HWI and UNICEF

[HWI]

Hi folks,

As we all know, Hayley was in Ghana April 4th to 8th to see for herself the conditions that so many children of the developing world live in.

We in the developed world take our TV's, DVD's, VCR's, Hi Fi's, cars and so many other things for granted. Although we all despise the conditions so many other people in the world have to live in, what do we, as individuals, actually do about it? What can individuals actually do about it?

Here we are with all our material possessions when so many have inadequate housing (if you can call it that in many cases), no sanitation, poor health care (if any at all), and scant education. Even clean drinking water is a luxury for those who can get it.

These people just want one thing. An opportunity to work themselves out of poverty. Before they can effectively do that, they need at least a basic education.

Hayley is actively working, as New Zealand Ambassador to UNICEF, on the project "Bikes for Ghana". When you think that girls in these places start their day with a whole host of household chores, then have to face a walk of at least 2 miles to get to school. Spend the day at school trying to get an education, then walk home and start into more chores. It is little wonder that many do not get the opportunity to even go to school.

This is where this project is so valuable. Just by giving them bikes, we make the journey to school so much easier and quicker. That makes it possible for many more girls to go to school and get that all important education.

We are asking, in co-operation with Hayley, her management team, and UNICEF NZ, for your help and support in this. When you see just how little it costs to provide a child with a bike (Just NZD40 for a bicycle and NZD60 for a tricycle for a disabled child), it will be realised that we really can do a lot to help these children.

The project has a target of 5,000 bikes and 1,000 tricycles.

There is now a special feature at the HWI main site
www.hayley-westenra-international.com
for this project. Please visit the site and read through the feature. And, if you are able, we would be extremely grateful if you would help in achieving this target by giving any amount, no matter how small.

This is your chance to make a real and lasting difference to a child's life. Please take it and show that the fans of Hayley Westenra are behind her 100%.

Thank you all in advance.

Keith.

[HWI]

Hi folks,

As you are all no doubt aware, we have a special UNICEF feature on the main HWI site, relating to our support of Hayley in her role as NZ Ambassador to UNICEF, and in support of their appeal for Bikes for Ghana. We now have a video news report, thanks to Belinda and Gerrit, about Hayley's visit to Ghana in early April.

Please go to the UNICEF feature and watch the video, it is a fascinating and disturbing look at the life of these children. And, if you are moved to the least degree, please rally behind Hayley and show your support for the appeal. You - yes you - can make a world of difference to a child's life today.

For any who do not know the url to HWI, it is:
www.hayley-westenra-international.com

The UNICEF feature is directly linked from the main page.

Thank you all,

Keith.

[nick0208uk]

Ever since the fundraising concert at Canada Hosue i've visited the UNICEF New Zealand site regularly to try and make a donation, unfortunately the secure form for payment never wanted to laod on my computer. I have a fee direct debts setup with the British brances of charities already, although i was finally able to make a doantion in recent weeks there appears to be no direct debit facility so i'll have to do manually from now on. I set the donation paramaters so that it would specifically target the "Strong Women for Strong Women" and "Bikes for Ghana" campaigns. I've paid far clsoer attention to issues surrounding the former since the NZ bases initiative was launched.

Keith, i'll get round to reading the dedicated section on HWI as soon as i can but could you answer this one questionfor me please? Although the "Bikes for Ghana" project was targeted on her recent trip, is Hayley still part of the ongoing "Strong Women for Strong Women" campaign?

thanks a lot

Nick W,

[HWI]

Hi Nick,

Yes, she most certainly is.

That's really all there is to say about that. i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Cheers,
Keith.

[nick0208uk]

admin said:

Hi Nick,

Yes, she most certainly is.

That's really all there is to say about that. i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Cheers,
Keith.

Alright, thanks, it answered my question.

Do you know if there are ways that people can support these campaigns, here in Britain, beyond donating money? I'm thinking of hings like donating your time or person if you know what i mean?

BTW, did you get my PM?

thanks

Nick W,

[HWI]

Hi Nick,

Yes, I got your PM. You should have one waiting for you. I answered it early yesterday.

The answer regarding the clip was a very big "yes please".

Cheers,
Keith.

[nick0208uk]

admin said:

Hi Nick,

Yes, I got your PM. You should have one waiting for you. I answered it early yesterday.

The answer regarding the clip was a very big "yes please".

Cheers,
Keith.

I thought as much on both points, however, my PM inbox on here has no messages in it. A glitch maybe? Could you resend it for me please?

On the clip, well i ahve no email address currently up and running capable of sending a file 73.6mb big, which is the size of the audio/video file from Wednesday night. I noticed in your profile that you might have MSN Messenger, if we can agree on a time, we should be ablt to send it through that. Is that possible? I also have the AOL and Yahoo instant messengers.

I'll probably read the UNICEF section tonight, hopefully that'll answer all my question.

jthanks

Nick W,

[Dave]

nick0208uk said:

admin said:

The answer regarding the clip was a very big "yes please".
Cheers,
Keith.

On the clip, well i ahve no email address currently up and running capable of sending a file 73.6mb big, which is the size of the audio/video file from Wednesday night. Nick W,

Hi Nick, If I may, I'll throw in a couple of ideas you could use if no-one comes up with better ideas (which they might do!)

I assume you aren't able to extract the audio (and recompress it if it's still too big a file)? If you can't do this, here's one easy way to get the file to one or more of us - assuming that you have broadband:

1) Download "HJSPLIT" from www.freebyte.com/hjsplit/#win32, extract the .exe program file from the zip file, use it to split your big file into sections (any size you like, maximum 50 MB per section - say 20 MB each). It's dead easy, I've just downloaded it and done a test on a 60MB file. Oh, if you have any problems with the zip file, I could email you HJSplit directly, it's quite small.

2) Upload the file pieces to rapidshare.de/ (free service) and let us know the name of the url/links they give you on their webpage. I've tested that too, and it works a treat.

3) We can then download the pieces and reassemble the full file using... HJSplit! Then, one of us (I can do it but others could, too) can extract the audio and any useable video, compress it and make it available to HWI.

That's probably the easiest way to do it if you haven't done this sort of thing before - what do you and others think?

If all else fails, there's always "burn to CDR and send it by snailmail" i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Cheers

Dave

[nick0208uk]

dave said:

nick0208uk said:

On the clip, well i ahve no email address currently up and running capable of sending a file 73.6mb big, which is the size of the audio/video file from Wednesday night. Nick W,

Hi Nick, If I may, I'll throw in a couple of ideas you could use if no-one comes up with better ideas (which they might do!)

I assume you aren't able to extract the audio (and recompress it if it's still too big a file)? If you can't do this, here's one easy way to get the file to one or more of us - assuming that you have broadband:

1) Download "HJSPLIT" from www.freebyte.com/hjsplit/#win32, extract the .exe program file from the zip file, use it to split your big file into sections (any size you like, maximum 50 MB per section - say 20 MB each). It's dead easy, I've just downloaded it and done a test on a 60MB file. Oh, if you have any problems with the zip file, I could email you HJSplit directly, it's quite small.

2) Upload the file pieces to rapidshare.de/ (free service) and let us know the name of the url/links they give you on their webpage. I've tested that too, and it works a treat.

3) We can then download the pieces and reassemble the full file using... HJSplit! Then, one of us (I can do it but others could, too) can extract the audio and any useable video, compress it and make it available to HWI.

That's probably the easiest way to do it if you haven't done this sort of thing before - what do you and others think?

If all else fails, there's always "burn to CDR and send it by snailmail" i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Cheers

Dave

Thanks for the tips, they were a help. The reason email wasn't an option is that all my main accounts are down as they haven't been setup on my new PC. I have my own server so there wouln't have been any constraints on that end.

I went for option 2 by the way, useful little service there, come in handy.

I've sent you and Keith a PM with the download URL. As i said before, there's one 2 - 3 second spell where you see some decent quality video but the rest is audio with my thumb over the lens or a nice shot of the night sky. Shame i didn't get the whole lot really but it cut out not far from the end.

Tell us what you think when you get a chance to check it out.

Thanks, have a good evening

Nick W,

[Dave]

Thanks Nick - I've got it i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

I see what you mean about the clicks and plops on audio, but apart from that it's good quality. I will see if it can be improved by editing/filtering (not sure if it can but I'll try). I certainly think it's well worth having, oh the memories! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

I'll do what i can as an audio file and I may also try it as video with a low framerate still shot from your video, or from my own photos of Jose/Hayley depending which is better.

I wonder what Keith thinks?

Cheers, Dave

[HWI]

Hi Dave,

Your intervention and assistance in this would be most gratefully received. Quite where we would be without your sterling work, I don't know.

Cheers,
Keith.

p.s. let me know when it's available for download, with cc to Simon. In other words, as usual. i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

[gareth]

As far as I am concerned, I offer the usual service to - I could have offered Nick another option (if you know how to use FTP, Nick).

Still the last few days I haven't been on line much, so I missed this discussion!

Gerrit