Community Service is an important part of the CWA Triangle.
CWA’s active participation both nationally and locally is
well documented and recognized. We are known as great
“citizens” of each of our communities In the early 1960’s
Convention Delegates passed a resolution to support and fund
“Operation South America.” While this program has
evolved over the years, and is now known as the
Union to
Union Fund, CWA’s support has not dwindled. Over 10
years ago Convention Delegates decided to support the
Pediatric Aids Foundation as their “CWA Charity of Choice.”
Both of these programs are supported and funded by Local
Unions. But many Locals do more. There are blood
drives, holiday baskets for the needy, and roadside
clean-up. Each month we will highlight a local and
their community service efforts.
The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) has been our
"Charity of Choice" since 1990. The Foundation, an international non-profit
organization is dedicated to creating a future of hope for children and families
around the world. CWA members have been extremely generous and in the past
fifteen years have raised over $5.15 million on behalf of the Foundation.
CWA made this decision after Elizabeth courageously shared her personal story
with CWA members at a time when little was known about AIDS and even less about
how it affects children. It was after that moving speech that the CWA
voted to make the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation its charity of
choice. Since that time, CWA members and Local Unions have been extremely
generous to the Foundation through annual giving campaigns and special
fundraising initiatives. As a group, CWA has raised over $5 million for the
Foundation’s research, training and advocacy programs around the world.
Elizabeth Glaser was infected with HIV through a blood transfusion in 1981.
She and her husband Paul learned that Elizabeth had unknowingly passed the
virus onto their daughter, Ariel, through breast milk and subsequently to their
son, Jake, in utero. Following Ariel’s death in 1988, Elizabeth joined with
close friends, Susie Zeegen and Susan DeLaurentis to create the Foundation that
now bears her name.
Thanks to the generosity of CWA, the Foundation that started modestly, just
three mothers working around a kitchen table, has grown into a worldwide effort
to create a future of hope for children and families around the world. Today,
the Foundation is a major player in the global AIDS pandemic, working to prevent
new infections while helping children and adults who are already infected. The
Foundation has also branched out by helping kids and families suffering from
other serious and life-threatening diseases; all the while continuing to fund
the research that is so critical to ending this horrible pandemic.
We have come a long way in the battle against HIV/AIDS, but
unfortunately, there is still more work to be done. Currently more than 38
million people are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. Unless
something is done, that number will more than double by 2010.
The continued support of CWA will
allow the Foundation to:
Stimulate and support cutting-edge pediatric
HIV/AIDS research and train the pediatric leaders of tomorrow;
Prevent new HIV infections throughout the
developing world;
Ensure families stay healthy and communities stay
strong through expanded care and treatment programs for infected children
and adults in the hardest hits countries
Passionately advocate for children’s health with
governments, policy makers, and the medical community;
Accelerate collaborative medical discoveries on
behalf of children suffering from other serious and life-threatening
pediatric illnesses.
Although Elizabeth lost her own battle to AIDS, her son, Jake, is now a
healthy, young adult. And, thanks to the work of the Foundation and the
support of CWA throughout the years, countless other children have been
saved as well. For more information, please visit the Foundation’s Web
site at
www.pedaids.org.
The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS
Foundation creates a future of hope for children and families worldwide
by eradicating pediatric AIDS and providing care and treatment for
people with HIV/AIDS.
A Survivor's Guide: Annabella's Story is about a Ugandan mother, Allen,
and her daughter, Annabella, who found hope in the darkest of
circumstances. Although Allen and her 12-year-old daughter, Annabella,
both have HIV, they are now leading healthy lives thanks to the
Foundation and its partners. Allen and Annabella discovered their HIV
status shortly before Allen's husband died of AIDS, while she was
pregnant with her youngest daughter, Kirabo. Thankfully, Allen and
Kirabo received medication to help prevent the transmission of HIV to
Kirabo, who is now HIV-negative. Attached is a video of Annabell's
story. Please click on the picture to load the video:
This story is a great illustration of the work done by the
foundation. That is why the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation is CWA's
charity of choice.
To the Communications Workers of America:
I am writing to offer my most heartfelt thank you for the warm welcome I
received at your 68th Annual Convention in Las Vegas. Your energy
and tremendous support has been so valuable to the Foundation since the
first time Elizabeth courageously shared her personal story with CWA members
at the 1990 national convention. I’m honored that our partnership has
continued to grow and has allowed us to bring real results to more children
and families living by HIV/AIDS.
Shortly after attending your convention I
was one of 25,000 delegates in Toronto for the International AIDS
Conference. I was encouraged that the world has begun to elevate the status
of children in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Many of the high-profile speeches
in Toronto highlighted the special needs of children, including those by
Bill and Melinda Gates and former President Bill Clinton. Thanks to pioneers
like Elizabeth Glaser and caring organizations like CWA, children are
finally on the worldwide HIV/AIDS agenda.
But even those speeches acknowledged the ongoing failure to adequately
prevent and treat HIV in children around the world. We are still reaching
less than 10 percent of HIV-positive pregnant women with services that will
prevent new infections in babies, and less than 5 percent of children living
with HIV are receiving the medicine that can extend their lives. There is
also a serious need for more research on pediatric AIDS, so we can continue
developing better pediatric treatments and possibly a vaccine for children.
Although my experience in Toronto was sobering, I came away with a strong
feeling of hope about what we have accomplished and the path forward. At one
of the conference’s key sessions, the Foundation announced that we have
reached more than 2.1 million women and helped to ensure more babies are
born free of HIV. We now also bring urgently-needed antiretroviral drugs to
more than 63,000 adults and 5,000 children worldwide.This means mothers around the globe
who were very ill, are healthy enough to take care of their children.
Children living with HIV are returning to school. Families that were
devastated by AIDS now have hope for the future.
Statistics like these are more than just numbers — they represent thousands
of stories of hope in the fight against HIV/AIDS. But the number of people
we’re able to help today is just a tiny fraction of the millions of children
and families without access to the care they need. We can and must do more.
Your generosity to the
Foundation has been more than outstanding, and we are so grateful for all
that you have done. Together, we
have made great progress, but we must continue
Elizabeth’s mission until we have discovered better treatments, a
preventative vaccine, and ultimately a cure for this deadly disease.
We can fulfill these needs with the help of
supporters like you. Please visit our Web site atwww.pedaids.org to learn more about our work and ways to make a
difference. By working together, we can send a clear message of hope and we
can make a real difference in the lives of children and families around the
world. . . Because every child deserves a lifetime.
Sincerely,
Pamela W. Barnes
President and Chief Executive Officer
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (Download
this letter)
In 1960, CWA took the bold and unusual step of establishing Operation South
America (OSA). The purpose was to provide financial, technical, and material
support to workers in different countries in Central and South America, the
Caribbean area as well as to the Cuban Telephone Workers in Exile. In 1961,
the program proved so successful that we made it an ongoing CWA-wide
program. In recent years the program has been renamed the Eduardo Diaz
Union-To-Union International Solidarity Fund.
The structure of Operation South America has been from the beginning
straightforward and simple. Small project plans are developed by the
regional office of the Communications International (C.I.) and put before
CWA Districts. Each participating District selects a project to sponsor. The
funded unions or activists, in turn, provide periodic activity reports. C.I.
verifies implementation and CWA staff monitors overall performance. The
modest contributions provided by OSA have in many instances sustained
struggling unions and kept them afloat.
Much has happened in the world since OSA was started. No one could have
imagined the power and clout of the multinationals, the rapid globalization
of the workplace, the exploitation of workers in developing countries by
Multinational Corporations, the use of prison and child labor, the historic
collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the prominent role which the
Polish labor movement played in its demise.
The world is a different place and the needs of labor activists in
developing countries, although just as urgent today as in the past, are much
broader and more directly intertwined with our own well-being. As difficult
as it is to organize unions in many of the countries of the world, it is at
least twice as difficult for women to gain a voice on the job. Women have
emerged as the most exploited of any group of adult workers.
CWA has always been a leader in International Solidarity. Our work
in this area has always been guided by the belief that we can create
a better world where all workers, whichever country they live in and
whichever industry they are working in, must have the right to join
and organize unions.
CWA District 7 and 13,
Malawi for the Commercial and Allied Workers Union
and the Communications Workers of Malawi Global Reports. (Attached are 2
reports on the Malawai Project with our Union to Union contributions)
Report #1: Orientation Workshop for CIAWU/UNI Global Equity Project for
Women in the Informal Economy Held on 10th January 2006 at
Grace Bandawe Conference Centre
The
orientation workshop took place in the Southern Region of Malawi and was
highly attended by 25 women, General Secretary of Communication Workers
Union of Malawi, the General Secretary and President of Commercial
Union. Download and read the entire article....
Report #2: Report on Workshop on
HIV & AIDS Mainstreaming in the Informal Economy (Central Region
Committee) Held on 28th February 2006 at Kamundi Motel in
Lilongwe-Malawi
The workshop was
graced by the Treasurer General of CIAWU and the Chairperson of MCTU
women’s committee. In his opening remarks, the Treasurer General of
CIAWU Thanked Sister Ndhlovu for organizing the workshop. Download and read the entire article....
