Woza Moya
 

 

In response to the devastating impact of AIDS in the neighboring communities of Ufafa Valley, the Woza Moya Project was birthed in April 2000 by three individuals associated with both the Buddhist Retreat Center and the local community: Thanissara, Kittisaro and Sue Hedden. They have continued to remain intimately involved over the ensuing years with the unfolding of the project. Additionally, the project has received generous support from both Louis Van Loon , founder of the of the Buddhist Retreat Center, his wife Chrisi and the San Francisco Insight community.

Woza MoyaSituated on tribal land among the people it serves, the Woza Moya Project is a community-based and owned project, where:

  • 78% of the people tested are HIV-positive
  • 47% of pregnant women are HIV-positive
  • 85% of the people are unemployed
  • Poverty is widespread
  • AIDS has changed the traditional family structure severely, leaving children without parents, and requiring grandparents to raise the young
  • AIDS orphans are sometimes raising their siblings
  • AIDS awareness is very low
  • There is virtually no electricity, telecommunications or sanitation.
  • The main source of water is a river and boreholes.

Woza Moya ChildrenWoza Moya has a team of 30 people (6 full-time and 2 part-time staff and 24 community-care workers) serving over 6000 people in the rural communities of Ufafa Valley.

The project is firmly established and widely respected not only within the local communities, but among the network of non-government organizations in KwaZulu and within South Africa as a whole. It is considered a "model response" to the tragedy of AIDS in Africa.

 

Woza MoyaWoza Moya provides service in the following areas:

• Orphan and vulnerable children intervention
• Home-based care
• HIV and AIDS information and counseling
• Food security
• Basic medicines
• Paralegal and advocacy services



 



UBUNTU

Ubuntu is a word describing a particular African worldview:

"A person is a person through other persons",

meaning that people can only find fulfillment through interacting with other people.

It represents a spirit of kinship across both race and creed which unites mankind to a common purpose.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu says,

"Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language.
It is perhaps best described as:

'My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in what is yours'."

 

CELEBRATING THE INAUGURATION

OF

THE WOZA MOYA CHILDREN'S CENTER

 

For AIDS orphans and vulnerable children

In Ufafa Valley, South Africa

(A building our community has significantly funded)

 

A COMMUNITY POTLUCK CELEBRATION

 

Saturday afternoon October 3, 2009

from 2:30 PM to 6 PM

At the  Sweetwater Lodge  on the n New Moon Foundation property

 in  Kapa'au,North Kohala.

 

We will begin with an African and Hawaiian blessing ceremony. Gavin will report back on his three months in South Africa earlier this year; there will also be a slideshow, two videos about Woza Moya on a "60 minutes"-like program on South African Television and some great new South African music! We will share a meal at about 5 PM

Please RSVP to gavin@wozamoyahawaii.org so that we have some idea of how many people are coming.

 

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