Many of you will remember Marciana Funez, the woman organizing a trade union among banana workers in Belize. She led the AFrI Famine Walk in May 1996.

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Marciana Funez Benefit Fund

Many of you will have heard of Marciana Funez, the woman organizing a trade union among banana workers in Belize. She led the AFrI Famine Walk in May 1996.

Marciana is now seriously ill and on dialysis in Phoenix, Arizona, awaiting a kidney transplant. Her doctors are currently testing friends and relatives, who are caring for her, to find a suitable donor. She is showing the same courage and determination in the face of this challenge as she has in the face of the obstacles put in the way of an independent union of banana workers.

Thankfully most of her medical costs (which may amount to $300,000) will be covered by the local authority in Phoenix, but there will be a shortfall to make up. Moreover, for Marciana’s family back in Belize her absence is not just a personal strain, but puts them in a precarious financial position

BananaWatch, the coalition of Irish organizations that has taken up the issues around the Banana trade in general and Belize in particular in the wake of Marciana’s visit, have set up a Marciana Funez Benefit Fund with a target of raising £2,000 in the next few months as a concrete gesture of support which would ease Marciana’s mind on money matters and allow her concentrate on getting better soon. BananaWatch comprises AFrI, Comhlámh, DEFY, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Irish Fair Trade Netowrk, Irish Mexico Group, LASC, Oxfam in Ireland and Trócaire.

Please send whatever you can to Marciana Funez Benefit Fund c/o BananaWatch, 17 Lower Camden Street, Dublin 2 or you can lodge your contribution direct to the Marciana Funez Benefit Fund in Bank of Ireland, Camden St., D2 , by credit transfer. The account number is 21085488 (Branch Code 900113). Thank you. For more information contact Oisín in LASC at 01-6760435.

photo caption: Marciana Funez with Christy Moore on the AFrI Famine Walk in May 1996. (Photo: AFrI)

"I pledge my support to Marciana and her union. Le Chéile le Marciana, le UBBWU." Christy Moore.

Benefit Dinner

for

Marciana Funez

Monday 17 November 7.30pm

Poco Loco Restaurant

32 Parliament Street, Dublin 2

£15 per person

Tickets available in advance only, from LASC or any member of BananaWatch.