A Mother’s Love Works Miracles
Written by Mary Welch Tuesday, October 19 2010
Marion Bunch became an AIDS activist at the urging of her son, Jerry. The only thing different about that mother-son exchange was that Jerry had died three years earlier, of AIDS. But Bunch took his words to heart and today heads up Rotarians For Fighting Against AIDS (RFFA), an organization that has impacted the lives of more than 100,000 orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) victimized by AIDS.
“It’s a unique journey one goes on after losing a child. Jerry was just 28, and in 1994, AIDS was just evolving. No one knew anything about the disease. Ultimately, it’s a lonely journey because no one wants to talk to you about it,” she says.
For the three years following his death, Bunch was “mourning, crying, and not doing anything.” But she had recently joined the Rotary Club of Dunwoody (Georgia) and found herself listening to a speaker talking about AIDS. “And, right then and there,” she says, “I felt a tap on my shoulder, and Jerry asked me what I was going to do about it. I heard it. It was Jerry. And, that propelled me.”
Admittedly, Bunch isn’t sure that her beloved son was telling her to form an organization that would raise millions of dollars and create large-scale programs to help fights AIDS in Africa.
But never underestimate a mother’s love for her son or his memory.
Bunch left the meeting thinking about AIDS and her son’s challenge. “It took me a while and a lot of prayers to figure it out, but it occurred to me that Rotarians are the world’s biggest volunteer force. We could do something,” she says. “I knew we needed to partner – and I didn’t know a soul – but I had an idea that we needed to go into the schools.”
Bunch did find a partner – AIDS Atlanta – which warned her that the schools didn’t want their students to hear about AIDS, homosexuality, or anything that could upset parents. “They looked at me like I was crazy,” she recalls. “But I said you don’t understand; Rotarians are the schools. We are the principals, the head of the PTA, the corporate partners. Rotarians can get into the schools.”
And they did.
Preaching an abstinence-based program, Bunch and her partners in 1997 started the Rotary D6900 AIDS Awareness Program and addressed middle schools and freshman health classes. Speakers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, AIDS Atlanta, and other groups would get a small stipend to go and talk to students about how easy it was to get the virus and how to avoid getting it. The program is still running, and more than 350,000 students in 20 schools located Fulton County (Georgia) and the city of Atlanta have gotten the latest information on AIDS and prevention.
“I would have been pleased to have just done that,” she says.
But Jerry had even bigger plans for his mom.
Gaining a reputation as a passionate speaker on the subject of AIDS throughout the world of Rotary due to her work in Atlanta, Bunch caught the attention of members of the board of Rotary International. By “pure happenstance,” she was invited to Africa in 2001 to learn more about AIDS problems and help deliver medical equipment.
During that trip, she realized the power of Rotary. “If we want something to happen, it will happen. Through Rotarians I was able to meet with the Ministries of Health, Education and AIDS Councils in Uganda, Burundi, and South Africa. We even met with U.S. ambassadors. I just asked questions and learned so much. I went back and wrote a report on what Rotarians could do to fight AIDS in Africa.”
In 2002 at a Rotary conference in Nairobi, Kenya, at which Bunch was a keynote speaker, past Rotary International President Bhichai Rattakul, asked if she would help him put together a plan to help the children of Africa. It turns out, she did.
It took her two years to put together, but Bunch formed a multisector public/private partnership called “ANCHOR” (Africa Network for Children Orphaned and at Risk). She wanted partners experienced in the AIDS field in Africa and teamed up with HOPE Worldwide, a faith-based group experienced in community-based OVC programs. Other partners were The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation and the Emory University School of Public Health. Bunch saw a need for a global Rotary “partnering entity,” so she formed RFFA, which was approved by Rotary International’s board in 2004. Thus RFFA and the other three partners created the ANCHOR partnership.
The ANCHOR partners, with the help of Sandra Thurman, president of the International AIDS Trust, went to the U.S. government for PEPFAR funds (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) and obtained a five-year, six-country OVC grant for $8.1 million. Although they knew they couldn’t help all 17.5 million street kids who are orphaned due to AIDS in Africa, they came up with the goal of providing care and support for 146,000 children. The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation added $1.2 million to the U.S.PEPFAR grant.
“They have no education or home,” Bunch says of the children. “They have no future or prospects. And, when you have nothing you are ripe to join terrorist organizations,” she says. “We can’t turn our backs. We tried that and 9/11 happened. This is a huge issue and problem. I was very naïve but I thought Rotarians, as a force, could do something.”
The program is focused on providing care and support for thousands of OVC in six countries: South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Kenya, Nigeria, and Côte d’Ivoire. The program finds caregivers for the children and connects them to medical and legal services. RFFA mobilizes Rotarians to provide volunteer support through local Rotary Clubs. It also mobilizes the international community of Rotarians and Rotary Clubs to create matching grants with the Rotary Foundation. This has resulted in funds donated to the children in these countries in the amount of $250,000 for OVC education (school fees, uniforms, supplies, food) with another $50,000 promised by the end of this year.
To date, more than 118,000 OVC have received care and support.
RFFA is now starting more projects and will help OVC in Uganda, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. “It was simply a matter of mobilizing Rotarians, both in those countries and throughout the world,” Bunch says. “It only takes $450 to educate, provide nutrition and clothes for one child for one year. Once you start them on the road to education, you are saving them and the entire community.”
Rotary Clubs around the world have responded. “I recognize that this is something people need to get involved in, even right here in safe, secure, Flower Mound, Texas,” said Flower Mound Rotarian Gerald Robinson. He heard about RFFA at national convention eight years ago and decided to join the effort. Since then he has organized an annual silent auction, and funds up to $2,500, are matched by the club. Last year they raised $5,850, enough to support 13 children for a year.
RFFA also has started 250 Kidz Clubs in seven African countries that are serving 20,000 children. Kidz Clubs are meeting places that provide safe spaces for children to play and interact. They also learn coping skills and receive counseling to help them deal with grief, loss, violence, and other challenges resulting from AIDS. On average, 30 to 50 children visit a Kidz Club on a weekly basis.
Bunch, who has made more than 30 trips to Africa, is amazed at the path she is taking. She quit her job and now heads RFFA and is well-known in the AIDS fight as someone who is making a large-scale difference not only with African children, but also in the future of the continent.
“Looking back, I was lucky that I found a path,” she says. “It took me out of this terrible sadness and gave me a purpose in life. And, it all came from Jerry.”
Mary Welch is a freelance writer for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Dawson Times, Plan Your Meeting magazine, and Atlanta Business magazine. Previously, she held many positions with Leader Publishing, including editor-in-chief of Atlanta Woman, editor of Business to Business magazine, and editor of Catalyst magazine. As editor of Business to Business, she assigned, edited, and conceptualized a series that was awarded Silver in the 2005 GAMMA Awards for Best Series. Welch was a reporter for the Atlanta Business Chronicle for eight years and freelanced for publications including Glamour, Advertising Age, South, Georgia Trend, and Oz. From 2000 to 2003, she served as vice president of media relations for Bank of America, during which time she authored Forever Green: A History and Hope of the American Forest with Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell.
