The iconic Red Ribbon Day street appeal for AIDS has been cancelled this year by the NZ AIDS Foundation, who have cited increasing compliance and admin costs as reasons for not continuing with the planned November 28 campaign. The Foundation's Positive Health Manager Kevin Baker said fundraising is competitive and difficult and risks are weighed up when planning these activities. “The ‘ribbon' concept has been used by other fundraisers to assist thier branding and that is just part of competition and promotion,” he said. “The NZAF will cope without the collection as we will continue to focus on other strategies to gain funding for special activities and projects to maximise our health promotion work.” The Red Ribbon Day appeal was run for three years by the NZAF, and raised $121,000 in that time, which was split equally between Wellness Funds servicing HIV+ clients and support of local centre operations. Mr Baker said the yield was not increasing for the time and volunteer investment, adding that the size of the campaign and number of volunteers was not large enough to make a significant return for the effort being put in. “Our focus will [now] be on World AIDS Day December 1, with a concentration on HIV awareness, the new safe sex guidelines, and promotion of HIV testing,” he said. “This will build on the ‘It's Better To Know' campaign which is rolling out at present and emphasises these points.” Promotion for World AIDS Day will come in the form of posters and intensive advertising on commercial radio from November 29 – December 2.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Saturday, 22nd November 2003 - 12:00pm