Tag: Stephen Lewis
World AIDS Day Grantee Spotlight: Canadian Museum for Human Rights Interview with Kidist Belete
World AIDS Day Grantee Spotlight: Canadian Museum for Human Rights Interview with Kidist Belete
Read the original interview published on the Canadian Museum for Human Rights blog
Kidist Belete is the founder of Developing Families Together (DFT), an Ethiopian grassroots organization that works in women’s empowerment, orphan protection, HIV & AIDS prevention and care, and community development . She has contributed a lot to empowering women economically and socially in Ethiopia and is dedicated to working to improve the lives of women and children in underprivileged communities. DFT is a grantee partner of the African Women’s Development Fund.
Kidist will be participating in The Stephen Lewis Foundation’s Ask Her Talks.
What can be done to turn the tide against HIV/AIDS? HIV is the world’s leading infectious killer; it is estimated by UNAIDS that in sub-Saharan Africa alone, some 24.7 million people were living with HIV in 2013. This disease not only affects the health of individuals – it damages families and communities, preventing social development and economic growth. HIV/AIDS threatens people’s most basic human rights.
If we are to understand how to combat this global epidemic, we need the knowledge of those who are on the frontlines in this crisis. This is why the Museum features an exhibit about the Canadian and African Grandmothers who are working to combat this disease. It is also why the Stephen Lewis Foundation has organized the Ask Her Talks. The talks are a unique opportunity to hear a group of African women experts speak about their work combatting HIV/AIDS. I recently had the chance to ask Kidist Belete about HIV/AIDS, human rights and why we need to listen to the voices of African women who are on the ground fighting this disease.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and why you are speaking in the Ask Her Talks?
My name is Kidist Belete. I live in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. About 12 years ago, I worked as a gender officer in an organization that coordinates the charitable and development-related work of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia. It was there I developed increasing sensitivity to the distinctive nature of the adversities faced by women in the poorest and most marginalized social settings. That is the sensitivity that I took with me into the fight against HIV/AIDS. I came into that fight when the social dislocations caused by HIV/AIDS began to appear in my neighborhood. I was, in a way, drafted by the community into the fight. I have not left the battlefield since.
I am speaking at this forum because my experience and the experience of my small organization puts a face on the fight against HIV/AIDS. I believe the real-life experiences that I talk about give a human touch to our collective efforts against this monster of a problem. I think that human touch sends a message that can’t be conveyed in conventional ways such as proposals, reports, and statistical compilations of progress.
What makes the Ask Her Talks different from other talks focused on AIDS?
The difference is that it brings to the forefront women who are leading the fight against the pandemic. These can be women who are themselves HIV positive or who had to take responsibility for those who have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. They can be women, like myself, who are working as founders and directors of grassroots organizations that mobilize and deploy resources that are needed for the fight. It can also be women who speak out on behalf of those who have been hit hard by HIV/AIDS but do not attract sufficient attention. These women also all live and work at the crucial juncture where HIV/AIDs and gender-based inequalities come together. We are not only women, but we also work with women. For these reasons I think our perspectives differ from others such as health or public policy professionals who predominate in other talks focused on HIV/AIDS.
What makes AIDS in Africa a human rights issue?
It is quintessentially a human rights issue due to the extensive morbidity and mortality that it causes. HIV/AIDS deprives people of their right to a healthy life and decimates their ability to provide resources that sustain life such as food, water and proper shelter. Health, food, water and shelter are basic human rights.
It is also a human rights issue because HIV/AIDS destroys families, leaves children and the elderly without caregivers, and unravels communities and social networks that sustain normal life in Africa. I believe the right to live as part of a social collectivity to which one belongs and contributes is a human right.
What can people do if they want to help with this important issue?
I think people can help by directly supporting those of us in the frontlines or by mobilizing support for us. They can do this individually or in groups, either directly by identifying which point of intervention accords with their sensibilities and the nature of the support that they can afford to give or, even better, by contributing to the resource pool of organizations such as the Stephen Lewis Foundation that have been in the fight against HIV/AIDS through some of the most innovative, carefully selected and well-informed avenues of intervention.
It is important to look beyond HIV/AIDS as a public health emergency, which it was a few years ago (and continues to be in many places even today). It is important also to remember that HIV/AIDS was and is a socioeconomic disaster of the highest magnitude. It has left children without parents and the elderly without any means of sustenance. We must keep in mind that we still have to protect vulnerable groups against infection and fight stigma attached to the infection. We must remember the fight is not over yet.
The Ask Her Talks take place in several cities, including Winnipeg on Wednesday, November 25, 2015 and Toronto on Tuesday December 1, 2015. More information is available at www.askhertalks.com.
Theo Sowa speaks at ‘Hope Rising’, a benefit concert for the Stephen Lewis Foundation
Theo Sowa speaks at ‘Hope Rising’, a benefit concert for the Stephen Lewis Foundation
When I was told about Hope Rising and asked to say a few words, I accepted immediately. No hesitation, no checking of schedules – just immediate acceptance. There were two reasons for this.
The first is all about Stephen Lewis. He has been a key influence in my life – though I am only one of so many young women (well, not so young now!) whose careers he has nurtured. I will always love him for his passion, his caring, his fierce commitment to challenging the inequities of our world… and also for his ingrained respect for others, especially women. It’s that determination to root out inequality, to challenge the use and abuse of power, and to nurture strength and potential that has been reflected not just in his life and work, but also in the establishment and the work of the Stephen Lewis Foundation.
And that is the second reason I came: Because I knew that Hope Rising wouldn’t be the typical fundraising event. I’ve witnessed far too many that have made me furious about their portrayals of African women as helpless, hapless victims, about their pictures of children with distended bellies and their implications that Africans cannot or do not care for their children or communities, and need to be ‘saved’ by people thousands of miles away. I knew that SLF would make sure Hope Rising was about solidarity and not a degrading type of pity.
It has been a great privilege to have spent years working alongside many truly extraordinary African women…I cannot and never would dream of speaking for them, but I do want to bring them into this space this evening – as I know them – experts, innovators and true leaders.
So let me tell you the story of just one of the thousands of women we want to celebrate. Patience is a retired nurse living in Tanzania, raising 5 grandchildren. After losing three of her five adult children to AIDS, she made the 5 hour walk to the nearest clinic with her grandchildren, and they all got tested. Only 1 child tested positive, but so did Patience.
Depression, and the sting of stigma kept Patience at home for months. Her
grandchildren stayed home from school, worried sick about the only adult left in their lives. Maybe it was seeing her grandchildren so frightened; maybe it was her love
for them, or the knowledge that her three dead children had entrusted her with the wellbeing of their children; or maybe it was what used to be drummed into me as a child – that African women just don’t give up! Whatever the motivation, Patience found the strength to pull herself out of that depression and tackle the multiple calamities that AIDS had laid at her door.
Today, Patience is a home-based care worker with a project called Umatu. Every day she is up at 5 a.m., gets the children ready for school, cooks a modest breakfast, and heads out on a bicycle to care for 20 other families struck down by AIDS. They are in different stages of suffering and loss, and for many, it is the nutrition, healing, counseling and support that Patience and Umatu bring that has helped them begin to live positively with HIV, rather than dying from AIDS.
Yet, even as we celebrate Patience, we must ask why her expertise is so marginalised in decision making circles; why her voice is not heard in the corridors of power where HIV/AIDS policy is designed.
This short sightedness has accelerated the ravages of AIDS in Africa — along the faultlines of gender inequality. Women’s bodies have become the ground zero of the pandemic: The violence they absorb, the love and nurture they give, the children they nurse, the children they bury, the grandchildren they raise. With pain and with strength, women repair the fabric of their lives and of those around them.
It is this expertise that the SLF listens to and treats with respect. In 9 years the SLF has invested over 60 million dollars, working with more than 300 organisations in 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. We can see the profound difference in the quality of life in those communities, but so much more still needs to be done.
At an African grandmothers’ gathering in Swaziland in 2010 hosted by the SLF and a local organization, SWAPOL, we heard the powerful voices of African women. Let me end with their words:
“In 2006 we were battered by grief, devastated by the deaths of our beloved sons and daughters, and deeply concerned for the futures of our grandchildren. We stand here today battered, but not broken.
We are the backbones of our communities. We form the core of community-based care. With our love and commitment we protect and nurture our orphan grandchildren. Africa cannot survive without us.
We are strong, we are visionary, we have faith and we are not alone. Together we will turn the tide of AIDS.”
Tonight I ask you to show that those grandmothers really are not alone. I ask you to stand in solidarity with the women of Africa, with the SLF, and with women and men of commitment the world over – to stand in solidarity to turn the tide of AIDS… and to keep hope rising. Thank you.
The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) Celebrates its 10th Anniversary in Accra, Ghana, November 11th – 12th
The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) Celebrates its 10th Anniversary in Accra, Ghana, November 11th – 12th
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) Celebrates its 10th Anniversary in Accra, Ghana, November 11th – 13th
In June 2000, the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) was launched through the efforts of its co-founders, Joana Foster (Ghana), Dr Hilda Tadria (Uganda) and Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi (Nigeria). AWDF is the first Africa-wide grant-making foundation and a decade after its launch is recognized as a leading feminist philanthropic institution on the continent. Over the past 10 years, AWDF has disbursed over US$15 million in grants to 800 African women’s rights organizations across the African continent and through its comprehensive capacity building programme strengthened institutions and progressive movements on the continent.
AWDF culminates its 10th Anniversary celebrations in Accra, Ghana with a schedule of events including:
- Thursday 11th November 2010, 10:00am – Commissioning of a multi-purpose resource centre purchased by AWDF for Women United Against AIDS in Ghana (WUAGG), Ayensu River Estate, Damfa. The Honourable Stephen Lewis, Co-Director of AIDS Free World and former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa will commission the building.
- Thursday 11th November 2010, 4:00pm – A convening on African women using the arts to promote social justice and a Premiere of ‘The Motherland Tour’ with Special Guest Yvonne Chaka Chaka at the Holiday Inn Hotel, Accra.
- Friday 12th November 2010, 9:00am – 4.30pm – A Seminar on Political Participation with Special Guest, Vice-President Joyce Banda of Malawi at La Palm Royal Hotel, Accra
- Friday 12th November 2010, 4.30pm – AWDF’s Anniversary Lecture delivered by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia at La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, Accra
- Saturday 13th November 2010, 6.30pm – The Purple Ball and Women of Substance Awards honouring African women working tirelessly to make a difference in their communities, La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, Accra.
According to Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi, Executive Director of AWDF and the First Lady of Ekiti State Nigeria, “ In its 10 years of existence AWDF has been extremely successful at creating spaces and amplifying the voices of African women within the continent and beyond. We have done this by resourcing African women’s organizations, supporting the participation of African women in international processes and re-invigorating the African women’s movement. On the occasion of our 10th Anniversary we wish to honour and recognize the numerous African women who work tirelessly for social justice and women’s empowerment.”
AWDF’s Women of Substance Awardees 2010 are:
Abeka Perez – Young Women Campaign Against AIDS, Kenya
Felicia Darkwa – Nana Yaa Memorial Trust for Good Quality Reproductive Health, Ghana
Hadijah Kisembo – Disabled Women’s Network and Resource Organisation (DWNRO), Uganda
Kafui Adjamgbo-Johnson – Women in Law and Development, (WILDAF) Togo
Leymah Gbowee – Women Peace and Security Network Africa, (WIPSEN-Africa), Liberia
Nyoka Agnes – Member of Parliament, Sudan
Prof. Bene Madunagu – Girls’ Power Initiative, Nigeria
Prudence Mabele – Positive Women’s Network (PWN), South Africa
Dr Rose Mensah Kutin – Abantu for Development, Ghana
Special guests from across Africa, Europe and the United States are attending AWDF’s 10th Anniversary activities in Accra, including:
Her Excellency, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia
Her Excellency, Vice President Joyce Banda, Malawi
Her Excellency Mrs Funmilayo Olayinka, Deputy Governor of Ekiti State, Nigeria
Her Excellency, Mrs Abimbola Fashola, First Lady of Lagos State, Nigeria
Her Ladyship Justice Irene Charity Danquah, Justice of the Court of Appeal, Ghana
Honourable Stephen Lewis, Co-Director, AIDS Free World, United States of America
Honourable Akua Dansua, Minister for Youth & Sports, Ghana
Honourable Juliana Azumah-Mensah, Minister for Women & Children’s Affairs, Ghana
Honourable Hannah Tetteh, Minister for Trade & Industry, Ghana
Dr Adhiambo Odaga, West Africa Representative, Ford Foundation, Nigeria
ENDS
Press Enquiries
Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah (Programme Officer for Communications)
Tel: +233 302 521 257
Email: nana@africlub.net/awdf
Website: www.africlub.net/awdf