Grandmothers for Africa

Grandmothers Pushing Ahead for African Counterparts

By William Doyle-Marshall

Members of Victoria Grand Mothers for Africa headed by Christine Scott, are busy working on their fundraising plans in support of ventures on the African continent. The Victoria Grand Mothers had their seventh annual walk along the streets of downtown Victoria, British Columbia late in May. There were more than 50 walkers who journeyed from Centennial Park to the grounds of the legislature. It is the tenth anniversary of the Grand Mothers to Grand Mothers campaign. Due to serious personal family commitments some of the 100 members were unable to participate this year but the organizing committee was pleased to have 54 participants.  In addition to walking, people who can’t participate physically, make donations on line – www.victoriagrandmothersforafrica.ca

   Ten years ago Elizabeth McAuley, chair of the Stride Walk  organizing committee recalled , Grand Mothers from Africa were brought to Toronto and a few women from Victoria watched the event via television. “I know that I went to my church and said ‘we have to do something. We have to start a group or do something’ and other people in the city were doing the same thing and eventually we had two groups – the Carry on Grannies and the Victoria Grand Mothers for Africa.” Victoria is not a very big city the two organizations were going after the same people all the time so the Carry On Grannies suggested to the Victoria Grand Mothers for Africa that they join up with them and become simply the Victoria Grand Mothers for Africa. “That’s what happened and So that’s how it got started here,” McAuley reflected.

McAuley, who  chairs the Stride Walk for the Victoria Grandmothers for Africa, said it is one of over 240 grandmother groups across Canada that are raising money for the Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign of the Stephen Lewis Foundation. Through education and fundraising they support the plight of African Grandmothers in sub-Saharan Africa who take care of their orphaned grandchildren. This is the result of the HIV Pandemic which affected the African continent resulting in deaths of many parents who left young children. Since 2006 the campaign has raised under $25 million. Their various creative ways of fundraising include bake sales, African dinners, scrabble tournament, craft sales, fabric and plant sales, chocolate truffle sales and cycle tours.

   As McAuley urged walkers to get on with the Saturday morning assignment she urged them to “hold our dear African sisters in your hearts. These women walk many miles with purpose every day in the heat, to attend far away clinics and markets, to collect water and deliver grandchildren safely to school, to provide urgent home based care, as well as to protest violations of their human rights.”

                                            Elizabeh McAuley, Walk Chair, flaned by supporters

 The next big event in the year-long fundraising drive is a two and a half days cycle tour from Campbell River to Victoria. At the moment the plan is to have 30 riders aged between 55 and late seventies. Last year’s cycle tour raised $86,000 and Elizabeth McAuley, event chair,  hopes to do better this time around. There is a group out in Sidney; there are groups up the Island who support the cycle ride. They will sometimes provide riders and they also provide refreshments all the way down the road from Campbell River down.

   Next spring the Victoria Grandmothers for Africa will host an African dinner. Last year’s dinner raised $23,000 after expenses. An African Chef named Castro has taken on the organization’s dinner as his special project

A few years ago Paola Gianturco produced a book “Grandmother Power – a Global Phenomenon – published by Power House Books of Brooklyn, New York. In it she highlight efforts by Grandmothers in Africa and around the world as thy struggled to care for their children. Their bold efforts served as an inspiration for the coffee table book. One significant project was by illiterate and semi-illiterate grandmothers who returned home to provide solar energy to light their villages