On 3rd-10th October, I was part of a delegation to visit Southern Africa, with ACTSA. This was an amazing experience I was lucky enough to be part of, along with Kat, our Women's Officer and Ruqayyah, our Black Students Officer, with the trip being very relevant to all our remits. ACTSA,(www.actsa.org) which has grown from the old anti-apartheid movement is a campaigning organisation. They are focused on building routes to develop Southern Africa, particularly through the student movement and trade union movement, and so we were delegates on this trip along with representatives from Amicus and UNISON. The trip was so inspiring and even two weeks on I can't stop thinking about it. We visited Capetown, Jo'burg, Lesotho, and Swaziland. Amongst the highlights of our trip were the following:

• Learning first hand about the apartheid struggle, meeting political activists involved in it and in particular being inspired by the role women and students played in bringing it to its end. We're always talking about activism- you can't get more raw examples than what we saw there.

• Visiting HIV & AIDS projects in Swaziland, support groups, orphanages, child-headed house holds. Quite tough to see first-hand but unforgettable, and I actually think good for someone like me, who prides themselves on being a HIV/AIDS activist, to see the reality of this pandemic- after that I want to campaign even more loudly and relentlessly. One of the G8 promises is universal access to HIV & AIDS treatment by 2008-but if you live in rural Swaziland, this is still incredibly far off becoming a reality. Until those forgotten are remembered, our campaigning must continue.

• Meeting the union of students in South Africa (SAUS) and the students union at the University of Lesotho. Both are very young and keen for NUS to help them, but I believe we can learn from them too. In South Africa, the biggest issue they are facing is tuition fees. In Lesotho, the university we visited was facing privatisation of halls of residence, and lots of theft from halls. I'm so excited and determined to build some international links with the people we met on this trip

I would like to draw your attention in particular to 2 great organisations-

SWAPOL- www.swapol.net - Swazi Positive Living, who were our hosts in Swaziland. It was set up by 5 HIV positive women in Swaziland, sick of the way they were being treated. Their objective is "to provide a holistic approach for improving the quality of life for the infected and affected people in rural communities, in an effective and efficient manner." The people who run this organisation are incredible, I implore you to check it out.

Secondly, next time you're feeling charitable, please help out The Children of Swazliand- www.thechildrenofswaziland.org

It costs £42 a year to send a child to school in Swazliand (what any of us, lets be honest, quite easily spend on a night out). This means that loads of AIDS orphans aren't going to school because they can't afford it, especially in the rural areas. That means the cycles of poverty, lack of education, HIV, hunger are never broken. We saw first hand orphans who are going to school, thanks to this charity, and those who aren't, and believe me, the difference it makes to their outlooks is breath-taking. This is a tiny charity, run by a family who cover all the admin costs, so you know any money you donate goes directly to fund the children's education.

As some of you may know, some of the funding for this trip came from a bid ACTSA made to the coca-cola foundation, which receives money from the Coca-Cola Company, however the board is made up of independent trustees and it's these trustees who decide upon which projects to fund, not Coke. This fact didn't rest easily with me, but I want to say for the record this trip was not about coca-cola, it won't alter my ability to view coca-cola as a company for what they are, and I am so glad I wasn't put off from going on such an amazing, inspiring, educational trip run by ACTSA, an organisation which are a force for so much good because of this fact.

I took the time off to go on this trip as annual leave, but I'm determined that the work I'll do for the back of this trip, from renewing NUS' commitment to campaign on access to treatment, to developing solidarity with our sister unions in Southern Africa will be to the benefit of both our national union and our members.

The Blogs on this site represent the individual views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies or practices of the National Union of Students.

All links in blogs will open in a new browser window.

The permanent URL for this specific blog entry is: http://www.officeronline.co.uk/blogs/veronicaking/273291.aspx