Press: In the News

Additional Hearing Missions to the Middle East with the goal of donating up to 1,000 hearing aids in the next 12 months

NORTHRIDGE, California (August 25, 2011) – The ALO Cultural Foundation’s Medical Treatment Empowerment Programs continues to support local and international charities through humanitarian partnerships to identify children in need of medical relief with special circumstances in the Middle East and the United States, and is proud to announce the extension of its Forever Wish initiative in collaboration with the Starkey Hearing Foundation, a leading provider of hearing missions worldwide.

The organizations have been working together to increase the number of hearing missions to the Middle East, enabling even greater collaboration between the two foundations. The ALO Cultural Foundation, one of the most progressive grassroots, cross-cultural awareness charities in the United States and the Middle East, and the Starkey Hearing Foundation, who delivers more than 50,000 hearing aids annually through more than 100 hearing missions a year in countries stretching from the U.S. to Vietnam, will continue cooperating to provide the gift of hearing for the underprivileged in the Middle East.

As part of the continued efforts to reach out to underserved, global communities, the two foundations successfully worked together during the ALO Cultural Foundation’s mission to Lebanon. As a result, ALO founder Wafa Kanan, arranged a special medical mission for Hussein Balhas to the United States, a child with Frasier Syndrome condition (physical abnormalities to face and body). During the mission—possible in part through the generosity of several participating physicians, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s International Children's Surgery Fund and Mending Kids International—it was discovered that Hussein’s hearing aids could not handle his need for custom 50-gain receivers. In stepped Dennis van Vleet, Starkey’s Western Region Director was able to customize a quality hearing solution for Hussein. This effort provided and enabled the ALO Foundation to enhance Hussein’s quality of life, empowering Hussein’s social interaction, education, comprehension ability and attentiveness in addition to increase the awareness and mission for both organizations to implement a support system for hearing aids in the region.

Since then, ALO has assumed the responsibility of providing a lifetime support for Hussein, making it possible for him to eventually progress with his condition and beyond. Starkey’s Business Sales Manager Giscard Bechara checks in with Hussein regularly, reporting that Hussein has adapted very well with his new RIC devices. Embracing ALO’s mission to educate, empower and enlighten those in need, the organizations are exploring ways to expand their collaboration with the goal of donating up to 1,000 hearing aids in the next 12 months.

“As the partnership with the Starkey Foundation continues to grow, the underprivileged, hearing-impaired children of the Middle East will have access to a more promising future through our Forever Wish program,” says Kanan. “We are committed to delivering quality education, increased technical skills and emotional empowerment to physically challenged children - despite the deterrents of poverty, illiteracy and neglect. This partnership will enable both organizations to increasingly share capabilities – Starkey with hearing aids and ALO with developing human potential.

“Auditory perception is essential to language development and proficiency; people with hearing deficits are at a disadvantage and face enormous obstacles in life. Removing these barriers makes it possible for individuals to realize their potential and become productive members of their respective societies. From the moment his life began, Hussein confronted a multitude of complex challenges, but due to the collaboration of many individuals, his undaunted, beautiful spirit remains valiant. ALO is very proud to be a part of his victorious effort.”

Backed by a decade of philanthropic work, the ALO Cultural Foundation was founded to build stronger, healthier communities through social investment. The Foundation focuses on community outreach, education and empowerment programs for women, youth mentoring in the U.S. and other forms of assistance to disadvantaged communities worldwide. Through its various initiatives, such as its support of orphanages in Egypt and other surrounded countries, ALO aims to promote cultural understanding and to advocate for social change. The Foundation provides myriad educational opportunities that empower those with a thirst for life, the chance for a lifetime of learning and personal fulfillment.

About the ALO Cultural Foundation

The Foundation’s mission is to educate, empower and enlighten members of disadvantaged global communities, with special emphasis on the U.S. and the Middle East. ALO seeks to heal gaps in cultural understanding while impacting the quality of life of everyone they encounter. Through good will expeditions to the Middle East, special events and philanthropy, the Foundation offers their devotion and loyalty to the most vulnerable: women and children who require guidance during their first tenuous steps toward self sufficiency. Their programs instill the confidence necessary to transform lives and build brighter futures. ALO stands for this primary, basic tenet - that humanity has no nationality – that the ways we are all alike far out-number our differences. Key to raising our common awareness is through person-to-person contact, engagement designed to break through arbitrary geo-political boundaries and damaging stereotypes.

For Further Information, contact Jack Reed, Unique Image, Inc., 818/727-7785.

About The Starkey Hearing Foundation

The Starkey Hearing Foundation is striving to change the social consciousness of hearing and hearing loss prevention. Hearing loss affects one in 10 Americans, and 63 million children worldwide, yet many do not have access to the hearing devices that can help correct that disability. The Foundation has a yearly goal of giving more than 100,000 hearing aids through hearing missions in countries stretching from the U.S. to Vietnam. Since 2000, the Foundation has supplied nearly 498,000 hearing aids to people in need and is striving to achieve its goal of distributing over one million free hearing aids in this decade.

For more information on the Starkey Hearing Foundation, including the Listen Carefully campaign, visit www.starkeyhearingfoundation.org.

ALO Cultural Foundation presents Cultural Diplomacy: Unraveling the publicity machine to understand the identity and integration of Middle Eastern-Americans

Co-hosted by Hon. LeRoy D. Baca, Los Angeles County Sheriff and ALO Magazine, America’s Top Middle Eastern Lifestyle Magazine

Who:

LeRoy D. Baca, Los Angeles County Sheriff

Wafa Kanan, Publisher of ALO Magazine and Founder, ALO Cultural Foundation

Moderated by Bill Overton, media consultant for WAO Communications, Inc.

Invited Guests include:

Hon. Governor Jerry Brown of California, Octavia Nasr, CNN's Chief Middle East correspondent for 20 years; Farouk El-Bez, NASA Scientist and Professor at Boston University; Rima Fakih, Miss USA 2010; Joseph Haiek, Publisher of the Arab-American Almanac.

What:

CULTURAL DIPLOMACY brings together corporations, media, government agencies, educational institutions, community leaders and social agencies to discuss the diversity of the Middle Eastern Culture, the mystery that wraps around it, the misconceptions, perspectives and perception of the heritage in the mainstream. At the conclusion, the framework will be established to map a social plan for world class tolerance.

Where:

Sheriff's Department Headquarters, Media Conference Room

4700 West Ramona Boulevard

Monterey Park, CA 91754

When:

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

1:00 P.M. - 3:00 P.M.

Why:

The unique roundtable will bring to light the positive economical and cultural impact the Middle Eastern community has delivered to the U.S. It seeks to illustrate our similarities and distinctions, facilitate diversity issues through healthy and cross cultural relationships and expand the perspectives of an emerging community.

How:

A panel of experts from the diverse landscape of the United States will be assembled for policy-shaping collaboration. Along with Sheriff Baca, Kanan—one of the foremost experts in cross-cultural tolerance and education—opens a frank and diverse discussion between an intimate gathering of cultural, media, business leaders, and educators that will ultimately lead to a greater understanding of Middle Easterners in America.

For Further Information: ALO Cultural Foundation 818/727-7785

August 8, 2011...American Friends of UNRWA (AFU) thanks the ALO Cultural Foundation of Northridge, California for its support of UNRWA’s Adopt a School Program. The Foundation has partnered with AFU to sponsor one class of students at UNRWA’s Beach Elementary Co-ed School in Beach Camp, Gaza. The ALO Foundation’s generous contribution to the Adopt a School program will provide thirty-eight students at Beach School with a school uniform, backpack, school supplies, hygiene kit, school lunches, and food parcels for evening meals.

Adopt a School is an United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) program to increase children’s access to education in Gaza and improve the quality of education provided by UNRWA schools. UNRWA currently operates 214 schools serving 213,000 students in Gaza. The program provides critically needed maintenance work to existing schools and expands existing facilities to accommodate Gaza’s growing student population. It administers psychological and remedial support for students in need, while covering the cost of school supplies and meals that Gazan families would otherwise be unable to afford.

UNRWA’s Adopt a School program is consistent with the ALO Foundation’s mission to educate, empower, and enlighten members of disadvantaged global communities, and to increase understanding between Middle Eastern and Western societies. The Foundation’s founder and executive director, Wafa Kanan, has been recognized and honored by numerous national and international government agencies for her innovative work on intercultural relationship initiatives from The United States to the Middle East.

In the 2011 spring semester American Friends of UNRWA and its partners donated $25,000.00 to Beach School. AFU is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides support for the humanitarian work of the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) through advocacy, fundraising and education. AFU aims to educate the general American public about the situation of the Palestinian refugees and generate support for UNRWA’s programs in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

AFU will continue its support of the Adopt a School program in the 2011-2012 school year by raising funds for the Khan Younis Co-ed elementary school in Khan Younis, Gaza. This school has the highest rate of abject poverty in Gaza and requires immediate support for its school feeding program. Donations to Adopt a School can be made by visiting American Friends of UNRWA’s website (www.friendsunrwa.org).

A Medical Mystery - Hussein Balhas, 8-year-old boy from Lebanon, survives rare disease against all odds, and looks for hope and solutions from American doctors. ALO Cultural Foundation coordinates massive effort on behalf of the child. Hussein asks: "Why did God make me this way?" His case is one-in-a-million, but his question challenges all of us. How can we turn away from a boy who has miraculously survived and wants a only a normal life? The past year has seen the remarkable story of the foundation's intervention on behalf of eight year-old Hussein Balhas, a Lebanese boy born with severe birth defects who is now receiving treatment and extensive reconstructive surgery in the United States through the help of and coordination of the ALO Cultural Foundation.

Please help Hussein with his ongoing needs. _Donate Now by Web via Paypal.

Learn more about Fraser Syndrome.

Los Angeles, California...September 18, 2008...See ABC7's news report showing Hussein's arrivel to the USA...Eight-year-old Hussein Balhas and his mother arrived safely at LAX from Lebanon eager to repair congenital birth defects and start anew. Their journey was a long one, but there were plenty of smiles when we met them at the terminal - along with meeting Kareem Abdul Jabbar. ABC News was on hand to capture the excitement.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates – February 24, 2007 - ALO magazine, in association with The Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, have joined together on the Rock’in Hearts USA-Dubai Delegation to initiate a first-ever Trade Relations Agreement between the two global Meccas from March 3-11, 2007. This delegation is an exciting opportunity for the top business and civic leaders from Los Angeles and Michigan to visit one of the world's fastest growing economies and tourist destinations. An intensive program will allow participating delegates to capitalize on regional economic, industrial, and franchising partnerships.

The Dubai Department of Commerce and Tourism and the Dubai Chamber of Commerce will host the high-level American Delegation beginning March 4th where a Trade Relations Agreement will be initiated and the business leaders will learn about the new opportunities for international trade.

The 10-member U.S. delegation, led by the editor-in-chief of America’s top Middle Eastern lifestyle magazine ALO Hayati, Michael Lloyd and its publisher Wafa Kanan, consists of several other high-level business leaders from the medical, Hollywood entertainment, financial, jewelry and fashion industries.

"Our visit to Dubai was made possible by the seeds of opportunity planted by the global visionary of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum," say Lloyd, who helped lead the mission of signing Los Angeles and Beirut as sister cities in June 2006. "The key to doing business in Dubai, and then reciprocate interests back to United States, is to establish and nurture close relationships with government and business officials. We are pleased to be able to leverage our existing contacts to the benefit of other U.S. business leaders interested in trading and doing business with this burgeoning market."

More than just Business

The USA-Dubai Delegation is more than your typical business and leisure delegation. With a core mission to not only introduce influential business leaders to Dubai, but also carries a larger philanthropic mission.

With Dubai and its citizens mirroring the giving spirit of the United States, May Events is producing the Rock’in Hearts Tribute – a brainchild of ALO’s publisher Wafa Kanan – to raise money for the children of Lebanon through CHF International and the United Lebanon Relief campaign. The event, slated for March 9th at the Madinat Jumeirah beginning with a VIP reception at 7:00p, will gather the most celebrated UAE and USA municipality, celebrities, artists, executive entrepreneurs and the “Rock’ in Hearts” delegation 2007 to celebrate the collective humanitarian efforts of international pioneers and philanthropists. Tickets available by calling 00971 50 6524753.

A star-studded cast is expected including: Special Guest Stars ASSI HILLANI and DIANA HADDAD, Starring YURI MRAKADI, United Lebanon Relief‘s Goodwill Ambassador, with master impressionist BASSEM FEGHALI and hosted by TONY KHALIFE. The goal is to raise $250,000 from this event with all proceeds benefiting low-income and displaced children and families affected by the recent conflict in Lebanon. This first of a kind international benefit gala is a true reflection of ALO’s philanthropic spirit and serves to inspire innovative philanthropy worldwide.

“The beauty of this event is how it forges the marriage between charity and business, while still allowing everyone to benefit,” says Kanan. “The celebrities and entertainers backing this year’s event will surely bring in the monetary we have our hearts set upon. Events like this are an immeasurable help in improving the quality of life for vulnerable children and families worldwide.”

“This is truly the ultimate cultural connection between the world’s sixth largest economy of California and the world’s fastest growing tourist destination of Dubai,” says Lloyd. “With the help of the ministries and tourism and commerce agencies in Dubai, this is a perfect union of our great entities.”

About ALO magazine

ALO magazine (www.alomagazine.com) is the sole media available in the United States presenting the positive aspects of Middle Eastern culture. With just over 2 years since its launch ALO has garnered a loyal readership of over 325,000, ALO connects cultures through a unique blend of lifestyle and social editorials. It is the only Middle Eastern magazine that is currently at the two top bookstore chains in the USA: Borders and Barnes & Noble. ALO has also been honored the P.I.A. Award of Excellence 2006 for America’s Top Middle Eastern Magazine.

ALO’s first global humanitarian outreach of 2006 honored Elias Rahbani with the M.E. Award (Middle Eastern Award) for lifetime contribution to humanity and the arts, at the Beirut intercontinental Phoenicia

About The Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley

The Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley is a private, non-profit economic and community development organization with a mission of “growing and strengthening the economy of this region to improve the quality of life in all of our communities” based in Sherman Oaks, a suburb of Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

About CHF International

Founded in 1952, Cooperative Housing Foundation International (CHF) serves as a catalyst for long lasting positive change, helping families improve their economic circumstances, environment and infrastructure. With over 10 years experience assisting low-income families in Lebanon, CHF International’s local staff has been focused on assisting with emergency relief efforts-for the near million displaced Lebanese-since the conflict in July 2006.

With your help CHF International’s continuing programs will reach more than 38,000 low-income families by generating 5000 new jobs and reintegration of rural areas into the national economy.

SUPPORT CHF’S EMERGENCY EFFORTS: WWW.CHFINTERNATIONAL.ORG/ 1-866-7792-CHF. CHF International is a non-profit 501(c) 3 organization, Tax ID# 52-0846183. All donations and proceeds are tax deductible.

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Help 8-year-old Hussein Balhas with a cash donation. Any amount, large or small, will make a huge difference in this young child's life.

Donate now by web via PayPal.

Donate by Mail:

Hussein Balhas Trust c/o ALO Cultural Foundation

19365 Business Center Dr., Bldg. 1

Northridge, CA 91324

501(c)(3) #26-2673799

100% of your gift will go towards Hussein Balhas':

Living Expenses, Secondary Education, Long Term Medical Care, Primary Education, and/or College Fund.

Learn more about Fraser Syndrome.