Beautiful weather, a gracious hostess, delicious pot luck food, and a glorious garden combined to make our Summer Social especially enjoyable on July 7 this year.  Marianne Bartram spoke of the many reasons we have for celebration, and the bonds of friendship that we share as we work together for African grandmothers.

​                        20,600 km

Grandmothers and Grand-others, we have completed our virtual walk around Sub-Saharan Africa.  We have stepped, biked, swum, skied, skated and danced in support of the Grandmothers in Africa who have the unique challenge of raising their grandchildren.  Each of us has “stepped” up and done our part to bring awareness to the situation that our African counterparts are dealing with on a daily basis.  

• ​Out of the 34 million HIV-positive people worldwide, 69% live in sub-Saharan Africa.
• There are roughly 23.8 million infected persons in all of Africa.
• 91% of the world's HIV-positive children live in Africa.
• More than one million adults and children die every year from HIV/AIDS in Africa alone.

​
Please visit the Stephen Lewis Foundation site to see the amazing results of the Foundation’s working partnership with 300 Community Based Organizations in the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa.
www.stephenlewisfoundation.org/impact
​

Mercy Chidi
 
Director
 
Ripples International
 
Meru, Kenya

"Ripples International  focuses on children who live with grandmothers or in child-headed households or children who need protection.  We started to hear stories from children who wanted to leave home and sleep somewhere else.  When we investigated we found that an uncle or a grandfather  was abusing the girl.  We said, THIS  MUST STOP.
 
There’s a myth that sex with a virgin is a protection against AIDS.  The younger the better – some of the girls are as young as 3 or even 1½.  We were desperate to access JUSTICE for these girls, to break the culture of impunity.  When a girl took her story of rape to the police they wouldn’t believe her, insisted on two witnesses, told her she had asked for it, or even locked her up and abused  her themselves.
 
I met Stephen Lewis and took a course in Ontario, where I  learned about the Jane Doe case  where a rape survivor took the police to court for not protecting her from a rapist they knew was breaking into homes in her area.  Ripples’ project collected the names of 160 girls they had worked with up until 2010 and with lawyers from the Equality Effect, they accused  the Kenyan  government of not protecting girls. 
 
May 27 2013               WE WON A LANDMARK CASE!
                       
The police were held accountable for their failure to investigate the rapes of the 11 girls used as test cases.     OTHER COUNTRIES WILL FOLLOW"

Poem by Luckline, one of the girls served by Ripples International in Meru Kenya; collected by journalist and activist Sally Armstrong
At 15, Luckline was raped by her neighbour. 39 weeks pregnant, she wrote, “This happened to me on May 13, 2010. I will make sure this never happens to my sister”
 
Here I come
Walking down through history to eternity
From paradise to the city of goods
Victorious, glorious, serious and pious
Elegant, full of grace and truth
The centrepiece and the masterpiece of literature
Glowing, growing and flowing
Here, there, everywhere
Cheering millions every day
The book of books that I am

quoted by Sally Armstrong, Ascent of Women p.35
and on CBC radio IDEAS The New Revolutionaries Mon Oct 3, 2011

​14,210 km

Where has the time gone? We are down to the last two weeks of our Virtual Walk and we have started on the return journey.  When the Virtual Walk was first envisioned, the 10,000 kilometers appeared daunting, but with the enthusiasm of all the participants we have passed the 10 000 mark and have our sites on the return trip back to Gaborone, Botswana. The real plus to “stepping” the return trip is that we will be able to visit so many of the other Community Based Organizations supported by the Stephen Lewis Foundation. Those we skipped over on our initial trek. The return journey will be a total of 20,508 km and as this bulletin is being written we have “virtually” walked, swam, cycled, skated, and skied 14,210 km.  Well done, everyone!

 
       EARTH DAY WALK
​       AT RITHET’S BOG: 
 
WE WILL BE BRINGING OUR VIRTUAL WALK TO A CLOSE ON APRIL 22nd.  PLEASE JOIN US FOR A WALK AROUND RITHET’S BOG, STARTING AT 12:30.
 
REFRESHMENTS FOLLOW AT JAMES BAY UNITED CHURCH HALL, 511 MICHIGAN ST.
 
PLEASE RSVP LETTING US KNOW WHETHER YOU WILL BE JOINING US FOR THE WALK AND/OR FOR REFRESHMENTS.
 
RSVP TO:  virtualstepsg4a@gmail.com
​

Malawi
 
RISE
Rights Institute for Social Empowerment
 
The ultimate goal of RISE is transforming the lives of disadvantaged girls, children and young people. In delivering its programmes, RISE is working with and building the capacities of Community Based Organizations in Malawi. Our entry point to communities is the already established community structures that own the initiative. RISE main role is to come in with capacity building, technical support and continuous relationship building in effective human rights education and promotion strategies.

We're counting our steps in many different ways   ...... 

​1. Wyatt and Henry are counting their steps, their skating and their skiing!
2. David is walking with his family at Westminster Pier Park
3. The 50K gang (Barbara, Theresa, Ruth, Dale, Judy and Vreny) get a
     get a step up on training!
4  Glenice, Geraldine, Claire, Elizabeth and Linda step out at Pat Bay
5. Oscar and Miles take to the air in support of the Grandmothers
6. Jocelyn caught the beauty of Butchart Gardens while counting her steps. 

......  such amazing ways to enjoy our Spring weather!
​

​Week 5 has finished and week 6 is almost done. We are heading to the finish line.  Our total leading up to the end of week 6 is 8750 kilometers.  This week we passed by another great project supported by the Stephen Lewis Foundation and to steal a line from the Knowledge Network…”and by people like you!”
As we head to the last few weeks of our fun’raising event here are a few reminders. 

• For those who have had family and friends support them using the paper pledge sheet, please remember that cheques need to be made out to Victoria Grandmothers for Africa.
• Pledge money can be given to Yvonne McLean at the meeting on April 3rd or brought to our Stride Virtual Walk wind-up on April 22

Wow! Our total number of steps for the past three weeks adds up to
5001 kilometers
We are half-way there. While achieving those kilometers, we passed some amazing community-based organizations working with the Stephen Lewis Foundation.
​
​Mothers 2 Mothers – Lesotho
In a country characterized by mountains and small rural areas, Mothers2Mothers began providing Mentor Mother Services in Lesotho in 2007. M2M Lesotho recruits, trains, and places mothers living with HIV in health facilities and within communities to ensure that other women and their babies access the full cascade of health services to protect their babies from HIV infection and stay healthy. Through our family-centred approach, they use their contact with mothers and babies to interact with
entire families, educating them on prevention and HIV counselling and testing, and linking them to health centres for the care they need.
Credit: BC Interior Regional Gathering Information Sheet on Projects by Country

Swaziland for Positive Living (SWAPOL) 

Siphiwe Hlophe is the co-founder of Swaziland for Positive Living, an NGO that provides counselling and education, and seeks to improve the living conditions of people who are affected by or infected with HIV in the rural areas. The organization has been described as "Swaziland's most innovative and motivated  HIV/AIDS mitigation program" 

Siphiwe was one of the first women to publicly declare her positive HIV status. "SWAPOL was forged from the suffering our founding members. That may be why people respond to what we are doing, and we are getting so many requests to help communities where HIV is rampant. We are not an NGO that works out of a plush office. We are people who know what it means to face discrimination and rejection, but who have the will to live", says Siphiwe Hlophe. 
Above, she leads 2000 grandmothers and others through the streets of Manzini, Swaziland at the African Grandmothers Gathering in 2010 ​

MOZAMBIQUE 
Mozambican Treatment Access Movement

​Mozambique has a high prevalence of HIV. Civil society lobbied government into creating a National council to fight AIDS, and now HIV is a component of the Ministry of Health National Strategic plan. Civil society needs to be actively involved in issues of HIV/AIDS rather than wait for government to do everything. Community-based organizations are seeking to have an impact at the national level. They’re taking the knowledge they’ve developed about the realities of HIV/AIDS in their communities and applying it to advocacy efforts with their governments. The Mozambican Treatment Access Movement, which the SLF supports, is recognized as a major player in the country’s HIV/AIDS responses. ​Credit: BC Interior Regional Gathering Information Sheet

Our steps are really adding up. We have 65 walkers, cyclers, skiers, and swimmers. This past week our total rose to 2700 kilometers from the start. That is so amazing! With seven weeks to go, the Grandmothers and Grand-Others are on the move. Please remember to send your week three kilometers/steps to:
Virtualstepsg4a@gmail.com
As we move around the townships of Sub-Saharan Africa, let’s visit another of the amazing agencies that assist the African Grandmothers and is supported by the Stephen Lewis Foundation.
​
Catholic AIDS Action Trust Namibia
The Catholic AIDS Action (CAA) Trust was founded in 1998 by Sr. Dr. Raphael Handler, OSB, and Dr. Lucy Steinitz. It has grown to be one of the largest NGOs responding to the HIV and AIDS epidemic in Namibia.
CAA builds on the Catholic network of parishes, hospitals and health care institutions, and schools and hostels.
CAA also works in partnership with other churches, faith-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, the business sector and Government (GRN) line- ministries.
​The CAA’s work and mission has four principal focuses:
  Home-based family care and counselling,
  HIV and AIDS education and prevention
  Care and support to orphans and vulnerable children
  Voluntary HIV testing and counselling

​While the SLF is a secular organisation, many of the organisations it partners with in Africa are faith based. The deciding factor is whether they offer services to all, not just to people of their own faith.
We continue to walk, cycle and swim in solidarity with the Grandmothers in Africa. Thank you to all who are walking, swimming, cycling, skating and skiing to raise awareness and thank you to all who are supporting these participants. Together, we will make a difference. 
​