Dare To Wear Love

The Stephen Lewis Foundation is urgently seeking donations of Aeroplan miles by January 17 to send a Canadian delegation of grandmothers to Swaziland for the first-ever African Grandmothers’ Gathering. The three-day event in March 2010 will culminate in a march of thousands on International Women’s Day.

The Canadian delegation will represent more than 5,000 women from across the country involved in the Stephen Lewis Foundation’s (SLF) Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign. They will participate in the event alongside African grandmothers from SLF-supported projects who are heading households ravaged by AIDS, raising their orphaned grandchildren with few resources.

The Grandmothers in Canada have a great obligation to amplify the voices of African grandmothers who are, literally, holding the continent together This gathering is a very special opportunity, but they need Aeroplan Miles to get them there.

Through its Beyond Miles programme, Aeroplan facilitates the donation of miles by Aeroplan members to the Stephen Lewis Foundation year-round to offset ongoing travel costs. Miles for the Swaziland gathering should be donated through the foundation’s Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign website at www.grandmotherscampaign.org.

If sufficient Aeroplan Miles can be raised by the January deadline, forty Canadian women will attend this historic gathering. They have also been invited to visit grandmothers in their own communities to learn about their challenges and successes first-hand. Upon their return to Canada, they will share their experience with Canadians to raise awareness of the needs of African grandmothers and the work being undertaken to change their lives and those of their grandchildren.

Funded by the Stephen Lewis Foundation and hosted by Swaziland Positive Living (SWAPOL), the African Grandmothers’ Gathering will provide an opportunity for African women to share their experience and skills, celebrate their accomplishments and define the way forward into the new decade.

The Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign was launched on March 7, 2006. The first international Grandmothers’ Gathering took place in August of that year when, with the support of Aeroplan, the Stephen Lewis Foundation brought 100 grandmothers from sub-Saharan Africa to meet with 200 Canadian grandmothers on the eve of the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto. Individuals wishing to start or join a Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign group in their community should contact Helen Silbiger at campaigns@stephenlewisfoundation.org or 1-888-203-9990 ext. 230.

The Stephen Lewis Foundation (SLF) supports grassroots organizations that are turning the tide of HIV/AIDS in Africa by providing care and support to women, orphaned children, grandmothers and people living with HIV and AIDS.