In December, the OPSEU Social Justice Fund voted to give $7500 to the Umdoni and Vulamehlo HIV AIDS Association in Southern Africa and asked for more member support. If you would like to personally add your support, please consider a donation to the Live and Let Live Fund as we can now give you a tax receipt for your donations.  Contact Aura Bellin at extension 8708.

Please see the letter of thanks from UHVAA:

Ontario Public Servants Employees Union                                                     
Canada
11th June 2012

E mail :     [email protected]

Attention Brenda Wall

Dear Brenda

We are grateful to have received the amount of R60 000 from OPSEU

The committee has decided to allocate R26 000 directly to needy beneficiaries such as orphans and vulnerable children.

We have included two photographs of a child headed family that was recently brought to our attention in deep rural areas, to show us some of the tragedies we face.

When I recently visited this family I found six children living in this hut.  The eldest is 19years and still in school.  The children have to walk for 2 hours to get to school by 8 o’clock.  The hut is in a shocking state of repair and they have no income.  They are dependant on help from the community for food.

We hope to help them access government grants and in the meantime are helping with food and repairs to the hut.

A further R10 000 is to be allocated to our Man to Man programme in Umdoni.  This programme aims to prevent new TB and HIV infections and works towards alleviating gender violence against women and children

The balance of the money will be spent on transport and administration to ensure that the programmes are sustainable.

We remain eternally grateful to everyone at OPSEU who have made it possible for us to make a real difference in the lives of so many people in our rural areas over the past few years.

We do hope that when the team visits South Africa later this year, they manage to visit us.

Yours gratefully

Bonnie van Deventer
Administrator