes to those affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa — approximately half of the money goes to the crafters, while the rest goes to other Hillcrest aid programs — the initiative relies on the support of various sponsors, including U of M student organizations like UMSU, to keep the operation running.

This past summer, Schwartz returned to Hillcrest along with fellow U of M medical student and Little Travellers organizer-volunteer Kristine Christoph, and the two spent time talking with many of the Hillcrest beaders. Though they had both volunteered there before, Christoph stressed the impact of getting a chance to speak with the Hillcrest women specifically about the impact of Little Travellers.

“One women told us that everything in her house she has been able to purchase with the money she’s received from making Little Travellers,” she said. “It was definitely such a joy to hear about the pride that people have in knowing that when they go to bed at night they’re sleeping in a bed that they purchased with their own money.”

With this pride comes a sense of empowerment that has significant importance in a country where the social stigma attached to HIV/AIDS infection can be extremely destructive to families and individuals, particularly women. Schwartz stressed in particular “the link between financial dependence and the inability to negotiate safe sex and to make one’s own reproductive choices,” and referred to an HIV-infected woman he spoke with who was able to use her newfound financial independence to convince her stubbornly resistant husband to get tested for HIV and subsequently receive treatment.

Recently, Schwartz had a chance to meet with Stephen Lewis, erstwhile UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, and took the opportunity to ask for Lewis’s endorsement of Little Travellers. Initially, Lewis was resistant because of the large number of groups and organizations that seek his approval, but in the end he provided an emphatic, ringing endorsement, calling Little Travellers “totally inspired” before adding, “I endorse it every stitch of the way.”

Visit www.littletravellers.net for more information. Those interested in volunteering with Little Travellers are encouraged to attend a meeting at 226 Oxford St. on Sunday, Sept. 23 at 7:30 p.m.. Little Travellers can be purchased at the University of Manitoba BookStore, as well as at other locations around the city.

Little Travellers Run For Darfur!!!

By now, the globetrotting nature of the Little Travellers is well known – if you want proof of their world-wide jaunts, look no further than the entries from our Photo Contest.  Whether by plane, train or automobile, they sure get around! However,  Little Travellers also love to walk and to run – which is why they are to be special guests at Winnipeg’s highly anticipated “Run 4 Darfur”! This family event, taking place Sunday, October 7th at Assibiboine Park aims to raise awareness for, and money to benefit victims of the ongoing atrocities in Sudan.  The Little Travellers are proud to be involved in such an important cause, and challenge all Manitobans to come out and take a stand against injustices in Darfur, Sudan. But please don’t stand for too long in one place, or you might just find yourself in a cloud of dust with a Little Traveller getting smaller and smaller on the horizon!

Return to Hillcrest

Ilan and Kristine have returned to the Hillcrest AIDS Centre in South Africa for the next five weeks, and have set up a blog at http://returntohillcrest.blogspot.com/ to write about their return to the centre. Make sure to bookmark their blog and check back often, since they’ll be writing lots and it’s a great chance to learn more about Hillcrest and the work they do there.

Little Travellers photo contest launched!

To celebrate the global gallivanting of the Little Travellers, we are pleased to announce the first ever Little Travellers Photo Contest!!!

The concept is simple: take photos of your Little Traveller(s) (on their own please!) anywhere in the world, and submit them (see below) to help document the epic journeys of these peripatetic harbingers of hope! These photos will be shared on our website, and the best of them will be featured in a photographic exhibit (entitled “Little Travellers: where they have come from, where they have been, and where they are going”) alongside photos taken by the crafters who made the Little Travellers in South Africa!

Prizes

All prizes have been made at the Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust, as part of the Woza Moya income-generation project. Pictures are included for reference, but because these are all one-of-a-kind handmade crafts, the prizes received may not be identical to those pictured.

1st Prize

Your choice of:

1. Beaded wire animal “trophy” (Lion, Elephant, or Bok); OR

2. Large beaded wire aloe plant (pot not included) PLUS a beaded bauble necklace.

Total value = $100

1st and 2nd Runners-Up

Your choice of:

1. Medium sized beaded wire aloe plant; OR

2. Medium beaded wire animal; OR

3. Beaded bauble necklace.

Available will depend on selections of 1st prize winner. Total value = 2 x $40.

Your Entry

Submit your Little Traveller photo by sending an email to contest@littletravellers.net with your photo attached.  Please include your name, the city that you live in, as well as the location where the photo was taken.  Make sure to read contest rules below first!

Rules of the Little Travellers Photo Contest

1. Photos should be primarily of your Little Traveller(s) on their travels. The photos should not include people as their subjects – though you are welcome to take as many of these as you like for your own albums!
2. Photos can be set anywhere in the world! They can be in front of beautiful landscapes, interesting architecture, or just about anywhere you like! However, please refer to rule 1) for the subject content.
3. Entries must be submitted to the email address specified above; alternatively, photos can be submitted by mailing them to: Photo Contest, 226 Oxford St., Winnipeg, MB. R3M 3J6; there, they will be scanned and uploaded to the website.
4. An individual may enter as many photos as they like; however, each photo must only be entered once.
5. By entering your photograph to this contest, you give permission for it to be used, if selected, by the Little Travellers HIV/AIDS Initiative as seen fit; this may include (but is not limited to) use on the Little Travellers website; in promotional materials; and for use in a photography exhibit to be displayed in South Africa and elsewhere. If your photos are used, you will not receive any compensation. All photos are eligible for such use, regardless of whether they are selected as winners of the photo contest.
6. Winners will be selected by a panel of three to five volunteers involved in the Little Travellers HIV/AIDS Initiative and/or the Hillcrest AIDS Centre. Winning photos will be chosen because of outstanding photographic artistry, location, creativity, or any combination of the above. Winners will be announced in the week following the contest deadline.
7. Winners will be contacted by email to select prizes and in order to obtain delivery information.
8. Volunteers with the Little Travellers Initiative are eligible for entry (though those individuals will not be eligible to sit on the the judging panel).
9. Prizes may vary, depending on availability.
10. The deadline for entries will be noon on October 15th, 2007.
11. Comments and questions regarding this photo contest should be sent to contest@littletravellers.net
12. Participation in such a contest and receipt of prizes must be legal in your country/province/state
13. Rules may be subject to change without notice.
14. Have fun!

Little Travellers selected by Cosmo mag as HOT STUFF

One of South Africa’s most authoritative fashion magazines, Cosmopolitan, has selected Little Travellers as “unmissable” and one of the hottest accessories in their June, 2007 edition! They note, “Chic coats from Durban to New York are sporting a handmade beaded Little Traveller Doll in support of the Hillcrest AIDS Centre”.

Please click here to see the Little Travellers strutting their “Hot Stuff” in this month’s Cosmo!