Tue 20 Dec 2011 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Auckland based queer youth support organisation Rainbow Youth has been named as one of the four recipients of money raised from FebFast 2012, where New Zealanders will raise money while giving up alcohol for the month of February. FebFast was held in New Zealand for the first time in 2011, coordinated by the New Zealand Drug Foundation. Nearly a thousand New Zealanders took part, including members of the glbti community, either as individuals or as teams made up of friends, family or workmates. More than $100,000 was raised for four youth charities in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. "It's about giving a helping hand to people less fortunate than ourselves and also giving our bodies a chance to recover after the hectic festive season," says FebFast Coordinator Catherine Milburn. "We've chosen some really worthwhile organisations to benefit from FebFast 2012. They're doing challenging work that makes a real difference in the lives of our young people." Rainbow Youth wants to tackle the statistic that queer and trans youth are more likely to drink often and heavily, more likely to drink alone, and more likely to have had family or friends tell them to reduce their drinking. It wants to change the way alcohol and drug use is viewed, and will use its funding to raise awareness of the issues, for example through the use of blogs on the www.curious.org.nz and the www.rainbowyouth.org.nz sites. Rainbow Youth is joined by Wellington group Evolve, the ADHD Association and Waikato's CareNZ as 2012's recipients. "We're setting our sights high for 2012," says Milburn. "We'll have a great team of ambassadors helping to promote FebFast and raise awareness of drug and alcohol issues, and we're hoping that even more New Zealanders will take up the FebFast challenge."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 20th December 2011 - 2:18pm