Mothers Day Paint-in at Royal Roads

This annual event will be held on May 12 from 9.00-4.30.

We will have a table and display, as we have in the past several years

.http://www.royalroads.ca/event/mothers-day-paint-and-craft-fair

Annual General Meeting

Please join us for our Annual General Meeting which will be held Tuesday May 28 at 7 p.m. at the James Bay New Horizons centre at 234 Menzies St Victoria

This meeting will feature two special presentations

• On Makeni in Zambia, visited by Pierre and Lee Ann Dil last fall,
• On our two South Africa projects visited by the Vic and Lorraine Parsons this spring.

Supply Depot until May 9

The supply depot in Victoria is at Marcia Thompson's until May 9. She has angel bodies and hot glue sticks, and will accept completed angels.

Marcia can be reached at 778-440-1460.

Volunteers needed for the Youth Committee

Possible areas of responsibility you may like to help with:

• Giving PowerPoint presentations to school and youth groups of all ages. If you can speak French there is a special demand for that.
• Giving angel making workshops to youth groups.
• Organizing and restocking bins after presentations. Set up times are often very short (sometimes 10 minutes) so bins need to be super organized. Cleanup is always quick and done by many enthusiastic students so the bins are frequently returned in complete chaos!
• Tracing fun foam pieces for our new angels for elementary students.
• Taking apart jewellery so that it is quickly and easily utilized by students.
• Pre-making some angels parts for middle school students – beading halos and making wings.
• Coordinating the World Aids Day event at Camosun College.
• Liaising with the UVic AAA club and events there.
• Contacting schools re: angel making workshops and coordinating volunteers for these events. Following up to say thank you and to see that monies are received by the treasurer. Encouraging schools to send photos for our Facebook page.
• Writing reference letters, signing volunteer hours and obtaining recognition certificates from Volunteer Victoria.Liaising with our UVic marketing students re: Facebook. Often includes sending on photos and information to be posted

Please contact  Sandra Dennis - email is bensandy@islandnet.com and phone 250-381-0921

Volunteers needed

The following events are coming up in Victoria. Please volunteer now by emailing Brian Price at brianlprice@shaw.ca
Royal Roads - Mothers Day Paint-In

This annual event will be held on May 12 from 9.00-4.30. We will have a table and display, as we have in the past several years.

Volunteers are needed for 2-3 hour shifts . After you finish your shift you could take in the other artists at the Paint-in

Tillicum Mall

We will have a table at the Mall on Saturday, June 15 from  9.30 am to 5.30 pm
Volunteers are needed for the following shifts

• 9.30-12.30 - 1 volunteer
• 12.30-3.00 - 2 volunteers
• 3.00-5.30 - 2 volunteers

In addition, if you have an opportunity to add a table or a few angels to another event, please let us know. Consider your workplace, tea parties, craft fairs, before or after Sunday service at church. This can really help our efforts.

Vic and Lorraine Parsons Africa report

From Jan. 30 to March 7 Lorraine and Vic Parsons visited Africa. During that time they visited the two projects in South Africa supported by funds from AAA. The following is a report:

St Mary's Hospital


Unit Mgr Khetho Njapha receives an angel

Lorraine with new Mom and baby

On Feb. 4. we were given an excellent, extensive tour of St.Mary’s Hospital just outside Durban, by Sister Nokwanda Bam, who is the deputy manager of nursing. She has been our contact at the hospital for the last year.

St. Mary’s is the only Level One hospital serving one million people living between the cities of Durban and Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal province. On average about 100 people a day come to the St. Anne’s HIV clinic for treatment, assistance or counseling. Some days, this number rises as high as 200.

AAA funds have in recent years supported the counseling and monitoring-roles in the area of Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT). St. Mary’s is recognized as a Centre of Excellence in this area.

Clinics vision and mission

 
• How significant this program is can be judged by the fact that there are an average 450 babies born at St. Mary’s every month. In November and December, there were 355 live births to HIV+ women. Many of the women are co-infected with HIV and TB. Despite these high infection rates among mothers, very few babies have become infected when they are given their final tests at about 18 months of age.
• There are many challenges facing the program: Lack of disclosure and discrimination against HIV+ people remains a problem; mothers are encouraged to attend clinics before they are 14 weeks pregnant but many do not; some mothers miss appointments and “clinic shop” so follow up is difficult;  mothers often do not have any support from their partners; some mothers stop taking their drugs and breastfeed their babies. Despite this, the PMTCT program is 95 per cent effective.
• Another challenge is that on April 1, the US President’s fund for supply of AIDS drugs expires and the South African government will have to take over. Although the government has rejected the denial of a decade ago, it remains to be seen how the necessary drugs will be distributed. 

Thembalethu children’s shelter

: A group shot in the playroom

Older girls dancing

Chasing bubbles, a favourite pastime

Younger kids with assistant Fundi

• On Feb. 6, we travelled to the Thembalethu children’s shelter to work with the children there for a little over two weeks. At the time we were there, there were 19 children in care. This was down from previous numbers. Several children had been taken in by extended family or foster parents over the previous week.
• None of the children from when we were here in 2007 are still there, although some come back to visit, which to us is an indication of success.  There seems to have been great progress over five years, both at the shelter and in the local communities. The pre-school children now have activities to keep them occupied during the day, led by assigned younger Sisters, and those in school have far better marks and projects.
• Some of the work we saw done by 10-year-olds were quite impressive. An important feature of the shelter is learning their Zulu culture, which includes dancing – punctuated by the impressive Zulu kick -  and songs. One thing I will never forget is the ABCs as recited by the pre-schoolers: A is for Apple; B is for iBanana, C is for iMoto, which sounds illogical unless you know Moto is the Zulu word for Car. As ever the children are beautiful and delighted to have visitors. Even though our stay was short compared with 2007, there was a great deal of emotion when we left.
• On the Outreach side, much of the work is now being done by co-coordinators in the community who receive a modest stipend. Unfortunately, Sr. Gerarda who took over a couple of year ago in the running in the program is suffering from bone cancer. More positively, she has a number of strong assistants who can take over the program when needed. We were impressed by the new housing in the local settlement of Louisana. Those people now live in sturdy block housing as opposed to the mud houses that often collapsed in heavy rain when we were here last.
• We were honoured to be invited to a school Sports Day held by the Outreach program. Lorraine and I thought we were getting in the way of photos being taken at the event, until someone said the photos were of Us! Several people said we were the only whites ever to come to this event, and they wished more would come to see what the children are doing

Fundraising Concert

We are excited to announce that a special concert is being organized to raise funds for  AAA projects in South Africa, Zambia and Malawi

• A classical repertoire, including Bach, Beethoven, Schubert and Mendelssohn will be performed by exceptional young musicians in this gala charity recital.
• Stirring performances on piano, strings, woodwinds and voice relay the passion of these students. The lineup includes the 2012 Symphony Splash Young Soloist -17 year old violinist, Eejoon Kwon.
• Angels and refreshments will be for sale before the concert and at intermission.
• A silent auction will also be featured
• Tickets will be for sale at Ivy Books, Long and McQuade and at the door.
• Please come join these supremely talented students as they share their music and find innovative ways to bring joy to the world!

Sun. February 24th, 2013 11:00am - 1:00pm
Cost - Adults $10; Sudents $5

Location Philip T Young Recital Hall. MacLaurin Building, University of Victoria
http://www.uvic.ca/home/about/campus-info/maps/maps/3D-Map-2012.gif

Valentines Day Sale

The U Vic Group is hosting a sale at the University as follows:

Location :  Clearihue Building Main Lobby
 
Time Tuesday February 12th. From 10AM -3 pm
Items for sale include African Aids Angels, Valentine treats and bookmarks.

Come and buy a meaningful gift for that special someone

 

AAA Transition

African AIDS Angels will be going through a period of transition with the departure of Carol Sherwood. We are trying a new approach, with responsibilities divided among various volunteers, so that not too much is falling on one person’s shoulders. We ask for your patience during the transition period. The following people are undertaking various tasks:

• Marcia Thompson will be the overall and volunteer co-ordinator. She can be reached at marciathompson@shaw.ca but will be away until Feb. 3. She will be assisted in this by Laura How at laurahow@uvic.ca, tel. 778-440-1460.
• Brian Price is the treasurer, and will also look after the blog, web site, graphics, calendar, etc. His email is brianlprice@shaw.ca and phone no. 250-721-3763.
• Barb McKrow will be shops co-ordinator and liaison with out-of-town groups.. She has also been instrumental with the annual Holy Cross sale and Oak Bay HS event. Her email is bmckrow@shaw.ca
• Sandra Dennis is co-chair of the board and with Nathan How will do outreach to schools and youth. Her email is bensandy@islandnet.com and phone 250-381-0921.
• Gail Blais, a volunteer for several years, will be monitoring the africanaidsangels@gmail.com and will forward messages to the appropriate people.
• Pierre Dil handles the annual Videa sale and is the connection with the Makeni project in Zambia. His email is pierredil@hotmail.com
• Vic Parsons will continue to hand out angel-making supplies and receive completed angels. He is the contact with Volunteer Victoria and the South Africa projects, and the board chair. If there are questions, you can email him at lvparsons@shaw.ca or phone 250-472-6499.

Carol Sherwood

Carol Sherwood left her role as coordinator of African AIDS Angels in December, after several years in which she performed a wide range of duties on behalf of the society.

We are very grateful for Carol’s dedication and thoroughness . Some of her roles were as treasurer; overall coordinator;  organizing the Open Houses and other events; producing brochures and other materials; ensuring quality control and many other activities.

Thank you, Carol for all your hard work and devotion to the people who benefit from AAA’s fund-raising. We wish you all the best in your future endeavours.

Please see seperate blog post advising who will be taking on Carols' duties

Seeds for Malawi

We have received the following message from the Malawi project

 

Kayombo

"We distributed the aid for the farm input and nutritional beneficiaries..the beneficiaries were all happy for the aid and wished us to send our regards to you.  

They really appreciate your help.Many have already planted maize and other crops,we all just wish and pray that rains are good this year. 

Finally we all want to send our new years regards to you, we wish you all a prosperous year in 2013. 

stay blessed

Delirah "

Where to find Angels

Looking for Angels?

These generous shops listed on our website carry a rack of angels.

Some are year-round and some just carry them in the pre-holiday season. We thank them all for their support.

New donations

Looking for a meaningful gift, or something for the person with everything?

In addition to exchanging angels for donations, we're delighted to receive money in support of our projects in southern Africa. You can make a credit card donation through our website. Note that we have gift cards if you want to make a donation in honour of a friend.

If you have collected money for angels, or would like to make a donation by mail, please send a cheque or money order payable to African AIDS Angels. Mail to:

•       Brian Price
•       23-4051 Shelbourne St.
•       Victoria BC   V8N 3E5
•        tel. 250-721-3763

Questions can be addressed to africanaidsangels@gmail.com

Open House Thank Yous

Thanks go to the donor businesses that contributed to the door prizes and other costs at our Open Houses on Nov. 17 and 24.

Donors of gift certificates were:
     Baja Rosie's consignment store
     GardenWorks, Colwood
     Chamberlain Walk Hair Care
     Lux Spa (Forbes Pharmacy)

Donors of gift baskets:
     Mother Nature's Market & Deli
     Pure Integrative Pharmacy, Cook St.

Silk Road Teas contributed Angelwater tea which was served at Swan Lake.

The Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary provided free rent for Nov. 17.

We are grateful for all these donations. The winners of the door prizes were surprised and pleased. Thanks go to organizing committee members Barb, Fran, Ardelle, Joan, Ruth and Carol, plus helpers Terry, Mary, Larry, Vic, Lorraine, Cheryl, Shirley, Jaye and Linda.

Check out the photos of some of the beautiful angels seen at the Open Houses. Click on the photos to enlarge.