On Saturday, July 30th, 2011, Oxigen Media Group in partnership with Save Our Women International, a New York based Ghanaian Non-Profit, will hold the first African Connection Relief Event. The event is scheduled to open at 6:30pm and tickets are available on Ticketmaster online at http://www.ticketmaster.com/ACRE-Concert-tickets/artist/1605103 . Please post press release, banner and/or flyer.

Save Our Women International (S.O.W.I, www.saveourwomeninternational.org) is a Non-Profit Organization based in the United States of America and Africa which educates and provides education and support on health issues such as safe sex practices, contraception, female fertility and HIV AIDS, youth empowerment and community development with some focus on unsafe abortion, teenage pregnancy and its debilitating effects on families and communities. The concept of creating an organization like SOWI was conceived in Ghana where statistics show that 30% of expectant mothers are killed by unsafe abortions practices. S.O.W.I in itself is not against abortion however we are deeply concerned with the increasing rates of abortion related deaths in third world countries and worldwide. We, at SOWI believe that the education of our youth and young adults in regards to these key issues is the best way to prevent and detract from this unfortunate phenomenon. It is our belief in this founding principle that led to the creation of the African Connection Initiative.

The African Connection Initiative is an educational, fun, informational and interactional program that appeals to women, young and old. We have found through research of other organizations and through our own experiences that traditional methods of outreach are steadily declining in their ability to reach rural and impoverished individuals. It is for this reason that SOWI is proposing the use of the African Connection Initiative as an edgy means of drawing attention to the issues at hand. The first year of the African Connection Initiative is broken down into two distinct yet inter-connected stages.

The first part of the event consists of a kick-off concert that features music artists from Africa, dubbed the African Connection Relief Event (A.C.R.E). This concert will serve the purpose of creating a base of support and following for our entire initiative. We will be branding ourselves and our sponsors as individuals and corporations that are deeply concerned with issues facing women. In order to maximize our outreach during this time, we are implementing two key features. We are currently working with software designers and computer programmers to create an application for Android OS ®, BlackBerry ® and Apple/I Phone ®. This application will outline our entire vision for the initiative, important health facts for women, resources we have available to aid women and of course the sponsors who have made our entire initiative possible.

The second part of the first year of the African Connection Initiative is very educational and insightful. Harnessing the buzz of the massive turnout for the concert, we will switch gears to begin our Campus-Wide Distinguished Speaker Series. Throughout our years of experience dealing with women health issues, we have met a diversity of women who have overcome enormous adversity in their personal lives. These women will have credibility and ample experience and know how to council our young adults in a way that is non-judgmental and easy on the ears. We will enlist the star power of an A-list celebrity, by way of paid contracts or by soliciting volunteer hours to support the cause as an Ambassador or Spokesperson. This program will be unlike any other, we will be using interactional media, and speakers who are well versed on the pertinent topics.

We will also be partnering with various students groups and organizations to ensure we will be reaching the maximum number of students. This aspect of our programming is very important because it is directly linked with our ability to create continuity for year two of the African Connection Initiative. We are looking to build relationships with the students who are already involved in their schools’ African Students Associations, organization present at all major US universities, who are interested in volunteering in Africa in the second year to conduct similar outreach to many rural and impoverished regions.