The Mariposa Grandmothers will be starting the new year with exciting plans. Our book exchange last year was such a success that we will be bringing it back by popular demand. It will take place on Friday, Feb. 19, from 10 to 11 a. m., at St. Paul's Church in Orillia. Another new project will be a Nationwide Walk in support of the African Grandmothers, in the spring of 2010. Details about that as they are firmed up will be in future newsletters. (The Mariposa Grandmothers' newsletters usually come out on the last Saturday of the month, by the way.)
At our last meeting, it was reported that in his book,The Betrayal of Africa,Gerald Caplan made particular mention of the Stephen Lewis Foundation's Grandmothers to Grandmothers program as one of the few projects that is truly making a difference in Africa. We are proud to say that the Mariposa Grandmothers are doing their part. We received a thank you letter from the Stephen Lewis Foundation, recognizing our work and the amount of money we raised this past year. This money was raised through the sale of our Lucinda pins, (still available), donations, and individual members' sales of craft items.
March will see an important gathering in Swaziland. African grandmothers have decided to move ahead with an African Grandmothers' Gathering, to share their struggles, triumphs, challenges, grief around living at the epicenter of the ravages caused by HIV and AIDS, and to work toward a common agenda and purpose in beating back the pandemic. The Swaziland African Grandmothers' Gathering will be hosted by a project the SLF has supported for five years -- SWAPOL, led by the indomitable and inspiring Siphiwe Hlope. (She organized a brilliant Grandmothers' March for International Women's Day in Swaziland last year.) This is a gathering planned for African grandmothers by African grandmothers and promises to be an historic and moving event.
The organizers have asked that the SLF facilitate a Canadian delegation of up to 40 women who belong to Grandmothers groups here, as representatives of the entire Grandmothers' Movement in Canada. Mariposa Grandmothers' member Ellen Dennig is applying to go as a representative of our group. She has been to Swaziland in the past, and we are hoping that she will be among the delegates chosen.
All in all, 2010 promises to be an interesting and exciting year.
The Mariposa Grandmothers meet on the third Friday of the month at 9:30 a. m., at St. Paul's Church in Orillia. All are welcome. We also have a speakers' bureau that will provide speakers to organizations that would like to learn more about the work of the Grandmothers-to- Grandmothers projects.
Source:orilliapacket.com/
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