Update on Gogos!

The other day a woman named Leslie Lewis contacted me on the blog because she had seen my posting about gogos. It turns out she works with the organization Gogo Grandmothers that helps gogos in Malawi. We exchanged some great emails. For those of you that are interested, here are parts of some of the emails she sent me about how we can help these grandmothers (and grandfathers) that are raising numerous HIV/AIDS orphans with little to no support:

"People are helping as individuals, "Partners" and and as a "Group". Partners and Groups actually charter with us and can fund raise for the grandmothers and orphan children using our name and tools. You can find these described under "Groups" on the website www.gogograndmothers.com Then we can supply you with lots of info and supplies and even products we bring from Malawi to use in fundraising.

I also have a conference call with leaders each month to share ideas and pray for one another. This is just available when people can connect. We are having our first one day leaders conference on Sept. 13th. We will have high school students, 20 somethings all the way to 80 year old grandmothers there. I can't wait! Gogo Grandmothers is new in the US where some of us heard about the need and what was happening and decided to come along side to help. But it has much deeper roots in the work in Malawi.

The core of our work connects a group, which could be campus, church or community to a specific village in Malawi.The group helps support that village with prayer and fund raising or sponsorship. I will send you a couple attachments about sponsorship. We are working on the ground establishing community based Early Childhood Education Centers for orphans and vulnerable children with feeding programs and biblically based education. It is making a huge difference and I just heard today that the Ministry of Women and Child Development has selected Makungula Village preschool as a national model for a peri-urban ECD work in the country!! It was our first village preschool. The other emphasis, work with the gogo, grew out of the preschools as we realized it was grandmothers and some grandfathers who are now trying to raise these children with almost nothing. I wish you could see the impact this is making in villages as these groups form...giving so much hope. Right now we have eight villages who are receiving some help from people in the US, but UNICEF gave us a grant to train childcare workers and form groups in 30 new villages, but no money to help sustain the allowances and other things you will see is our goal to cover in each village.

The huge need right now is for fertilizer. Their planting time is October and without fertilizer they cannot grow what they need. The cost has shot up to $65.00 a bag. We are praying that vouchers will be given to the elderly poor raising orphans which could bring down the cost for them so we could help even more.

I haven't heard about the purse. I know from being over there that most of the gogos have never held a needle and thread and their eyes are poor. But we teach them to make a little bag we call a Little Maize Bag out of african cloth along with needles and thread that we supply and make a french knots on the outside to represent the number of orphan children in their care. We then write their name and sometimes the children's names on a slip of paper they tuck inside. We bring those to the US and add corn kernels and a tag explaining leaving some of the gleaning of our fields for the poor. Groups use these to raise donations.


There are simple ways to help gogos and orphaned children when you are at a secular school. The high school girls attended two afternoon street fairs in San Clemente, sold some of our necklaces that are of a gogo and child and did face painting. They made over $1,500 to send to villages that will go to fertilizer. Another public high school girl, for part of her senior project, made bracelets and sold them for a dollar and earned $600.00 that she sent with her Westmont sister who bought over 250 sweaters for street children for a dollar a piece at a flea market in Malawi and used the rest to buy blankets for some of the gogos.

Your group could do a fundraiser like this group that just sent me this e-mail notice. You can just pick one popular restaurant that gives a good percentage...they just went crazy with this idea.

Another group put cans around that had a picture of a gogo and child and it said, A dime a day can save lives. Let your heart gogo!"

When I read this I couldn't help but think of that cheezy 80's song from Wham, "Wake me up before you go-go..." I wonder if that could be used to market a fundraising event for gogos. That could be kind of fun. Bring on the leg-warmers, blue eye shadow and bad hair! Maybe George will kick in a few bucks!!!