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Grandmothers to grandmothers

Canada’s Stephen Lewis Foundation is proving the power of grandmothers.
Grandmothers to Grandmothers
Helping hands: Frances Kostiuk and Marg Filiatrault show off hand-sewn quilts for sale at the Mall at Piccadilly on Friday

Canada’s Stephen Lewis Foundation is proving the power of grandmothers.

The foundation works with community-level organizations, providing care and support to women, orphaned children, grandmothers and people living with HIV and AIDS in Africa.

Since 2003, the foundation has funded in excess of 1,100 initiatives, partnering with more than 300 community-based organizations in the 15 African countries hardest hit by the pandemic.

And Salmon Arm is helping through the local Grandmothers to Grandmothers group, whose members knit or quilt and sell their goods at a local mall every month, at the fall fair and at their annual Christmas and garage sale events. Ready-to-sell items are often donated to the group while others donate wool and material for the grandmas to turn into sale items.

“Our events are the go-to place for baby goods – sweaters, hats, booties, quilts, etc,” says Grandmothers to Grandmothers rep Marg Filiatrault.

Salmon Arm Grandmothers was started under the committed guidance of the late Bernadette Forer.

“Bernadette led us with hard work and generosity,” says Filiatrault, noting members of the group were devastated when Forer died in 2015. “We gathered together and agreed to carry on the cause we all share a passion for in Bernadette’s memory, raising money for the grandmothers in Africa.”

Members of the local group recently  heard how much their work benefits the people they have been helping since 2007.

Cheryl Lewis, a member of the Kelowna Grandmothers For Africa and the Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign came to Salmon Arm to speak  about the foundation and her own experiences during the first National Grandmothers Gathering in Uganda last October. The gathering was organized to raise awareness of grandmothers’ issues across Uganda, and to establish a national consortium in order to create lasting change.

Organized by six Ugandan-based organizations in partnership with the Stephen Lewis Foundation, the gathering gave older women the opportunity to voice their experiences, share strategies and “collectively lay claim to constitutionally protected rights,” said Fraser.

Fraser noted these organizations are a lifeline for communities, distributing food, medication and other necessities, and providing education on HIV prevention, care and treatment as well as counselling.

“They reach the sick and vulnerable through home-based health care, help orphans and vulnerable children access education and work through their grief, and support grandmothers caring for their orphaned children,” she said.

The gathering was attended by grandmothers or “jajas” from across Uganda, speaking in multiple languages and relying, not just on the assistance of translators to communicate,through but the universal language of dance.

The jajas attended workshops on economic empowerment and social protection in an atmosphere free of judgement and stigma.

Fraser saw firsthand the work that is being done to improve the lives of the African grandmothers and their families by visiting communities where the foundation is involved.

Some of the most visible examples of improvements are the new homes that have been built to replace small, crumbling structures, help provided to prevent land-grabbing and guarantee grandmothers’ property and inheritance rights.

Other projects included providing one woman with a cistern so she could collect rainwater right beside her home instead of having to walk two kilometres every day to get water for her family.

Other grandmothers have been provided with chicken coops, birds and instruction in order to get an income by marketing chickens. Others are generating income by making and selling mats, bags, earrings, cloth, pots, baskets, ground nut sauce and more.

Seven groups have come together to save their own money and provide loans to others. They meet to share support and advice. And the message given by one grandmother at the gathering and agreed upon by others was heartfelt appreciation.

“To our Canadian sisters in the Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign, you are an important part of our story, and we feel your solidarity as we build momentum.”