No 2. Autumn 2007
Tibet Nepal Zimbabwe South Africa
Mealie meal porridge, the staple food in Zimbabwe, has leapt from five to fifteen thousand dollars in one week. This is the only food that even the employed can now afford. Vegetables are a luxury, kids have dropped out of school and health care is unaffordable - and anyway, the government doctors have been on strike for several months.
Recent political events in Zimbabwe have created an even greater need. Inflation is sky-rocketing, with money earned one week having lost half its value the next.
ROKPA’s medical funding is a huge benefit to people with HIV and others who would otherwise die for lack of medical treatment, but prices continue to fly up. There are also difficulties in securing the normal staple food from suppliers whose stocks are down. We have been buying bulk maize meal ourselves for the last few months – but even that is only enough to feed the people we help on Anti Retroviral Drugs. We need more for the orphans and disabled children and those who care for them, as well as for the desperately poor and homeless. Most importantly, we need to look after our amazingly committed team of staff in increasingly difficult times. They are now given lunch - usually only bread and margarine - and an emergency bus-fare allowance.
Everything now takes twice as long as before – phones often don’t work, emails and electricity fail, you have to queue for food and fuel, and banks limit how much cash you can take out each day. ROKPA is expanding its ‘Drop-in Centre’ to include a referral centre through which people can get the help that we can’t provide.
As the situation in Zimbabwe worsens the need for your support increases and every penny that you can send us counts.
Environmental Crisis
in Tibet
Driven by greed and commercial interest the survival of animal, plant and human life in Tibet is threatened with extinction. As medicinal plants are over harvested, traditional Tibetan medicine, providing local health care at low cost, is a related casualty. Local authorities realise this problem can only be resolved with ROKPA’s support.
ROKPA is also pioneering reforestation projects and ecological education. To date it has funded the planting of 2 million trees - a drop in the ocean.
Our vision is a series of forest plantations interconnected with cultivated areas of medicinal herbs. Since 1995 over 2,500 families have received much needed extra income from seasonal tree planting. The new project will not only give regular employment but also ensure the future of Tibetan traditional medicine.
ROKPA UK Overseas Projects
Kagyu Samye Ling, Eskdalemuir, Langholm, Dumfriesshire DG13 0QL
Telephone: 013873 73232 Ext: 230
Fax: 013873 73223
email: charity@RokpaUK.org
ROKPA Trust Reg. Charity No: 1059293
