Grannies celebrate 15 years of Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign

By Jennifer Cook Baniczky, a Capital Granny

Fifteen years ago, the AIDS pandemic was ravaging Sub-Saharan Africa and almost an entire generation had died from AIDS, leaving their children to be brought up by grandmothers. Initially, grandmothers were overwhelmed by their own grief and that of the children. This was when Canadian grandmothers stepped up to raise funds to support their African sisters.

The Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign was launched on International Women’s Day 2006 by Stephen Lewis, followed that August by the first gathering of grandmothers in Toronto. Much has evolved in 15 years.

This year, although unable to gather in person to celebrate 15 years of sisterhood and to honour the legacy, we continue to help build in communities across Sub-Saharan Africa. Anna Maria Tremonti hosted, for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, a webinar to talk with grandmothers and view videos of past events. It was a nostalgic overview of 15 years of working together.

The African grandmothers have become strong leaders as their grandchildren flourish. Working together they growing fields of vegetables, run their own businesses and continue to nurture their grandchildren ‒ and great grandchildren ‒ sharing and supporting each other. The grandchildren are flourishing and completing their educations to become lawyers, doctors, cooks and drivers.

The Canadian grandmothers have been joined by grandmothers in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the US. Of course, everyone is battling with COVID-19, but the Canadian grandmothers, with many groups in the Ottawa‒Gatineau area, still fundraise.  

The need is as great as ever and, although we are all 15 years older, we continue to support our African sisters as we pledged in 2010 in Manzini, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) that “together we will turn the tide of AIDS.”

When he spoke at the grandmothers’ gathering in Entebbe, Uganda, in 2012, Stephen Lewis stressed the message about human rights. In 2013, at the African Grandmothers Tribunal in Vancouver, six grandmothers from Sub-Saharan Africa presented their personal testimonials before judges: Theo Sowa, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, Joy Phumaphi and Gloria Steinem about the triple threats of discrimination that grandmothers face: sex, age and HIV status. They demanded protection of their rights to property, bodily integrity and income security; freedom from violence; and quality health care. There have been other gatherings, including the one in Durban in 2016 when 2,000 South African grandmothers marched, proclaiming:

“Africa cannot survive without us. We are not asking for charity, for pity or for favours but access to health care, protection from violence, political representation, food security, shelter – these are our human rights, we have come to claim them”.  

In 15 years with the help and support of friends and neighbours in Ottawa, particularly in Manor Park, more than $40 million has been raised by 10,000 Canadian grandmothers and “grand-others” to support the Sub-Sahara African grandmothers and community-based organizations.  

This has been possible because of your support and we will continue to need your help with our fundraising as HIV infections continue, particularly among adolescent girls aged 15 to 19, and as waves of COVID-19 throughout Sub-Saharan Africa overwhelm local health-care systems.

Thank you for your support. Together we can continue to turn the tide of HIV and AIDS.

For further information see the “Grandmothers Campaign” section under the “Get involved” menu at www.stephenlewisfoundation.org.