stephen lewis

Okay, I must apologize! It has been FAR too long since my last post, but I do have a REALLY good excuse. I have been nurturing a little baby inside me and this has taken all my energy (literally). I am just starting to feel a little more normal (praise the Lord). We are due in November and it has been FAR too hard keeping this to ourselves, but the word is out now.

The real reason for this entry is the fact that I attended the oomama fundraiser for AIDS in Africa with guest speaker Stephen Lewis last week. It was a good night and I left with many thoughts. There were over 1000 people in attendance and they all seemed to be there for similar reasons - they are passionate about the injustices in the world, they are broken over the AIDS pandemic, and they want to do something about it. Stephen Lewis basically gave some updates on what is happening and I wanted to pass them along.

Unicef, UNAIDS, and the World Health Organization did a study recently and found that 2 million people total (1.3 million in Africa alone) are receiving treatment which is up significantly from a couple of years ago. That being said, 5 million people require treatment in Africa alone. These people will die without medication. Only 15% of kids who need treatment are getting it. Furthermore, after 1 year of treatment, there is a 93% survival rate. We must do something. Oh wait! Canada did do something. They passed legislation (The Jean Chretien Act) 3 years ago which allowed Canada to manufacture generic ARV drugs and export them to developing countries. However, our government never managed to issue the compulsory license to allow the production of the generic drug. I'm not kidding. This means not 1 pill left our country to go to a developing country. I signed a letter that night asking our government to fulfill the legislation they already passed. You can too!

On a positive note, the Bill Clinton Foundation has been doing marvelous work. They made generic drugs available at the lowest cost. They negotiated with several pharmaceutical firms in India and there is now a WHO approved generic drug available for $130 per person per year. That's what it costs to keep someone alive. Furthermore, they have negotiated an excellent price (a 50% decrease in cost) for the second line of drugs for resistance (required after 3-4 years on the "normal ARV drug).

I didn't realize that half of the new infections happen in young adults between 15 and 24 years of age. Making a microbicide available (hopefully in the next 4-5 years) will give many women autonomy and this step will save millions of lives. Interestingly, a study has been done that shows that males who are circumcised receive the virus 60% below the normal rate. This has led the WHO to provide instructions on how to do male circumcision in a hospital setting safely.

Sadly, Lewis also shared that there has been little headway on women's issues. Gender equality is fatal in the face of the virus. Males still have a sense of sexual entitlement. In fact, 78% of all infected in the 15 to 24 year age bracket are female. In South Africa, 90% of those newly infected are female. Women are still disproportionately infected. That being said, there is a huge contingent of grandmothers looking after orphans. This is something no one anticipated and is changing the response to the virus. In 2006, there were 35 groups of grandmothers in Canada, fundraising for their sisters in Africa. Today, there is 150 grandmother groups and they have raised over $1 million.

I really felt inspired when I left, knowing that even the littlest thing can make a difference somewhere, to someone. Who am I to question what and how God uses our obedience? We are called to care for the widows and the orphans. Now is our chance. We can't live another day without evaluating how we can play a part. Check out www.stephenlewisfoundation.org for ideas on what you might do. Tell someone, put your change aside and donate it to a responsible organization that's doing something (MCC, Stephen Lewis Foundation, etc.), live more simply so someone else can simply live. Enough said.