PR: Anthem Avenue Will Help Combat Aids
| NEW VOCAL TRIO ANTHEM AVENUE WILL HELP GOSPEL COMMUNICATIONS INTERNATIONAL COMBAT AIDS
Nashville, Tenn. – As the exclusive artist representing the media ministry Gospel Communications International (GCI), new vocal group Anthem Avenue has already begun the process of assisting in GCI's "Gospel Response to Aids" Initiative (GRAIDS). The group will help obtain donations to fund a massive 10-year campaign to educate the people of sub-Saharan Africa about HIV/AIDS through the use of film and accompanying curriculum. The second GRAIDS film currently in pre-production is designed to educate African women on the issues and to encourage them to take the needed steps to protect their unborn child, steps that can prevent mother-to- child transmission of the HIV/AIDS virus during birth. |
| Last May, one of Anthem Avenue's members (Carly Fair pictured below) had a chance to travel with Gospel Communications to both Ghana and Nigeria to see the work they have already begun. "While in Nigeria we had lunch with a group of people who are living with HIV/AIDS," said Carly Fair. "The woman I was sitting next to was three months pregnant. We shared with her about the medication that is available to possibly prevent her unborn child from being born with HIV/AIDS. Unless she took the needed steps, her baby was one of 600,000 born this year that will contract the HIV/AIDS virus from its mother. To think that the GRAIDS project could help to reverse that trend and save literally hundreds of thousands of innocent babies is so very humbling."
Katie Seaton, another group member, concurs. "The longer I am in Anthem Avenue, the more clearly I understand that this ministry has nothing to do with us. The Lord isn't looking for the best singer. He is looking for willing hearts. After every concert, we want to leave something behind. We want to put something of lasting value in the music minister's hands or the youth leader's hands that bears fruit long after we leave. That's always our goal." "As a faith-based organization, Gospel Communications is committed to forging partnerships to respond to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, utilizing media resources for HIV/AIDS education and challenging viewers to respond with compassion rather than judgment. We have begun with our Gospel Response to AIDS Initiative (GRAIDS), but we all must do more," said Rev. J. R. Whitby, President of Gospel Communications. Gospel Communications is drawing on more than 20 years of experience in Sub-Saharan Africa and the world, to produce and distribute videos and other educational materials that address the HIV/AIDS pandemic. One of the many goals of GRAIDS is to reduce the number of new HIV/AIDS cases where the film and curriculum are used. Gospel Communications hopes to raise awareness through its strategic plan to equip pastors, film evangelists, faith-based organizations, educators, health workers, government organizations, and NGOs who have already-established relationships in local communities with the necessary tools required to disseminate the information needed to combat the disease. Anthem Avenue's debut CD, WHEN ANGELS COME, will hit stores in mid-May via Infinity Distribution. The group has toured with David Phelps, and will be featured at several events during Gospel Music Week in Nashville, April 21-25. Gospel Communications is a non-profit Christian ministry founded in 1950 as Gospel Films, Inc. with the conviction that films, videos and other communication media offer an effective means of reaching people. GCI is working in more than 55 languages reaching into more than 200 countries and territories with their media tools. Media Contact: |
