U2 Fans Raise Over $34,000 in Honor of Bono’s Birthday

The African Well Fund’s 5th Annual “Build a Well for Bono’s Birthday” fundraising drive has raised over $34,000. All proceeds of the fundraiser will go directly to African Well Fund partner Africare, a leading non-profit organization assisting Africa, to fund clean water projects throughout the continent.

Schenectady, NY (PRWEB) July 5, 2007 — The African Well Fund is excited to announce that this year’s fundraiser to “Build a Well for Bono’s Birthday” has raised more than $34,000 to fund clean water projects in Africa. This marks the 5th year in a row that U2 fans from around the world have come together to honor Bono’s May 10th birthday by raising money for clean water in Africa. All proceeds of the fundraiser will go directly to African Well Fund partner Africare, a leading non-profit organization assisting Africa, to fund clean water projects throughout the continent.

The Birthday fundraiser was launched on March 22nd, World Water Day, in honor of Bono, lead vocalist of the Irish rock band, U2. Unique fundraising strategies were used to collect the funds through May 15th : An Ebay photo auction of donated U2 concert photos raised more than $7,000! Donations were also boosted by the proceeds from the sale of a second U2 fan project, The Little Red Book of Poe-ee-tree, a collection of poems and short stories written by a handful of U2 fans scattered across the globe. After donating, fans signed an online birthday card for Bono at the African Well Fund web site www.africanwellfund.org . Their signatures and birthday greetings were incorporated into a beautiful hand made card that was sent to Bono in Dublin.

Bono’s activism on behalf of Africa is well known. In 2002, he co-founded DATA (debt, AIDS, trade, Africa) to raise public awareness of the issues in its name, and influence government policy on Africa. On behalf of DATA’s agenda, Bono has lobbied U.S. Presidents and Congressional leaders, along with the heads of many other G8 nations. DATA is a founding member of ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History, part of a global network of millions of people campaigning against extreme poverty. He recently served as guest editor of Vanity Fair’s special Africa issue. African Well Fund is honored to be featured as one of the Africa resources listed on Vanity Fair’s website.

The five annual birthday campaigns have raised more than $100,000 to fund clean water projects in Africa. Water and sanitation projects, funded by U2 fans have been implemented by our partner Africare in Uganda, Ethiopia, Angola and Zimbabwe. AWF and Africare are currently exploring options to fund for this year’s project and hope to announce details soon.

The African Well Fund is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization that was founded in 2002 by a group of U2 fans. Since that time, AWF has raised more than $300,000 which has been used to fund clean water projects throughout the continent. All donations to the African Well Fund go directly to Africare, one of the leading private, non-profit, charitable organizations assisting Africa. It is also the oldest and largest African-American led organization in that field. Since its founding in 1970, Africare has delivered more than $675 million in assistance and support to 36 countries Africa-wide. To learn more about Africare and its programs, please visit www.africare.org .

The African Well Fund was founded to focus on one achievable goal: providing access to clean water to everyone in Africa. The African Well Fund believes that access to water is not merely a basic human need but a Basic Human Right.