The Chicago Alexandra Sister Community Project

The report says the Chicago-Alexandra Sister Community Project (The Project) is a grassroots public education and community development support organization working in partnership with the Alexandra Civic Organization (ACO). The report says in April 1990 the Chicago City Council passed a resolution linking Chicago with Alexandra, South Africa; over 300,000 live on two square kilometers of land in the black township near Johannesburg; access to running water, electricity or paved roads is extremely limited. The report says ACO represents one of the strongest efforts at self-governance in South Africa's townships; our linkage with ACO places us in direct contact with a grassroots democratic organization to support their struggle to bring safe and clean living conditions to their community. The report says Chicagoans face many of the same struggles; the commonality of Chicagoans and Alexandra residents advocating to better their living conditions creates a unique opportunity to forge an ongoing international grassroots dialogue on community development. The report says the Project has four (4) Development and Technical Support Committees in addition to its public education and political action activities. The report says the emphasis of the Health Committee in on training with a focus on Pre-School Health Education to work with health workers and teachers to improve dental hygiene, nutrition, and general health of children; a long term objective is to send teams of health workers to work with Alexandra health workers, and to design training workshops to fit their needs. The report says the Education Committee established a scholarship fund named after Makhosi Jama, an ACO member assassinated by the Inkatha/South African Government vigilantes in early 1992; the Education Committee is also working with a local university to help establish a library in Alexandra. The report says the Housing Committee is organizing a coalition of Chicago groups working on affordable housing to develop a network of community housing specialists to provide information and technical assistance to ACO. The report says the Media Committee is organizing a coalition of community media organizations to provide technical assistance to Alexandra to develop a communications infrastructure; the media committee received $10,000 from the Patrick and Anna M. Cudahy Fund for ACO to set up a desktop publishing system; the next step is to provide technical assistance to ACO on how to effectively use this equipment. The report says support and attend upcoming fundraising and educational activities when Moses Mayekiso visits Chicago March 31 - April 2, 1993; SAVE THE DATE for the African Dinner Fundraiser on Thursday, April 1 at Malcolm X College. The report says invite a Project member to come to your organization or business to speak to your Board of Directors or membership; organize a contingent for the Soweto Day Walkathon coming up in mid-June. The report says help us fundraise for the Project's organizational work in Chicago and for project funding in Alexandra. The report says ideas include in-kind donations of equipment or use of space; letters of support to attach to funding proposals; sending a funding appeal to your membership so that they can become directly involved with the project; sharing proceeds from a raffle or silent auction at your annual event. The document includes The Project's Programmatic Priorities and How You and Your Organization Can Participate.