We are 46 days out from National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NWGHAAD) so we’re asking you for the FIFTH year in a row to #RockTheRedPump with us. We are working hard to make this year our biggest year yet, and we hope that you will join in this mission.

In the days leading up to March 10th, we will engage with you in a variety of ways designed to get you thinking AND to inspire you to take action on NWGHAAD and every day after. On March 10^th, we are going to paint the Internet (and beyond) red with blog posts, images, tweets, and events ALL dedicated to raising awareness about the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls.

Fired up yet? Awesome.

Here’s how you can #RocktheRedPump:

• Register your website here and download one of five custom badges to boldly display on your page.
• Follow us on Facebook for shareable image cards and cover photos that you can share or download for posting on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
• Participate in #RockTheRedPump Twitter chats in February and March
• Wear red pumps (or other red shoes) on March 10 and upload photos to The Red Pump Project Facebook page.
• Pledge to share HIV/AIDS information with five women before March 10.
• Join us for Red Pump events in Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Dallas and Washington D.C.

Do you have questions about the campaign? This FAQ sheet should help. Whether you are a first-time participant or an “old” pro, we thank you in advance for supporting this movement!

The post Are You Ready to Rock the Red Pump? appeared first on The Red Pump Project.

Today, we launch our fourth annual Rock the Red Pump™ bloggers campaign, in recognition of National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NWGHAAD), which is March 10th annually. The campaign’s goal is to generate conversation in blogosphere about the issue of HIV/AIDS and how it affects women. In the 50 days leading up to NWGHAAD, we ask bloggers to place one of our 5 badges on their websites to represent the strength and courage of women fighting HIV/AIDS or affected by the disease. Then on NWGHAAD, people across blogosphere dedicate their posts to talking about the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls. Well, this year, we’d like to paint blogosphere red on March 9, 2012, a Friday. And then on March 10th, we’ll be having events in cities across the country (details to come on those!).

Last year, with the support of BlogHer, the largest community of women who blog, over 1,250 blogs were involved in the campaign. This year we are raising the bar (with their help once again)! Not only do our badges feature a custom illustration from Veronica Miller, but we are also challenging ourselves to “Rock the Red Pump” on 2,500 BLOGS on March 9, 2012!

Whether you are a first-time participant or an “old” pro, we thank you for supporting this movement! There are also other ways for you to demonstrate your involvement in the 50 days leading up to March 10th.

• Sign up to “Rock the Red Pump” and embed one of our five custom badges in the sidebar of your website and/or blog.

• Dedicate a post to the important issue of HIV/AIDS and women on March 9, 2012 (We’re choosing to paint blogosphere FIERCE on this day because March 10 is a Saturday this year). Need some statistics to get started? Check out our HIV/AIDS 101 page.

• Participate in our weekly #RedPumpDiaries Twitter discussions on a variety of important sexual health topics

• Snap a photo in your favorite pair of red shoes and share with us via our Facebook page, Twitter, and/or Tumblr.

• Spread the word and tell a friend!

Thank you for your support and we look forward to joining us to “Rock the Red Pump” in 2012! Official hashtag: #RocktheRedPump! SIGN UP FOR THE CAMPAIGN.

SIGN UP TO JOIN THE CAMPAIGN HERE

Help us spread the word! Tweet

The post Announcing the launch of the 4th annual Rock the Red Pump Campaign! appeared first on The Red Pump Project.

On January 18, 2012, The Red Pump Project will launch its 4th annual Rock the Red Pump™ campaign. It’s an initiative to commemorate National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NWGHAAD), which is March 10th every year. In fact, that’s how Red Pump got started almost 3 years ago!

The Rock the Red Pump™ campaign’s goal is to generate conversation in blogosphere about the issue of HIV/AIDS and how it affects women. In the 50 days leading up to March 10th, Red Pump asks bloggers to place one of the campaign badges on their websites to represent the strength and courage of women fighting HIV/AIDS or affected by the disease. Then on NWGHAAD, people across blogosphere dedicate their posts to talking about the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls. Also, put on your favorite pair of red shoes on NWGHAAD and be fierce!

Our last campaign, we had a goal of getting 500 bloggers, but we more than doubled it and got over 1,200 blogs to Rock the Red Pump™! This year, our goal is to get 2,500 bloggers to join us in raising awareness about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 50 days leading up to NWGHAAD. Well, this year, we’d like to paint blogosphere red on March 9, 2012, a Friday. And then on March 10th, we’ll be having events in cities across the country. Details to come on those!

We’re so excited to have BlogHer, the biggest community of women bloggers join us as a supporter for a 2nd year in a row!

Help is kick off our campaign on January 18, 2012! You’ll be able to sign up and grab a badge of your choice that day. We’re really looking forward to being 2,500 strong on March 9, 2012!

Official hashtag: #RocktheRedPump!

Follow @redpumpproj

The post Save the Date: Launch of the 4th Annual Rock the Red Pump™ Campaign appeared first on The Red Pump Project.

Follow Red Pump on Twitter at: @RedPumpProj

The post The Tweets Are Talking: National Women & Girls’ HIV/AIDS Awareness Day appeared first on The Red Pump Project.

Today is National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NWGHAAD) and we’re proudly and fiercely Rocking the Red Pump with over 1,200 bloggers from around the country (and the world).

Every 35 minutes, a woman tests positive for HIV in the United States. Though much progress has been made in the areas of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, women still represent 27 percent of all new AIDS diagnoses, with African-American women making up an overwhelming 66 percent of that number. In 2006, teen girls represented 39% of AIDS cases reported among 13–19 year-olds. Black teens represented 69% of cases reported among 13–19 year-olds; Latino teens represented 19%. These startling statistics are the driving force behind Red Pump’s message.

Fifty days ago, we launched our 3rd Annual “Rock the Red Pump” campaign with the goal of getting 500 blogs involved. Today, we’re ecstatic to be standing over 1,200 blogs strong, all uniting to represent the courage of all the women and girls who are infected and affected with HIV/AIDS.

In addition to commemorating NWGHAAD today, we are also recognizing the 2nd Anniversary of The Red Pump Project. What started as a small idea has blossomed into a movement that has grown beyond any of our expectations. We’d like to thank all the bloggers who are “Rocking the Red Pump” on their websites today and are using their voice and influence to shine a light on this issue. We’d also like to thank the women everywhere who are rocking their favorite pair of red pumps (or flats) today. We created a video thank you all!

To commemorate the day, we’re having official Red Pump events around the country. Please read more about them on our events page.

We will be hosting a Twitter Townhall from 1:30-3:00pm CST. Please join us as we ask people to talk about why they find it important to recognize NWGHAAD. Follow us on Twitter (@RedPumpProj).

Today, we will be tracking the use of the hashtag #RocktheRedPump and #NWGHAAD on our website.

As you honor NWGHAAD, we ask that you take the time to ask a friend and/or family member when is the last time that they’ve been tested. Knowing your status is such an important step in the fight against HIV/AIDS. For a list of HIV testing sites, you can visit hivtest.org.

Thank you again for all of support of The Red Pump Project and, more importantly, your commitment to the fight against AIDS. We’re all making a difference one red pump (or flat) at a time. And we’ll continue to do work that shows that “Awareness is Always in Style!™”

Luvvie & Karyn
The Red Pump Project Co-Founders

P.S. We’re really looking forward to seeing the red pumps (or flats) you’re all wearing today! Please upload pics to our Facebook Fan page!

The post We’re Proudly “Rocking the Red Pump” for NWGHAAD! appeared first on The Red Pump Project.

We launched our 3rd annual “Rock the Red Pump” campaign on January 18, and invited bloggers across the country to join us in commemorating National Women and Girls’ HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NWGHAAD). We asked individuals to use their platforms and influence to help us raise awareness about the increasing impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls.

Our goal was to get 500 blogs to place one of the six available Red Pump badges on their sidebars in the 50 days leading to NWGHAAD (March 10th). Well, you all have answered — in a MAJOR way. Half way through our campaign, we are happy to say that we not only reached our goal, but we’ve SURPASSED it!!! We’re SO excited to announce that 650 blogs have signed up to “Rock the Red Pump!”

*throws confetti* 650 and counting! WOW! A list of 500 of the Red Pump-Rocking blogs has already been placed on our website and we’re working hard on adding the rest.

We couldn’t have done this without the support of all those who, not only signed up, but chose to share the message with the masses. So many of you took to Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr to tell others about the “Rock the Red Pump: 500 in 50″ campaign.

We also want to give a special thanks to the ladies of BlogHer for their huge support! They have allowed our campaign to be a part of their publishing network, and it helped immensely to help us get the word out. Thank you to the BlogHer community for the great response and embracing this cause.

If you haven’t signed up for the campaign yet, we’d still love you to join us! You can sign up to “Rock the Red Pump” HERE and you’ll get a link to the page to get one of the 6 badges to place on your sidebar.

If you all were a pair of red pumps, you’d be the fiercest ones that a woman could rock. FIERCEST, we say!

The success of this campaign so far helps prove that “Awareness is always in style!” We look forward to standing 500 (well 650+) strong on March 10th! Thank you!

P.S. We’re really looking forward to seeing the red pumps you’re all going to wear on March 10th. We’d love for you to upload them to our Facebook fan page that day. Feel free to rock flats too. All red shoes welcome!

The post We Did It! 500 blogs in 50 days? Nope. 650 in 25! appeared first on The Red Pump Project.

Every year, the United States recognizes March 10th as National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NWGHAAD). It’s a nationwide initiative to raise awareness about the increasing impact of HIV/AIDS on women & girls and encourages ladies to take action. While progress has definitely been made in the areas of AIDS prevention and treatment, women still represent 27% of all new AIDS diagnoses, with African-American women accounting for 66% of that group.

In observance of this day, The Red Pump Project is asking bloggers to join us in the third annual “Rock the Red Pump™” campaign: 500 in 50. Last year, 250 of you took to Twitter, Facebook, and your blogs to help us “Rock the Red Pump” and this year, we’re asking you to do it again! We have a goal of getting 500 blogs and we have 50 days to do it!

Leading up to March 10th, we’re asking bloggers to “Rock the Red Pump” widget on their sidebars to represent the strength and courage of women fighting HIV/AIDS or affected by the disease both directly and indirectly. Then on NWGHAAD, we would like you to embed the Red Pump Widget within a post with a short snippet of its significance, including some statistics about HIV/AIDS and its effect on women and girls. Besides, the Red Pump will add a touch of FIERCE to your already FABULOUS blogs! We want you to join The Red Pump Project and help spread awareness of National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.

To sign up to participate, go HERE. You’ll then receive confirmation and badge codes! We have 5 badges for you to pick from this year!

If you sign up, your blog/site will be placed on a list of “Red Pump Rockers” on the Red Pump site. Also, on March 10th, you’ll be linked on a post that will run on the following sites: The Red Pump Project, Awesomely Luvvie and The Fabulous Giver on that day.

Sign up for the “Rock the Red Pump” campaign HERE. If you’re already “Rocking the Red Pump” on your sidebar, please get one of the new badges we’ve created for 2011! Thank you for your support of The Red Pump Project and we look forward to rocking 500 strong on March 10, 2011!

Regards,

Team Red Pump

SIGN UP FOR THE CAMPAIGN HERE!

The post Join Us To Rock the Red Pump: 500 in 50 appeared first on The Red Pump Project.

Biography: A beautiful blogger, fabulous fashionista, and a humble humanitarian are only a few ways to describe Ms. Kina Gunnels. This Kansas City socialite owns the very chic KCity Coffee House & Wine Bar, keeps her audience informed on the latest fashions and trends via her site http://www.kinagolightly.com/, actively volunteers with numerous organizations, and best of all Kina is still a fantastic wife and mother.

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Appearing on the cover of Essence Magazine in 1994, telling her story “The Face of AIDS,” Rae has inspired countless people across the world. She has traveled worldwide in an unending crusade challenging stereotypes and myths around HIV/AIDS. In addition to being in Essence magazine, Rae has been featured in many publications: Ebony, Jet, O-The Oprah Magazine, Glamour, WOW, Lifelines, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Washington Post, to name a few. Rae is also a licensed Baptist minister, with a Master of Divinity. She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. For these reasons and COUNTLESS MORE…

The post You’re invited to "Rock the Red" appeared first on The Red Pump Project.

Every 35 minutes, a woman tests positive for HIV in the United States. This is this year’s theme for National Women and Girls’ HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NWGHAAD). Created by the Office of Women’s Health, NWGHAAD is March 10th of every year. Its goal is to serve as a day for women to come together to encourage dialogue and educate women and girls about the HIV/AIDS epidemic and its increasing impact.

I am proud to be the co-founder of The Red Pump Project and one of the people “Rocking the Red Pump” to commemorate this day with millions of other women across the country.

I “Rock the Red Pump” because:

• Black women make up 66% of all new diagnoses of HIV in women
• Women are the caretakers and when we get sick, it truly affects those around us
• HIV is nature’s natural oxymoron. Sex is supposed to bring forth life, not take it.
• HIV is one of the deadliest diseases in the world, yet it’s one of the few that isn’t communicable (like malaria) or initiated within the body (like cancer)
• I want women to be empowered to live well with the disease (if they are positive) and for those who don’t have it to make sure they don’t get it

I also “Rock the Red Pump” because I feel like it’s my life’s work.

For these and countless more reasons, I will continue to “Rock the Red Pump.”
So this is the 2nd of many NWGHAAD where you will find me “Rocking the Red Pump” to represent the strength and courage of those women affected directly and indirectly by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Awareness is always in style.

Here’s a list of other blogs that are “Rocking the Red Pump” today:

::fbi:: {feel beautiful inside} the blog | *EssenseVibez | A Day in the Life | A Lady’s Perspective | A Taste of Angel Cake | AAUW | Adventures in Divorce | Aesthetic Design Style | Affrodite | Afrobella | Aisha Turman | Allegory of an Underage Femme Fetale | AroundHarlem.com | Art Aids Art | Artiatesia Deal | AS USUAL | Ask Sassy Scribe | Awesomely Luvvie | BeautySchooled | Belle Noir Magazine | Big. Beautiful. You. | Belle Black Girl Blogging | Black Gives Back | Black is Breezie | Black Vixen Beauty | Black Woman Lost & Found | Bourgie, Interrupted | Brownngirl | C’est La Vie | ChiTown Fashionista | Chronicles of a Skinny Black Girl | Chronicles of an Uppity Chick | Circa 1982: Ramblings of a Little Brown Girl… | Clumps of Mascara | Coming of Age | Curvatude – Living Curvy and Plus Size with Attitude | CurvyGurl Chronicles~ Living La Vida Inspired! | Da Fashionist | Diary of Curvy Jones | Diva Living with AIDS | Divas Ranting | Dream As If You’ll Live Forever | Elbie | Elegant Ignance | Empress Says | Enlightn Me | Enlightn Me Events | Fabulous Moms in Charlotte | Fantastical Randomocity | Fashion. News. Updates. Shoes – Pumpsicle | Fear is no Factor | Feel Free to Answer Your Questions | Finding Me | Flaimahmy Magazine | [Fung'Ke][Blak][Chik] | Get Yoself Together | Happy Being Me | Having My Cake and Eating It Too | Healthier, Happier, You!!!! | Hey You Asked! | Hope Is Our Path | I’ll Think of a Title Later | I’m Just Teling You How I See It | Idaya Magazine | Idiosyncratic Thoughts of an Unheeded Prophetess | Ifelicious | Illustrocity | Intellectual Soul || Music with an I.Q. | Inverted Reflection | Ironically Aaronica | Island Mompreneur | Jenifer Moore Online | Jenny P. || INSPIRATION | Jessica’s Jewels | La Petite Maitresse | Lady Spin Doctors | Living Outside the Stacks | Luvv Divine | MamaLaw: Evidence for Our Insanity Plea | Max Logic | Megan’s Minute | Miss Jia: She Ain’t For Everybody | Moving Towards Peace | Mrs Windy City UnPluGGed | MsQuitey’s Place | My 927 Charlotte | My Beautiful Cocoon | My Black Girl Site | My Brown Baby | My Legal Belle | My Life – A Work In Progress | My Life…in Pics & Words | My Polar Opposite | Naked and Natural | Negrita’s Chronicles | Nola Girl in Transition | Not So Idle Thoughts and Musings | Nu Kynk | Of Service: A Life Lived for Others Pampered Sweet Tooth | Pigments and Potions | Planting Seeds | Pontificating Brother | Pop Rockets | Pretty Investigations | Project Nefertiti | Random and Pressing Details | Reaching Within | Reads4Pleasure | Reflections of a Gemini Artist | Reina’s Song | rellisonphotography | RSVP Event Planning and Management | Sable Verity | Secret Diaries of a Wannabe Yummy Mammy | Shannon Sez So | Shoes N Booze | Situations with Sassy | So Tenacious | Sojourners Verdad | Stripped | SURRENDERDOROTHYBLOG.COM | Tea and Such | That One Chick | The Anti-Hair Slave | The Atlanta Mompreneur | The Attic of My Mind | The Bead Dreamer | The Beauty XChange | The BlogRollers | The Broken Brown Egg | The Cocoa Diaries | The Essence of Full-Figured Entertainment | The Evolution of the Cubicle Crusaders | The Fabulous Do Gooder | The Fabulous Giver | The Fit Lounge | The FoolProof Diva | The Glamizon Chronicles | The Plus Academy: Ready to Runway | The Sassy Peach | The Single Dame (R) | The Soundtrack of My Life | The Young and Disenchanted | Things Aren’t Always as They Appear | ThinkAct: Proactive Black Blogging | This Ain’t That | Thoughts of a Jersey Girl | Thoughts on Being Seen | Total Life Prosperity Blog | Urban Perspective | Victor Amos Blog | We Are Black Women | A Blog Network With A Positive Difference | What DC People Hate | What Would Thembi Do | Where in the World… | Where My Ladies At? Women in Hip Hop | Whittier Rio Hondo AIDS Project | Wife Mother First Lady | Women of the African Diaspora | Www.krystalgrant.com | XI Magazine Online | Young Lioness

Oh and these are the ACTUAL Red Pumps I’m Rocking today:

Ladies, upload YOUR Red Pump pictures to our Flickr group or our Facebook page!

—————
P.S. Join us for a Twitter Townhall at 1pm CST. We’ll be moderating a discussion on Twitter asking folks “Why do you Rock the Red Pump?” and other questions pertaining to HIV/AIDS and women.

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