Black Love Day Feb 13th Intention for African Tsunami Victims and African Emergency Relief
Black Love Day - Feb 13th is the 3rd national, commemorated holiday of forgiveness, atonement, reconciliation and 24 hour demonstration of love showing 5 tenets -Love for the Creator, for self, for family, community and the Black Race, this year showing love through donations, this year, to African Emergency Relief efforts
(PRWEB) February 10, 2005 -- While the world mourns the Tsunami deaths in
South East Asia, the founder of Black Love Day, Ayo Handy Kendi, recognized that
little media attention was given to the African victims of the Tsunami. "I
noticed Colin Powell and Governor Jeb Bush in their damage fact-finding tour
overlooked Somalia, hardest hit of the 5 tsunami wreaked African countries and
that President Bush didn't mention Africa in his State of the Union Message.
This concern inspired this year's Black Love Day - February 13th 2005 focused
intention which urges every African American and the Black Diaspora to
collectively "Take Care of Our Own Wounds". Instead of buying Valentine's Day
trinkets and high priced gifts to show love, Black Love Day's intention urges us
to take personal responsibility to demonstrate the 5th Tenet of Black Love, for
the Black race, by giving monetary support to assist African victims of the
Tsunami in Somalia to rebuild their devasted, drought-striken land and further
assist the many other African emergency relief efforts, in areas like Dhafar,
Sudan, Ethiopia, Northern Uganda, Liberia, and Republic of the Congo. We need
not wait on government or corporate assistance, but do for our own to ensure the
healing and redevelopment of our Motherland. Just $1 from each African American
would generate approximately 35 million in aid to help the Continent's epidemic
of AIDS, deaths from curable diseases like tuberculosis (TB), massive poverty
from the ravages of decades-old wars, famine, displacement and political
unrest".
BLD, was started in 1993 by
Handy-Kendi, who received a spiritual inspiration to create the 3rd nationally
commemorated African American holiday (wholyday) of observance, celebration,
atonement and 24 hour demonstration of love showing at best, 5 specific acts
(tenets) of love - towards the Creator, for self, for the family, within the
Black community and for the Black race. On this day, Whites also show "love in
action" for Blacks and inspect their own racial attitudes. As a wholistic
alternative to Valentine's Day to stop Black self-hatred and racism/White
supremacy, Black Love Day observances have increased in popularity nationally,
which motivated Handy Kendi to re-issue the "The Black Love Book" 3rd Edition
anthology of love as the definitive, how-to guide on observing Black Love Day
available through www.aaha-info.org or mail order.
Handy-Kendi,
founder/director of the non-profit, membership organization, the African
American Holiday Association (AAHA), sponsors the official 12th Annual Black
Love Relationship Ceremony in Wash, D.C. The ceremony features the powerful
"Ritual of Reconciliation" officiated by Handy-Kendi which last year was the
site for a historical first in the Nation's Capital - the public apology from
Ambassador Cyrille Oquin of Benin, for the country's selling of Blacks during
the 15th century, Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. Following this year's ceremony,
AAHA will host a Black Love Dinner Affair, with a portion of the proceeds to
benefit Doctors Without Borders, another non-profit that AAHA researched and
felt confidence in their long and distinguished reputation for African emergency
relief.
Stated Handy Kendi, "According to the IRIN news.org, from the UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 150 people died and
approximately 54,000 in Somalia were in need of emergency aid. While the death
and destruction from the Tsunami was pale in comparison to the Asian nations,
African nations like Somalia, were already in desperate crises, suffering a
triple-disaster from large-scale displacement after 14 years of civil war, loss
of livestock after 4 years of successive drought, then torrential rains, then
the Tsunami. Clean water, health care, medical supplies, sheltering materials,
livestock and fishing equipment to maintain the economic production, are all
needed now to avoid another humanitarian disaster.
To designate funds
specifically for African Emergency Relief, donations must be mailed instead of
made through the Internet to: Doctors Without Borders, 333 7th Avenue, 2nd
floor, New York, N.Y. 10001-5004 or call 1-212-679-6800 or www.doctorswithoutborders.org .
Please indicate to
their donation department that you are giving to support this year's 2005 Black
Love Day Intention for African Emergency Relief so that AAHA can measure the
effectiveness of this year's appeal and response in the collective effort to
"show love in action" on Black Love Day, Feb. 13 to make a difference in the
world through our unity, which demonstrates love. Contact AAHA at 202-667-2577 /
www.aaha-info.org for further information on BLD and the
African Emergency Relief Appeal.
African American Holiday Association
(AAHA) - Perpetuates and preserves culture through traditional and
non-traditional holidays, celebration & rituals
P.O. Box
43255
Washington, D. C. 20010
202-667-2577
Email: aaha @ aaha-info.org
www. aaha-info.org
Contact: Rashida Thomas,
P.R. Consultant, 202-667-2577; cell 202-253-1846
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/2/prweb206860.htm