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Calendar of Events Announcement

Contacts: Wendy Will, 708.434.5006, wendy@wilkspr.com
Gardi Wilks, 708.434.5006, gardi@wilkspr.com


Christ Church of Oak Brook, September 13-20, to Host Educational AIDS Exhibit
World Vision Experience: AIDS – Step Into Africa
Multimedia, interactive exhibit illustrates devastation of the AIDS pandemic as experienced by the children


WHAT: World Vision Experience: AIDS – Step Into Africa is a unique, multimedia, interactive exhibit that allows visitors to step into the lives of actual children affected by HIV and AIDS in the hardest-hit region of the world: Sub-Saharan Africa, where about 25 million people are infected with HIV (2/3 of the world’s total). Visitors walk through a replica of an African village and experience the effects of the pandemic in a real way as they listen to a personal audio track relating the story of one of four real children.

The “World Vision Experience: AIDS” exhibit comes to Oak Brook, IL, September 13-20. The exhibit visited 75 cities nationwide in 2007/2008, and is scheduled to visit 40 more in 2009. To date, hundreds of thousands of people have visited the exhibit, with more than 150,000 more expected to visit in 2009.

WHO: The exhibit, which is free and open to the public, features a 3,000 square foot replica of an African village. Visitors tour the village, listening on headsets to a personal audio track telling the true stories of four children – Kombo, Babirye, Emmanuel, and Mathabo – whose lives have been affected by AIDS, offering visitors the opportunity to see, hear and experience the devastating effects of AIDS in a very personal way.

WHEN: Free and open to the public from Sunday, September 13 – Sunday, September 20. Hours of operation are as follows: Sun Sept 13 – 9 am – 7 pm; Mon Sept 14 – Thu Sept 17 – 10 am – 8 pm; Fri Sept 18, noon – 10 pm; Sat Sept 19, 10 am – 8 pm; Sun Sept 20, 9 am – 7 pm.

WHERE: Christ Church of Oak Brook
501 Oak Brook Road (31st Street and York Road)
Oak Brook, IL 60523


INTERVIEW
CONTACTS: Media is invited to tour the exhibit and talk with World Vision exhibit directors. For interviews, please contact any of the individuals listed above. For additional information, visit www.worldvisionexperience.org. Check us out on Twitter at http://twitter.com/wvaids and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/World-Vision-Experience-AIDS/134624324488.


Background:
A prototype exhibit was launched in fall 2005, and hundreds of thousands of visitors have gone through the exhibit in cities all across the United States. The prototype Experience was featured at the 2006 Global AIDS Conference in Toronto and displayed in New York’s Grand Central terminal in the summer of 2006. The overwhelming response to the prototype exhibit led World Vision to commission the new exhibits and launch the upcoming national tour.

World Vision is a Christian relief and development organization dedicated to helping children and their communities worldwide reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty. World Vision serves the world’s poor regardless of a person’s religion, race, ethnicity, or gender. For more information, visit www.worldvision.org.

Posted: September 14th, 2009 | Report This Comment