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1.
THE GRANNY PEACE BRIGADE - 12 POINTS OF PEACE
2.
THE ALEXANDRA GOGOS AND THE WAKEFIELD GRANNIES
3.
THE GRANDMOTHERSą GATHERING
4.
GRANNIES AGAINST POVERTY AND AIDS (GAPA)
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1. THE GRANNY PEACE BRIGADE - 12 POINTS OF
PEACE
The Granny
Peace Brigades were started on October 17, 2005 when a group of 18 women, ages 59 to 91,
many of whom are grandmothers, attempted to enlist in the U.S. military,
seeking to replace grandchildren in the military who had been deployed to Iraq
unnecessarily. The 18 women were denied
access, arrested and jailed. After a
six-day trial, the grannies were acquitted of all charges and the Granny
Peace Brigade was formed. Since their founding, the Granny Peace Brigade has
dedicated itself to peace efforts.
In their
most recent campaign, the Grannies are issuing the call: Grandmothers Start
Packing Your Bags!” On January 18, 2007, the
Granny Peace Brigade will gather in Washington, D.C. for a
long-overdue civics lesson. The
Grannies are encouraging groups across the country to visit their U.S. senators
and deliver the urgent demand to stop the war and end the occupation of Iraq, taking
this opportunity to pressure the new 110th Congress to “honor the mandate of
the electorate, act with integrity, and restore the basic tenets of the U.S.
Constitution.” The Grannies are encouraging organizations to contact their
senators for an appointment to visit on January 18. However, with or without an appointment,
the Grannies are hoping to present their demands, in person, to each of the
100 U.S.
Senators. The demands, which are
listed on their website, include a complete funding freeze for the Iraq war
and immediate return of all troops from Iraq, repeal of the Military
Commissions Act and the human rights violations of the USA Patriot Act, the
closing of Guantanamo Bay and an end to the
practice of extraordinary rendition and a call for impeachment proceedings,
amongst others.
For more
information on the Granny Peace Brigade and for specific materials developed
for this campaign , visit the resources page of the Granny Peace Brigade
website at <http://www.grannypeacebrigade.org>
or contact at tel: 1-212-533-2125 or email: <gpbrigade@gmail.com>.
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2. The ALEXANDRA GOGO GRANNIES AND THE WAKEFIELD GRANNIES
The Gogo (meaning “Granny” in Zulu) Granny Outreach Project
was developed by Rose Letwaba, a psychiatric nurse
in the Alexandra Township in South
Africa. With the end of apartheid in 1994, the Alexandra Township began
offering children’s mental health services but by 1998, Rose Letwaba noticed a decline in attendance at the clinic
where these services were offered.
After visiting children’s homes, it was revealed that this decline in
attendance was often because one or both of the children’s parents had died
from AIDS. In turn, the responsibility
of primary care often falls to grandmothers, who strive to raise their grandchildren
with extremely meager resources. The Gogo project supports these grandmothers who, after
burying their own children, must then care for grandchildren and extended
family. The grandmothers have formed a
support system for each other and work to develop
workshops to
provide other grandmothers with the initial tools to begin their own support
groups. There are currently 30
grandmothers involved in the project.
On a visit
to Quebec, Canada, in 2004,
Rose Letwaba spoke about her work with the Gogos at the Wakefield United Church,
describing “a whole generation of South Africans lost to AIDS˛ and
grandmothers struggling to take care of families in need of support. Twelve women from the audience, lead by
Norma Geggie (81) became the first grannies to link
with the Alexandra Gogos, becoming a solidarity
group who call themselves the “Wakefield Grannies.” Over the next year, the Wakefield Grannies
were joined by the Concordia Grannies of Rhode Island, USA, and the
Montreal Grannies, and now there are more than 120 groups across Canada and many
more forming internationally, aided in part by the Stephen Lewis Foundation’s
Grandmother to Grandmother Campaign, launched on March 7, 2006.
For more
information, visit: <http://www.thegrannies.org>
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3. GRANDMOTHERS’ GATHERING
The
Grandmothers’ Gathering, part of the Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign
launched by the Stephen Lewis Foundation on International Women’s Day, March 8 2006, was
developed in response to reports that grandmothers were often left to care
for orphan grandchildren whose parents had died from AIDS. The 2006 Grandmother’s Gathering, held
during the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Canada, brought
together 200 Canadian grandmothers and 100 African grandmothers and project
facilitators from 11 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The gathering was an opportunity for
African grandmothers to discuss their struggles and challenges and begin to
set an agenda for support. Canadian grandmothers who attended realized the
need and potential for a national grandmothers’ movement to support their
African counterparts. The Toronto Statement, which was presented to
representatives from UNAIDS and the XVI International AIDS Conference at the
close of the gathering, represents the grandmothers’ concerns and
demands. More than 80 new groups have
formed in Canada since the
Gathering, and African grandmothers have continued to mobilize in their
communities through many new initiatives and projects.
For more
information, visit: <http://www.stephenlewisfoundation.org>.
Information
can also be found in the December 2006 issue of łGrassroots,˛
the magazine of the Stephen Lewis Foundation.
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4. GRANDMOTHERS AGAINST POVERTY AND AIDS
(GAPA)
Grandmothers
Against Poverty and AIDS (GAPA) is another South African group formed by
grandmothers to fight against poverty and the devastation caused by HIV/AIDS.
Formed by an initial group of ten Gogos (“granny”
in Zulu) and a researcher from the University of Cape Town in
townships outside Cape Town, South
Africa, GAPA, now with 30
grandmothers’ support groups in its network, is one of
the largest organized groups of grandmothers in Africa. In addition to offering support, GAPA holds
monthly, grandmother-led workshops for
new members on nutrition, HIV testing, antiretroviral drugs, human rights,
elder abuse, food cultivation, business skills, accessing social grants and
drawing up wills. Since 2001, GAPA has
held 28 workshops and
trained 928 grandmothers. They have also recently launched a project to financially
support grandmothers sending young grandchildren to attend preschools.
For more
information, visit: <http://www.stephenlewisfoundation.org>.
Read also
the December 2006 issue of “Grassroots,” the magazine of the Stephen Lewis
Foundation.
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