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April 23rd, 2018

23/4/2018

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​                        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
​


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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

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Stride Bulletin Week 7-8 .... We passed our goal!

12/4/2018

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​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!
Picture

 
       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
​

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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.

Picture
Example of a programme developed by RISE
​

​RISE trains marginalized girls in making reusable sanitary pads using locally available resources for use and as a way of income generation to ensure sustainability in their lives.

VG4A says: “RISE has many other brilliant programmes; some work to break down cultural norms around child marriage, to empower girls, to keep girls in school, to educate youth about HIV/AIDS, to empower caregivers – this last must be where grandmothers come in.  Their website is well worth a visit!        http://www.risemalawi.org/programmes/programmes.html”
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    We're not actively using this blog at the moment.  It works as a good archive, though!

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