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News from around VSO > Southern Africa

VSO RAISA: Phase II launch and 2005 Conference

(27 October 2005)

The second phase of VSO's Regional AIDS Initiative for Southern Africa (RAISA) project was launched on 24 Oct 2005 in Pretoria, South Africa. This launch celebrated the successful implementation of RAISA phase 1 (2000-04) and the beginning of a further 3 years (2005-08) of the initiative.

This was followed on October 25-27 by RAISA's 4th annual regional conference, also in Pretoria, South Africa. The theme of this conference was You don’t belong here: fear shame and blame around HIV & AIDS. The conference analysed the sources and forms of stigma and discrimination, reviewed programmes working to reduce it, and built linkages among organisations and countries.

For more information, please visit our RAISA page.

VSO RAISA: helping children live with HIV & AIDS

(9 June 2005)

Youth delegates from the 2004 VSO RAISA conference on Children and HIV and AIDS have been using the skills they learned with local communities across Southern Africa. Using the art and play therapy introduced at the conference, including "hero" books (where children can reinforce their heroic resilience and survival qualities), they have raised awareness of HIV and AIDS and children and trained others in these techniques. Find out more in the RAISA newsletter below.

Find Out More

RAISA newsletter (April 2005)(pdf, 52.4kb)

Global Campaign for Education (GCE) World Assembly 2004 and Action Week 2005

(22 December 2004)

VSO represented the UK GCE coalition at the second GCE World Assembly in Johannesburg from 2-4 December. Delegates passed resolutions on campaign issues ranging from quality of education to teacher status and shortages as well as electing a new executive board which will guide campaign actions for the next three years.

Delegates also approved plans to move the GCE Secretariat office from Brussels to Johannesburg early next year and voted to create a new seat on the Board for a representative of GCE coalitions in Europe and North America.

The Global Campaign for Education annual Action Week takes place from 24-30 April 2005, under the slogan 'Educate to End Poverty'. The campaign will demand that rich countries and international institutions increase aid and debt relief for basic education. For more information or to find out how you can get involved visit www.campaignforeducation.org

RAISA 2004 Conference report

(28 September 2004)

The report of VSO RAISA's 2004 conference, focusing on orphans and vulnerable children, is now complete. Key elements of the conference were the participation of young people from Malawi and Zambia, the clarification of what is meant by 'orphans and vulnerable children' in terms of HIV and AIDS, as well as looking at the rights of children to participate in decision-making in programmes addressing HIV and AIDS. To read more, please visit our RAISA page for links to two versions (one with photos) of the report.

RAISA funding success

(25 August 2004)

RAISA has been granted £732,674 for three years from the Big Lottery Fund (formerly known as the Community Fund). This is a huge success for RAISA as this is the second time Big Lottery Fund has given a grant to RAISA with an unexpectedly large grant second time round. This is critical affirmation of RAISA's work during a time of uncertainty as funding for RAISA phase 1 had finished in March 2004.

Young people play a leading role in RAISA conference

(May 2004)

VSO RAISA's 2004 conference, held in May, focused on orphans and vulnerable children. Among the 80 delegates were 10 youth participants from Malawi and Zambia.

On the first two days, the adult delegates, mainly from grass-roots community-based organisations, exchanged experiences of community care, caring for carers and child rights while the youth delegates were trained in using Hero books and art & play therapy. On day three the youth passed on their training to the adults. Feedback on all this was very positive and networking was strong, especially between adult and youth delegations.

To quote Edward Amadhila, TOV Multipurpose Centre, Namibia:

The importance of network and we have made lot of friends, we are looking forward to invite some of these people to visit us in the future. If there is a organisation that is touching the life of our people on the continent of Africa today, it must be VSO. Thank you for your many volunteers touching the hearts of our people and we believe things will not be the same again in our cities, towns and villages and countries.

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