Northumberland GogoGetters

Welcome

As HIV/AIDS ravages families and communities in Africa, grandmothers have emerged as the continent's unrecognized heroes. Surrounded by poverty, hunger and desolation, they care for children orphaned by AIDS, sometimes as many as ten to fifteen in one household. These incredibly strong and courageous women bury their own children and become parents again, calling on astonishing reserves of love and emotional resilience. But they do so with almost no support. Sub-Saharan Africa has overwhelming numbers of children orphaned by AIDS. As the death rate accelerates, countries and communities simply cannot cope.

Gogo is a Zulu word meaning grandmother. The GogoGetters is a local group of Cobourg and Port Hope Ontario and area residents coming together to raise awareness about the issues that these grandmothers are facing in Africa and to raise money to support projects funded by the Stephen Lewis Foundation.  Our GogoGetters group is one of the more than 150 groups across Canada who have taken up the call to action and together have raised over $1,000,000 for the campaign.  The Stephen Lewis Foundation directs these funds to community-level organizations in 14 sub-Saharan African countries that provide grandmothers with much needed support such as food, housing grants, school fees for their grandchildren and grief counselling.

Help us to help the gogos.  Find out what you can do here, and please consider donating to The Stephen Lewis Foudation online.  It's quick and easy to do and you'll get a tax receipt.

For more information about this group or upcoming events, please contact us at goodwordsforafrica@yahoo.ca.

For more about the Stephen Lewis Foundation and the Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign, refer to www.stephenlewisfoundation.org.


» Latest News
   
“Stride to Turn the Tide” is an annual national fundraising walk for the Stephen Lewis Foundation’s Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign. The walk, which was created by Canadian grandmothers, aims to raise awareness and funds for grandmothers in Africa who are caring for their grandchildren orphaned by AIDS.
 
Monies raised will be used to provide nutritious food, support groups, housing, and income generating grants, grief counselling and school fees for the children.

Our local organization, Northumberland GogoGetters, is one of more than 240 of these groups across Canada.
 
We are hosting a 5 K walk on June 9, 2012 starting across from the Market Building on Albert Street (at the site of the fountain/rink).  Registration starts at 9:30 am and the walk commences at 10:00 am.  The Trinity United Church drumming group will entertain prior to the race.

If you would like to participate or if you want to sponsor a walker, please click here to go to our Stephen Lewis Foundation page where you can make your pledge online.

If you are already a participant, click here to download your pledge form or join our online fundraising group.
 
For more information, please feel free to email walk organizer Pat Stapley Chase at plsc@eagle.ca
 
 

Good Words for Africa A Great Success

April 21, 2012


 
Our third annual Scrabble event - "Good Words for Africa" - took place on Saturday April 21 at the brand new Cobourg Community Centre on D'Arcy Street in Cobourg.  
 
The 48 participants raised an awesome total of $2,800 for the Stephen Lewis Foundation.
 
Special thanks to our judge, Judith Goulin, who did a fantastic job keeping order, and to our sponsors,  Patrick Hoolihan of RBC Dominion Securities, Cobourg Auto Collision, Dr. Michael Biggar, Dr. Peter Visniak, Cobourg Metro, Port Hope Metro and David's No Frills.
 
And thanks to everyone who came out and played, you made the afternoon a great success.

Click here for more photos from the event.

 

Where Does the Money Go

Feb 10, 2012


The Northumberland GogoGetters presented "Where Does the Money Go: How one small Canadian NGO is making a big difference for people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa".
 
 
The sold out event featured a presentation by Naomi Ayot, Program Director for CAP AIDS Uganda, and Claire Holloway Wadhwani, Executive Director of CAP AIDS Canada.

Thanks to everyone for coming out, and to Edward for making Meet At 66 King East available for the event.  Special thanks to Naomi and Claire for a fascinating evening.

Here's a video of the main presentation and a few minutes of the question and answer session.
 

 

Past Events