Renowned Canadian and former Ontario NDP leader Stephen Lewis, celebrating 10 years of the Grandmother to Grandmother initiative, still speaks fondly of the first rambunctious, raucous gathering of grandmothers in 2006.
We are still here a decade later – resilient, formidable, unstoppable and rightly proud of the more than $24 million dollars raised to support health, education, peace, equality and justice for African grandmothers.
Oliver’s Grandmothers for Africa are filled with determination and affection as they build bridges of solidarity with African sisters who carry the load of raising orphaned kids in the midst of the HIV and AIDS pandemic.
The grandmother to grandmother campaign is revolutionizing the annals of international development.
There has never been anything quite like it.
The motto of the local club is “Do What you Can, When you Can.”
On Saturday, April 23 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Oliver United Church, we can and will put on its annual Spring Bling that will feature a sale of new and used jewelry, accessories, home and garden décor.
The proceeds all go to the Stephen Lewis Foundation for the work of African grandmothers who are central to the life of their communities.
It has been 10 years of bearing witness to the expertise and resilience of African grandmothers all across sub-Saharan Africa.
These women want the world to know how much they have achieved and how much they have overcome. The most amazing part is they still have breath to sing and energy to dance.
They are moving forward and we are deeply connected to them as we raise money to help fund the grassroots programs they now run.
The grandmother to grandmother campaign is like the style of African music. In the call and response, we all know that we are whole and we are together.
We hope Osoyoos and Oliver residents will come to Spring Bling, look for unlikely treasures and support programs built on mutual respect and dignity that we hope will soon become global.
The emergence of this mass movement has the power to put African grandmothers in a position where they can advocate for their own rights and have a voice in international discussions.
It is a movement that speaks to the triumph of women’s spirit over monumental adversity and that is why “We will not rest until they can rest.”
While the AIDS epidemic is much less deadly in Canada and across the developed world compared to 10 and 20 years ago, that is not the case in Africa, where it continues to kill 5,000 people per day.
The great majority of the 24 million people living with HIV and AIDs in Africa are women and girls, which has resulted in hundreds of millions of young people being raised by grandmothers across the continent, said Linda McWhinnie, the vice-president of the Osoyoos chapter of Grandmothers for Africa during a recent presentation to the Rotary Club of Osoyoos.
There are now Grandmothers for Africa chapters spread across British Columbia, including 100 Mile House, Kamloops, Kelowna, Oliver and Osoyoos, she said.
Lewis’ foundation has now supported 700 different projects in Africa over the past 10 years, in 15 countries. Because so many young and middle aged women have died from AIDS, literally millions of African boys and girls have had to be raised by their grandmothers and many of the children have AIDS or HIV. All of the money raised by Grandmothers for Africa chapters in Canada goes directly to the grandmothers in Africa and not one single penny is directed towards administration costs.
In one African nation this past summer, a total of 60 houses were built by money donated by the Lewis foundation.
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
Osoyoos Times
