Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Welcome Moziro Coffee & Chocolate Shop!

Thank you Moziro Coffee & Chocolate Shop for being the latest shop to carry African Aids Angels. If you are up in the Shawnigan Lake area, please drop in for a coffee or chocolate! Yummy! Visit them at www.moziro.com

Help Wanted - we are looking for a volunteer to take Moziro Coffee Shop on as their project. If you live in the area or don't mind driving up approximately once a month, let Erin Ruff know (erinruff@hotmail.com). Erin will assist you with any questions you have. Basically you would supply angels to the shop and/or collect the cash from the shop. If this is something you would be interested in, we would love to hear from you. Thanks.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Good News from Malawi

Teddy Phiri is Recovering


Teddy Phiri, one of our four volunteers in Malawi had a stroke several months ago. His right side was severely affected. We have been very concerned about the state of his health but communication with Malawi has been erratic over this time period. A few weeks ago we had a brief message from Jean Phiri. Jean is a colleague of Teddy (no relation) and she travelled with him to Victoria in 2005. (They were funded as part of a CIDA project at that time.)

Jean wrote:

Teddy is improving. Delirah (his wife) told me today that he may be going to South Africa to see a doctor, we are praying for his healing. The only challenge remains his right hand which still remains paralyzed. I will be going to Kenya next week. (see note below)

Jean


On July 14th we were delighted to receive the following message directly fron Teddy

Am very happy to tell you how I am now. I was very sick with the stroke which affected my right hand side, I could even fail to speak, walk or write. But now I am able to speak and walk. The only remaining problem is that I cannot yet use my right hand which was heavily affected. I also do have a lot of memory lapses. I would like to thank you for your concern on my health. The constant encouragements that I received has gone a long way to improve my well being. I wish your family all the best. I would like to inform you that I will start work in August.

Teddy attached the budget request for the next growing season and concluded:

As I mentioned before the beneficiaries are very thankful of the support they receive. They even came to see me during my time of sickness.

I thank you.

Teddy




Note re Jean Phiri.

Jean is going to Kenya to take up a scholarship for a course in Agriculture for women leaders. The scholarship was announced in the Victoria newsletter of Positively Africa. The information was forwarded to Jean who applied and won. This demonstrates some of the positive spinoffs that come from AAA work assisted by the cooperative relationships that exist among the various Victoria organizations which have community to community connections with Africa.

Monday, July 13, 2009

South Africa Sends Thanks

We have received "thank you" e-mails from the two South African projects for funds sent recently.

Sister Andrea, who heads Thembalethu orphanage, writes: "Thank you very much. This money will help to pay for the training of 6 Child Care Workers. I am trying to equip the workers with the skills to handle problematic children and to improve the quality of children produced from our shelter."

We had mentioned to her that the question was raised at the AGM about the efforts made to prepare children for life after the orphanage.

Sister Regina, administrator of St. Mary's Hospital, which runs the Born to Live program, says:
"You people are just incredible! Many, many thanks again for your tremendous support. May the Good Lord bless all involved in this project."

Supplies July 17-Aug. 2

Lorraine and Vic Parsons will be away from Friday July 17 to Monday, Aug. 2. If you need angel-making supplies, excluding fabric, during that period, please contact them Monday to Thursday this week (July 13-16) to make arrangements.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Angel Quality Control

Tips for doing quality control checks on angels:
When gluing heads to bodies, ensure that there is enough glue to make a small lip of glue around the neck.
The robe is firmly attached at the neck and all adornments are well attached, without visible glue.
Wings are firmly attached and symmetrical. (Not too large, remember, the angels need to share space on a spinner!)
The robe seam is at the back and the body peg is completely covered, both around the neck, and 1-2" below the bottom of the peg.
All edges are nonfray, cut with pinking shears.
The name-tag is firmly hanging, aprox. 2-3" from the wire, with a neat looking piece of raffia.
Hold the angel upright and give it a little shake to ensure it will still look good when it has been handled a few times and is on a spinner.
Refer to the quality control suggestions under "sharing ideas" on the web-site.

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Call for Volunteers (Victoria)


We have an opportunity to have an Angels table at Passion4Tango, Fri Aug 7 in Centennial Square. They are expecting 1500-2000 people and this may be a good chance to try a different type of venue.
However, this will require aprox 10 volunteers, as it will be a long day, from 11:00 to 9:30.
There will be concerts over the noon hour as well as in the evening.
Please email Gail, as soon as possible, at gailanne2@msn.com if you are able to help specifying any choice of, or availability for, hours. I would like to try 2 people each for 2-3 hour shifts, if possible.
Thanks

Article in the Salmon Arm Observer

"Angels help to fight AIDS" was the title of an article in the Salmon Arm Observer. We have a store there selling angels, The Gondwana Gallery, owned by Marlene and Tibout Glazenburg.

Keep up the good work, Salmon Arm!

Please help us with selling our beautiful Angels!

If you hear of an event such as a fair where we might be able to sell Angels, please let us know!

Also, if you are in a store that feels like it might be Angel friendly, please talk to them about the Angels and the projects they support, and see if they might be interested in selling angels for us. We supply the signs, display spinners, etc. along with instructions and a simple way of keeping track of the money.

Let us know what you come up with by emailing us at the email address on the right.

Thanks!!

What to do with money

If you have collected money for angels, please write a cheque to African AIDS Angels and mail it
c/o 1855 Neil St.
Victoria BC V8R 3C6

If you have questions, please send an email as indicated at right in the blue box.

To make a direct donation not involving angels, you can mail a cheque to the same address, or use the credit card feature on our website. Donations are important to our fund-raising efforts in support of projects in southern Africa.