Parachute Festival is on again!

27 – 30 January 2012
At Mystery Creek in Hamilton

Parachute festival has a strong connection to the struggling community of Tubehoneza in Rwanda. Thanks to festival goers signing up to World Vision's Child Sponsorship programme, $1.6 million has gone to help children in Tubehoneza over the past five years. This awesome support has helped to provide clean, safe drinking water, new classrooms, and counselling for children orphaned by HIV and AIDS, just to name a few.

But the need in Tubehoneza is still great. The population has nearly doubled in the past five years and land for growing food is disappearing fast. More than 7200 children in the Kicukiro District where Tubehoneza is located are orphans. Many have lost one or both of their parents to the 1994 genocide and the HIV and AIDS epidemic, which continues to be a big problem in Tubehoneza. Without the help of Child Sponsorship, care for these vulnerable children falls on extended family or the community, who often don't have the means to care for them. The result: these children are left to fend for themselves. More than 2600 households in the Kicukiro District are headed by a child.

This year, Parachute has set the fantastic goal to get 450 child sponsorships for Tubehoneza over the weekend of Parachute 2012, so look out for the World Vision site while you're there! By sponsoring a child, you will help give children and their families in Tubehoneza the chance to reach their full potential to become independent and provide for themselves. With your help, we will equip the Tubehoneza community with the necessary knowledge and resources to break the poverty cycle.