The ANCHOR (African Network For Children Orphaned and at Risk) was officially launched in March with a two day workshop held in Johannesburg, South Africa for Rotarian leaders from six African countries. The purpose of the workshop was to train RFFA Representatives in their role of mobilizing Rotarians in their local districts to perform volunteer services to help care and support the AIDS orphans. RFFA formed a multi sector partnership one year ago with HOPE worldwide/Africa, The Coca Cola Company/Africa, and Emory University School of Public Health to help 145,000 orphans and vulnerable children in six African countries over a five year period. A five year $8.1 million grant was obtained from USAID to fund ANCHOR. .....

With the assistance of RFFA Board members Tony Serrano (Past RI Director), Eric Henderson (RFFA Vice Chair), and Sue Paget (ANCHOR Director), Marion Bunch facilitated the workshop. The eight RFFA ANCHOR Representatives are: Eric Krystall/Kenya; Tony Jordan and Priscilla Banda/Zambia; Olu Olawu/Nigeria; Abroulaye Fofane/Cote D'Ivoire; Marieke Robers and Hans Ludolph/South Africa; and Reg Loo/Botswana. The HOPE worldwide Regional Managers for the ANCHOR program were technical advisors at the workshop and led a field trip to see first hand some of the work being done with the children. HOPE worldwide/Africa was awarded a Best Practice Model label from UNAIDS a couple of years ago for their work with Orphans and Vulnerable Children.

At the end of the workshop, the ANCHOR program was publicly launched at the Sandton Rotary club meeting on Tuesday evening, March 14th. Marion was the keynote speaker. In attendance was Dr. Nelson Githinji, Director of Community Affairs/Africa for The Coca Cola Company, the HOPE worldwide management team along with many Rotary and community leaders from District 9300 in Johannesburg.