Thursday, November 02, 2006

Thank you Dr Ethel Frater

ABOLICAO OXFORD CAPOEIRA SAYS THANKS DR ETHEL BARROW


Recently a donation of R10 000 (£700) was made by Dr Ethel Barrow. The intention is to raise HIV/Aids awareness.

In order to get hold of some of this money every month the sports groups will have to do 2 things:
1. Hand out condoms to their team members!
2. Do something to educate themselves or others about HIV/Aids and other sexually transmitted diseases.

The meetings organised by the Abolicao Trust were received very well. Four local Hamburg football teams attended, along with the capoeira group and the boxing team. The sports teams were so delighted to have the time spent on them, and several people told us that the information they heard was among the first comprehensive information that they had received about safe sex.

Completely separately, a group of African charities have begun a scheme called "KICK AIDS OUT OF AFRICA", aimed at football groups. If our project is a success, we will attract funding from this program, and they have said they will happily incorporate capoeira into the scheme. The boxing could also be incorporated, but perhaps more aptly called "KNOCK AIDS OUT OF AFRICA".

To give us an idea of the remarkable woman who made the initial donation of R10 000 here is what was written by her son:

"Mrs Ethel Barrow, known locally and affectionately by her carers as Dr Barrow (her maiden name), celebrated her 102nd birthday during July with a quiet gathering of friends from the community, her son Charles and grandson George who flew from England for the occasion.

"Born in 1904, Dr Barrow lived in Cape Town from 1928 until 1969 practising primarily as a paediatrician (especially of new born babies). She met and married Paarl-born Dr Ken Frater when they were both fellows at the Mayo Clinic in the USA. After the birth of her sons Robert and Kenneth, she pioneered birth control clinics when she saw the plight of the people of the Cape Flats in the 1930s . In her work as a bacteriologist at the Cape Town Medical School she worked with early samples of penicillin sent to Cape Town by Fleming and during the war she helped at the Castle with medical screening of recruits for the forces. Among the people who visited the household in those years were Leonard Cripps (brother of Stafford Cripps MP) and Louis Leipoldt. It was a dinner table with a broad spectrum of guests from all walks of life.

"Dr Ken Frater died suddenly in September 1950 leaving her to run a household with 3 sons (Charles was born in 1941). She took up her profession again and became the Medical Superintendent of Saint Monica's Home, a maternity hospital on the slopes of Signal Hill. After retirement she returned to her birthplace, England. Unable to cope without some active interest she worked at the Linnean Society Library sorting and cleaning books. She wrote a paper on the Tea Collection, a library within of books documenting the cultivation and processing of tea. For this she was granted a Fellowship of the Linnean Society an honour of which she was very proud. Her grandson George is doing a summer job at the same library . "Until she was 96 she continued to read her British Medical Journal from cover to cover and, although it was a struggle, lived on her own. The loss of her son Kenneth in June 2000 was a major blow. Since February 2003 she has been living in Glentana cared for by people in the community."

Her son adds: "I hope sincerely that the money is put to good use and in the spirit of the old lady who worked so hard for a multiracial community in the Cape", and we really feel that this money is going to go a long way. Currently an African charity is trying to get a big scheme of the ground, entitled "kick Aids out of Africa", targeted at footballers, and if it is a success then our scheme will receive long term funding




Local football Team involved in the HIV awareness sports program.

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