Women's Empowerment Meetings; Meet Villager

“The Village” - February, 2013 I am so excited to learn what happens in a Village of Love women’s empowerment workshop! Two CAP/AIDS volunteers visited Kibera on the very day of the weekly women’s meeting. Now we have a first hand account of the process! You can read about it in our new INFORMATION section. See Also in this edition, Meet Everlyne Mwende, orphan caregiver and entrepreneur. Invest in Kenyan youth: join the team in the 2013 Donor Challenge! Fundraising event: April 13th, with Afro-centric dance, song, drama! Follow our volunteer adventures in Kibera. Welcome to YOUR Village! DID YOU KNOW…… ? Village of Love provides weekly Women’s Empowerment workshops! Women come from all over Kibera, walking sometimes more than an hour to get there. They range in age from 16 to 60. They are mothers, daughters, businesswomen, entrepreneurs and activists. They have one thing in common. All are orphan caregivers. In the summer of 2012, CAP/AIDS volunteers Memona Hossain and Ali Higgins visited Kibera, their visit coinciding with the weekly women’s meeting! The discussion opened with the question, “What is a child?” Hmmm… Memona Hossain casts a unique spotlight on the women of Kibera in: Empowerment Workshop Meet EVERLYNE MWENDE, Orphan Caregiver and Entrepreneur Everlyne Mwende used to make a living selling alcohol from her home. This got her into all kinds of trouble with the neighbours and the law! That has all changed. One of the first 15 orphan-caregivers to join Kijiji Cha Upendo, Everlyne says of her involvement in KCU, ”It has made a huge difference to my business and my life. I am so happy!” Living in the slum of Kibera, Everlyne struggled to feed and house her two biological and two orphaned children. Her alcohol sales business caused her too much grief. KCU was exactly what she needed to empower her new venture to get off the ground! Meet Everlyne.   Please take this opportunity to invest in Kenyan youth! For credit card: Donate Now Choose the monthly option. Or write a cheque to CAP/AIDS with “Village of Love donor challenge” on the memo line. Send to CAP/AIDS, 812A Bloor St W., #301, Toronto, ON M6G 1L9. Include a void cheque. “Village of Love: A Journey to Freedom” An exciting evening of Afro-centric dance, song and drama! Featuring gifted dramatist DIENYE WABOSO; Carribean folk group, THE HERITAGE SINGERS CANADA; African dance troupe, TWAMSIFUELI. For details, see: “Journey to Freedom.” Saturday, April 13th, 7 pm to 9 pm. Runnymede United Church, 432 Runnymede Rd., Toronto. TICKETS: $25 ; GROUPS 5 or more: $20. Includes refreshments and door prizes! Use credit card: TICKETS NOW. Reserve tickets and pay at the door: RESERVE TICKETS. Volunteer to help on the evening: VOLUNTEER A journey to freedom requires courage and determination; it also requires a wider community: a Village of Love! Volunteer Adventures! “Don’t roll the window down all the way,” advises Andrew. “Hands may come in and help themselves to items in the car! CAP/AIDS volunteers Ali and Memona exchange nervous glances. Their friends had warned them, “Don’t take anything you’re not prepared to lose!” They try to tuck their i-phones surreptitiously into the crevice of the car seats. Ali and Memona, seated in the back of Andrew’s “limo,” are heading for Kibera, the world’s second largest slum.. Read more: A First Visit Ali Higgins and Memona Hossain, inside Everlyne Mwende’s tuckshop, with Programme Officer, Leonora Obara (left). Linda Levin, Coordinator of the Village of Love Canada Visit our Website: www.villageoflovecanada.org

Support us!   Share with your friends! “Village of Love: Journey to Freedom” April 13th, 7 pm, An evening of Afro-centric dance, song and drama! Dienye Waboso in “The Joshua Glover Story: Journey to Freedom.” Don’t miss this compelling performance dramatizing the true story of an escaped slave who reaches Montgomery’s Inn via the Underground Railroad in 1854. TICKETS:$25; Groups 5 or more $20