SOS Children’s Villages, the world’s largest non-governmental organization dedicated to raising orphaned and abandoned children, is working to address the needs of these children each day and asks you to support us during World Orphan Week from October 5-11. By joining with SOS Children's Villages, you can lend your voice to help these children!
To participate in World Orphan Week, you can enter our video contest, sign a petition on the rights of a child, sponsor a child, send a free eCard and volunteer to help orphaned and abandoned children!
Here are the guidelines that entrants needed to follow...
Timeline
- Submit your video to the World Orphan Week YouTube group page by October 5, 2008. Judges will view and rate videos based on Wow Us criteria to determine finalists.
- Finalists will be notified and posted to the wowus.org web site on October 6, 2008.
- Everyone, including SOS supporters and your friends and family, can vote for their favorite video between October 6, 2008 through October 19, 2008. The winner will be determined based on number of votes.
- On October 21, 2008, the winner will be announced on wowus.org.
- Shortly after the announcement of the winner, the winner's video and story will be featured on TVNewser, a mediabistro.com blog, and throughout the Web, including SOS-USA.org, the SOS Children's Villages blog, Facebook, MySpace, a press release sent to media nationwide and in an SOS eNewsletter!
Call to Action
- Include the following sentence in your video - "Help orphans worldwide by donating to SOS. Go to donate.wowus.org!"- OR include another call for donations that directs people to donate.wowus.org.
Starter Content Video Toolkit
Use one of these logos in your video. Right click and select "Save Target As" to download the files to your computer.
Include at least one of the following World Orphan Week key facts in your video:
- Every 2.2 seconds a child loses a parent
- There are 133 million children who have lost one or both of their parents, and 15 million are orphaned due to AIDS. Of these numbers, 14 million children have lost both of their parents
- Less than 1% of orphans are adopted worldwide
Photos and video clips you can use:
- Photos - Use poignant images from our SOS Children's Villages throughout the world!
- Video clip - Feel free to edit parts of this video, Every Child Belongs to a Family: What SOS Children's Villages Stands For, into your video!
If you use outside people in your video, you may need to get them to sign a release form. You can download our sample release form below. Please modify it to fit your needs but, remember, use of this release form does not affiliate you in any way with SOS Children's Villages or its affiliates.
WOW Us Video Contest Rules Overview
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All individuals who submit videos for World Orphan Week should submit video content to the World Orphan Week 2008 contest group page on YouTube, located at http://www.youtube.com/group/wowus.
- Submissions must be uploaded to the WOW YouTube page between September 3, 2008 and October 5, 2008. Submitted videos should have a maximum running time of no longer than two (2) minutes and must comply with all terms associated with use of the YouTube Web site.
- Rules are available here in PDF format. SOS Children's Villages reserves the right to modify these rules at any time without notice.
Judging Panel
- Heather Paul, PhD: Heather is the Executive Director of SOS Children's Villages - USA. Her mission is to build visibility and support for SOS villages across the world. She has an extensive background with children's issues, public policy, communications and research.
- Weston Almond, mediabistro.com: Weston is a producer at mediabistro.com who has produced and directed everything from award-winning videos for the Muppets to videos on land mine safety in Afghanistan, environmental awareness with Meryl Streep and preppie clothing for Polo Ralph Lauren. Weston has written several feature-length screenplays, including Victory & Loco, which was sold to Warner Brothers Studios. He is a member of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Writers Guild of America.
- Victor Blandburg: Victor is an Emmy-award winning videographer with extensive experience working in film and photography. In addition to winning Emmys, Victor also acts as a judge for the Emmys. Victor produced the 2008 World Orphan Week introduction video for SOS Children's Villages. Visit his web site at www.vrbphotography.com.
- Shelley A. Simpson: Shelley is a professional whose work has included national and local news broadcasts. She has been at the forefront in breaking some of the most famous news items of our time. Shelley is also an experienced judge for the Emmys. Shelley also leant her hand to the World Orphan Week introduction video.
Their keen eyes and experience will help determine the finalists based on the following criteria:
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Originality/Creativity – Does this video Wow Us? Is the approach creative?
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Thematic Appropriateness – Does the content of the video embody the essence of this contest?
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Effectiveness – Does this video inspire people to take action to help orphaned and abandoned children?
- Impression – How many online views has this video received from the public?
Donate 2 Minutes to Raise Awareness...
Not inclined to make a video? Here are some other ways to get involved.
Proud Supporters of World Orphan Week
SOS Children's Villages is proud to partner with mediabistro.com, the premier career, community and content resource for media professionals. TVNewser, a mediabistro.com blog, will feature the WOW US Video Contest winner on its site!
Gate Gourmet, a Gategroup Member and the world’s largest independent airline catering and logistics provider, has also teamed up with SOS Children's Villages to bring a $1,000 prize to the WOW Us Video Contest winner!