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.
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 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
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
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.