St. Andrew's Anglican Church "Andy's Angels"

	St. Andrew's Angels (Andy's Angels) Helping Grandmothers in Africa
January 2008 Quarterly meeting January 22, 10:00 a.m. in the Hall. Speaker - Hilda Shilliday	St. Andrew's Helping African Grandmothers Quarterly meeting January 22, 10:00 a.m. in the Hall. Speaker - Hilda Shilliday - recently returned from two months volunteering at a hospital in Kampala, Uganda. All are welcome - come and enjoy a cup of coffee while hearing about the indomitable grannies of sub-Saharan Africa. Please remember Your Loonies ($1 coin) and Toonies ($2 coin) really do help. A cassette of Loonies ($25) will buy school uniforms and supplies for 2 children for a year. A cassette of Toonies ($50) will provide malarial tents for 10 orphans. Ten Toonies cassettes will provide food for a family of 6 for 6 months.
September 24, 2007 *"Matilda Mwenda & Ohelda Kayola are both caregivers at the Ranchod Hospice in Zambia"*	The grandmothers who are coming to visit in October are from Zambia . They are both caregivers at the Ranchod Hospice – one of the projects funded by the Stephen Lewis Foundation. Matilda Mwenda (52) keeps eight orphans in her home (her own grandchildren and those of her late siblings). She is in charge of the children’s daycare centre at Ranchod where she looks after 55 children. She is a trained AIDS counselor and home-care giver. At Busy Bees (more of this to follow) she is the Group Advisor and works with the other grannies in their garden. Ohelda Kayola (56) has 10 orphans in her home (her own and her late brother’s). She is a registered nurse, midwife and trained in palliative care. As sister-in-charge of Ranchod Hospice she looks after tens of other children living with HIV/AIDS who are admitted to the Hospice.
September 2, 2007 *"The total from January to the end of June is $10,128"*	There have been questions about how much was donated to our June Mission. The figures are now in $5,015 - another $5,000 was raised by Cameron's "Revue", our Rummage Sale and the cassettes of toonies and loonies. The total from January to the end of June is $10,128. This would provide credit for 10 groups (250 grandmothers) to establish small businesses or other income-generating projects, or provide uniforms and school supplies for 100 orphans, or bursaries for 30 children for high school.
August 12, 2007 *Grandmothers from Africa will be visiting here in October.*	3 grandmothers from Africa will be visiting us October 19th to 21st. This will be an opportunity for our group and the people of St. Andrew's and other faith communities in our area to meet with them and to learn more about their homes and their communities and how we can best meet their needs. Important note re visit: The question has risen about the wisdom of spending money to bring the African Grannies to the West Coast. On inquiring, it was made clear that the cost to the Stephen Lewis Foundation is minimal. Points have been donated by Air Canada and many people across the country so that the all travel expenses are completely covered. For more information please talk with Pat Tucker.
*"Get Happy" Musical Revue*	Thank you! 'St. Andrew's Grandmothers' gives many thanks to Cameron for his generous donation of the proceeds of his most entertaining "Get Happy" Musical Revue to the 'Grandmothers' campaign. These funds help ease the pain and problems of the grandmothers caring for their orphaned grandchildren in Sub-Saharan Africa.
March 25, 2007 "$2,000 builds a community *garden, including: a reservoir for watering, and the tools.."*	The funds we raise go very far in supporting grandmothers in Africa through the many projects funded by the Foundation. For example - in Swaziland, $2,000 builds a community garden, including: a reservoir for watering, and the tools, seeds and chemicals needed for the garden. The women who tend the garden will feed their families nutritious food and sell their remaining crops. Their earnings will go to school fees so the orphan children in their care can attend school. The next meeting of our Chapter - St. Andrew's helping African Grandmothers - will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, April 24 in the Hall. We will have a new DVD and lots of information to share. We hope you will be able to join us for the meeting and a coffee chat after. Further information to follow - Pat.
February 10, 2007 FOCHTA	Update - One of the projects supported by the "Grandmothers" through the Stephen Lewis Foundation is FOCHTA in Malawi. FOCHTA assists orphaned children to obtain secondary education by paying school fees, providing basic necessities like clothes, soap, pencils, etc. for each child and one wholesome meal a day during the school term, monitoring the progress of each student and providing counselling where required. It also provides small loans to widows, the chronically ill, girl-headed households and destitute individuals, business training sessions to grantees prior to providing loans. Please continue to support the cause; 91% of your donation goes directly to the Grandmothers campaign. Approximately $5 will buy a child a school uniform, or text books, $40-50 will pay the whole tuition for a year, this includes a good meal a day, probably all the child has to eat.
January 26, 2007	See the article in the January Diocesan Post
January 21, 2007	The quarterly meeting of the chapter was held on Tuesday, Jan. 16 with 45 present. After Becky read her lovely prayer, written especially for the 'grandmothers', Suzanne gave a talk about the number of people affected by AIDSIHIV, - in less than a year the total population of the lower Island from Schwarz Bay to Port Renfrew would be completely wiped out at the rate this disease is killing people in Africa. After a DVD presentation on the ways that donations to the Stephen Lewis Foundation are being used, coffee and conversation were enjoyed by all. It was announced that our group had sent $12,287 to the Grandmothers' Campaign since starting our outreach in July 2006. The next meeting will be held in the Hall on April 24th.
Stephen Lewis visits with Andy's Angels and other guests, Nov 18, 2006 A Prayer Loving God, we ask for your blessing on the Grandmothers of Africa and throughout the world who are caring for grandchildren orphaned by AIDS. Although we are many miles apart, spiritually, we are with them in love, hope and prayer. We ask that you give them strength and courage to carry on, knowing that He who said "Suffer little children to come unto me" will hold them in the palm of his hand. Amen.
Visit "The Stephen Lewis Foundation" website Grandmothers and HIV/AIDS BBC Radio Interview Listen to Amazing Grace (0.4MB MP3, 1 min.) Listen to Soul Influence (1.5MB MP3, 3 min.) contact: Pat Tucker at 656·4919 Shelby Titian at 656-2686	The Stephen Lewis Foundation launched in March of 2006 a Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign to address the growing needs and pressures facing grandmothers in Africa who are dealing firsthand with the impact of HIV/AIDS. In sub-Saharan Africa, 13 million children have been orphaned by AIDS - more than the total number of boys and girls under 18 years-old in Canada, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Ireland combined. That figure is expected to reach 18-20 million by 2010. In several sub-Saharan African countries, 40-60% of orphans live in grandmother-headed households. Grandmothers are at the heart of the-response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa. They bury their own children and then begin parenting again, sometimes providing care for as many as 10-15 orphaned children in each household. Traumatized by the magnitude of loss and suffering, these elderly heads of household scrape together money - for funerals, school fees, food and medicine - all the while haunted by thoughts of what will happen to their children when they die. The campaign aims to: - Encourage awareness in Canada about the plight of grandmothers in Africa - Build solidarity amongst African and Canadian grandmothers in the fight against HIV/AIDS - Actively support groups of grandmothers in Africa. Funds will provide: food, school fees and uniforms for their grandchildren, counselling and social support, and coffins for a dignified burial of their loved ones. More Statistics: - to date, AIDS has killed over 30 million people in the world. - 6000 people are dying every day in Africa. They are parents, workers, trained professionals, leaders, etc. - they are women and men between the ages of 20 and 50 years. They will not have the opportunity to pass on their knowledge and their skills. - they will not be able to teach their children to be men and women. - 37 of 54 countries in Africa have seen their life expectancy rate drop by 20 years or more. - the human loss is terrible and these countries have not had time to assess the real impact of what is happening or will happen in their societies. No one yet knows what will happen with child development in these counties or what will happen to the agricultural sector or other sectors when so many human resources are disappearing. - in 2000 the United Nations Security Council issued Resolution 1308 warning that HIV/AIDS pandemic, if unchecked, could threaten world stability and security.
	ANDY'S ANGELS (Helping grandmothers in Africa) This is a ministry being formed to raise awareness of and support for grandmothers in Africa who are struggling to care for their dying children and to feed, clothe and educate the grand-children already orphaned by AIDS. There will be an official presentation in September about this ministry. However, the need is pressing and one way we can get started helping is by taking the little film cassettes at the back of the church and filling them, during the summer, with our Spare "loonies" and / or "toonies". They will be collected in September or October. All proceeds will be donated to the Stephen Lewis Foundation for the Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign. For more information call Pat Tucker at 656·4919. If you would like to send in your film cassettes early please put your envelope number on the cassette and place it in the offering plate.
December 3, 2006	Stephen Lewis Breakfast To answer some questions: Thanks to donations made at the "Breakfast", we will be able to send almost $1,400 to the Grandmothers' Campaign at the Stephen Lewis Foundation. It will do a great deal to help struggling grandmothers in sub-Saharan Africa. Thanks also to the generosity of Stephen Lewis who gave so freely of his time to make our "Breakfast" a wonderful, warm occasion.