New and renewed support from the Agriculture Union’s Social Justice Fund (AUSJF) is improving the lives of people in North, Central and South America.
Here at home, a donation to the Central Alberta Women’s Shelter in Red Deer will help fund the crisis intervention and counselling work of the Shelter’s child support program.
The Shelter provides a safe haven for victims of domestic abuse while carrying out information and education work to break the cycle of family violence. In addition to the funds donated from the AUSJF an information session and silent auction was held at the Agriculture Union’s Alberta Regional Seminar in support of the shelter.
Continuing a long-standing tradition, Prince Edward Island’s Local 4 is arranging for the purchase of a prize steer at the Easter Beef Show and Sale in Charlottetown. The chosen beef will be dressed, packaged and delivered to P.E.I food banks just in time for holiday dinners.
This charitable activity – jointly funded by Local 4, the Agriculture Union Social Justice Fund and the Public Service Alliance of Canada – will help support some of the Island’s least fortunate families while assisting the local beef industry during difficult economic times. In the process, the profile of both the Agriculture Union and the valuable public services provided by our members will be raised across the province.
Columbia is one of a number of South American countries where hard-won union rights are often under siege. Education of workers who often have low-level literacy skills is key to building the knowledge and solidarity required to protect and advance those rights.
The Agriculture Union, through our Social Justice Fund, is one of a number of unions to contribute to the ‘El Sindicalismo y la Democracia’ (Unions and Democracy) education project in that country.
The project is being led by Lettres en main, a Montreal advocacy group that has worked for decades with adults with low literacy levels. Two of the organization’s existing booklets – on the roles of unions in society and the importance of democracy – are being translated into Spanish, carefully adapted to the Columbian context. Ten thousand copies of each booklet will be distributed by Columbian unions representing food and beverage and sugarcane workers.
Last, but not least, the AUSJF is supporting the work of Local 48’s Krysty Munn as part of this month’s ‘Education in Action’ trip to Guatemala, sponsored by the PSAC Social Justice Fund, to engage in such community development activities as home-building and support for schools.
Our own Fund’s contribution will allow Krysty to purchase such basic supplies as pens, pencils and notebooks for distribution to hundreds of students in one of the most impoverished region of the Central American country. Medical and sewing kits will also be provided to a number of schools.
More details on these four deserving projects can be viewed HERE on our Web site.