THANK YOU ALL FOR COMING TO THE CONCERT

Thank you very much for coming out to our first annual benefit concert, DoYou Dream. We apologize for such not being able to contact you sooner and send out thanks for all of your warm and heartfelt support and interest in our organization. Prior and during the concert we have collected more than $5000 in donation, which EVERY cent of the money will be benefiting First Steps after all the expenses of the concert has been compensated.

As we've mentioned during the concert, we are just a bunch of like-minded students who felt the need to bring more awareness to the issues in North Korea. We are non-profitable student initiated and governed group and we hope to remain this way. Right at this moment, we are looking into becoming a registered charity so we can be more official and recognized when we try to reaching out to the community. Furthermore, we are going to become an UBC AMS CLUB as well so we can reach out to the UBC community as well.

We are hoping to get a room booked in Buchanan sometime next week or the week after reading break so you can meet the executive members and find out more about our organization. We will let you know ASAP when the room booking has been finalized so please stay tuned! :) Thanks again for your support and we look forward to meeting you in person

DoYou Dream

Why sponsor DoYou Dream Concert at UBC:

Date: Saturday, January 24, 2009
Location: SUB Ballroom, University of British Columbia


As the first annual DPRK awareness event organized by Present, the DoYou Dream concert will be a highly anticipated kick-off night towards achieving Present’s long term objectives. It will provide a window of opportunities for people from all different backgrounds, academic orientations, and age groups to learn and discover more about both North and South Korea.

It will feature traditional and contemporary Korean performances, talks from NGO personnel who work in North Korea, Korean food, and many more. All proceeds from the concert will be donated to First Steps(http://www.firststepscanada.org/). In addition, the planning of this concert provides common ground for Korean-Canadian student leaders to come together and support each other to grow professionally, fostering global citizenship and philanthropy.

Furthermore, the success of this event will firmly establish Present’s presence in the Lower Mainland and attract and encourage more Korean-Canadian students to become actively involved in one of Korea’s most critical political issues.

First Steps

All proceeds from our concert, "DoYou Dream," will be donated to First Steps.
_________________________________________________________

First Steps (FS) is a Vancouver-based Christian humanitarian organization with the purpose of preventing childhood malnutrition in DPRK (North Korea) through programs which provide essential nutrients to young children. FS is addressing immediate malnutrition and hunger issues by providing supplemental nutrition while it is providing the necessary equipment and training to build self-sufficient and healthier communities.

History: First Steps’ founding director Susan Ritchie was deeply moved by the plight of the children she saw as the interpreter for a Canadian government delegation that travelled to North Korea in 2000. She started FS with the help of church friends and FS became a registered charity in 2001. Since then, the FS’ involvement has expanded to provide soymilk to more than 70,000 children daily using VitaCow and VitaGoat machines - highly energy-efficient pressure cookers that process soybeans into nutrient-rich soymilk. Furthermore, in the spring of 2007, the FS started the Sprinkles program, a revolutionary micro-nutrient sachet. A single sachet of Sprinkles in diet combats anemia in women and many childhood afflictions associated with malnutrition. Since First Steps is an almost all-volunteer organization, counting only two part-time paid positions, they have consistently been able to place more than 90 percent of donations directly into programs.

North Korea, with a population of about 23 million, has suffered acute food shortages for more than a decade. United Nations and World Food Programme reports show that between two and three million North Korean children (infants to age five) suffer from stunted growth.


First Steps …
- provides nutritious soymilk to more than 70,000 hungry children daily
- has reduced malnutrition rate of pregnant women and lactating women from 56% to 32% in six months with Sprinkles
- has fundraised and contributed more than $500,000 in their food programs in year 2007
- has supplied more than 3.5 million sachets of Sprinkles and provided necessary nutrition to 35,000 babies and 37,000 pregnant and nursing women