By September 2005, Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik had already treated dozens of HIV/AIDS patients from across Canada and founded a regional HIV clinic in Guelph.
But Zajdlik maintains it was a speaking engagement by activist Stephen Lewis two months later that really opened her eyes to the global acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) crisis.
“That’s when everything changed,” she said. “That’s when I stopped being naive.”
A family doctor from rural Guelph-Eramosa, just north of Rockwood, Zajdlik was heartbroken to learn 23 million HIV-infected Africans – 60% of them women – had no access to treatment; not to mention the suffering of 15 million AIDS orphans living on the continent.
“I was pretty upset,” she said. “I could not think of anything else for the next 10 days. I was consumed with [Lewis’] message.”
By the end of that year, Zajdlik had launched a campaign to open an HIV clinic in Lesotho, a country of over 1.8 million, in southern Africa.
Since that time, she has become a tireless advocate for the plight of HIV/AIDS patients across the globe.
The Tsepong Clinic in Leribe, Lesotho now treats over 21,000 patients, while the regional clinic in Guelph and its newly opened satellite clinic in Waterloo should soon be treating 1,000 patients in southern Ontario.
Few have in their lifetime done more for the cause – and Zajdlik is just 46 years old.
Joining the Order
So while Zajdlik herself may have been shocked, it came as no surprise to her peers she was named to the Order of Ontario on Jan. 28.
“Anne-Marie’s efforts have made a significant difference locally, regionally and internationally,” said Andy McDougall, executive director of the Bracelet of Hope campaign launched by Zajdlik to open the Lesotho clinic.
“[She] is a force majeure that has a continuing and growing impact across the province, and indeed, across the country.”
Zajdlik, who was joined at the Queen’s Park ceremony by her husband, Barry, and children Adam, 19, Samuel, 16, and Elise, 14, said she was very impressed with the 28 individuals alongside whom she was inducted to the Order.
Among the 2010 inductees are Sports and media mogul Paul Godfrey and six other physicians, including Samantha Nutt, a co-founder of the charity War Child Canada; cancer specialist Helen Chan; James Orbinski, a founder of Doctors Without Borders; and diabetes researcher Mladen Vranic.
“I was a little overwhelmed,” Zajdlik said, adding that accolades, while nice, make her very uncomfortable. “But I was also honoured and proud.”
She noted her induction will also provide some unexpected motivation going forward.
“It makes me want to live up to the expectations,” she said with a smile. “Now I really have to work hard.”
Getting started
After completing her undergraduate studies at the University of Guelph, Zajdlik attended McMaster University Medical School.
As part of her McMaster studies, she spent three weeks in 1987 studying at Dalhousie University, in Halifax. There she worked with an infectious disease team, gaining her first real exposure to AIDS, a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
At that time, myths ran rampant about the disease and most people misunderstood exactly how it was transmitted. Ryan White, an American teen expelled from school because of his infection, continued to make headlines as the poster child for HIV/AIDS, but there remained a lot of people who mistakenly feared being anywhere close to anyone who was infected.
Zajdlik witnessed it first hand in Halifax, where she spent a lot of time with a man dying of AIDS who was abandoned by everyone close to him.
She said, “He basically inspired me to know more about HIV/AIDS.”
The Masai clinic
After setting up her practice in Guelph, Zajdlik began seeing more HIV patients.
In 2003, several of her colleagues left the city, leaving her as the lone HIV physician in the area, with an HIV patient roster that rose from nine to over 70.
A friend and fellow HIV physician suggested Zajdlik open a regional HIV clinic, though she at first dismissed the idea.
“Frankly, I thought he was nuts,” she recalled.
But 14 months later, she received government funding and on Sept. 15, 2005, thanks to what she calls “the tremendous support” of the Guelph community and “unprecedented media coverage,” Zajdlik opened the Masai Centre for Local, Regional and Global Health in downtown Guelph.
“It seems highly unlikely to me that the Guelph HIV/AIDS Clinic, the Masai Centre, would exist today if not for Anne-Marie spearheading the project and driving it forward,” McDougall said.
Zajdlik now serves as director of the clinic, which is named after Masai, a baby born in 2003 at the Guelph General Hospital.
“Masai’s birth opened my eyes and showed me a world I never imagined existed,” she said.
Though his Ethiopian parents were both HIV-positive, Masai was born HIV-negative thanks to medications and health care available in the Guelph area. Had he been born in Ethiopia, Zajdlik explains, there’s a 40% chance Masai would have been born with HIV and it is likely he would have joined the ranks of AIDS orphans there.
“To assist in bringing this child into this world without the death sentence that HIV brings to millions more around the world was a turning point for me,” she said.
Zajdlik brought her 70 HIV patients with her to the Masai clinic, which she said was supported by people “from all walks of life” in the health care field.
The centre hired more doctors and today treats about 500 patients. And just three weeks ago, Masai officials opened a satellite clinic in downtown Waterloo.
Both clinics should serve about 1,000 patients in southwestern Ontario, including Guelph, Cambridge, Kitchener-Waterloo and Wellington County – where approximately one person in 1,000 is affected by HIV/AIDS.
Bracelets of Hope
After being inspired by Lewis, on Dec. 1, 2005 Zajdlik launched an aggressive Bracelet of Hope campaign, asking locals to help raise $1-million.
The idea was simple: sell Canadians red and white bracelets made by African women for $5 each, with the proceeds going to help establish the Lesotho HIV clinic.
“For the next three years the response was amazing,” she said. “The community just went crazy.”
Small children began donating their own birthday money, local high schools raised $70,000, and the University of Guelph raised $100,000.
“Suddenly I became a fundraiser and inspirational speaker,” Zajdlik said with a laugh, noting she has probably delivered over 400 speeches at various events for organizations and churches in Guelph, Waterloo and Wellington County.
With the help of over 100 volunteers, Zajdlik’s $1-million goal was reached in October 2008. To date $1.3-million has been raised for the Lesotho clinic, which has treated about 21,000 of the 300,000 in the area affected by HIV.
“The funds supplied by Bracelet of Hope have been used directly to save many lives here in Leribe,” McDougall said in an email from Lesotho.
“Real people whom I see and meet in the streets every day here … Children who are attending and succeeding in school, who simply would not be here otherwise.
“Anne-Marie is the campaign; there would be no Bracelet of Hope campaign without her. [She] has influenced and inspired … people who are now standing up and making a difference in other parts of the world.”
The Leribe government is now building a clinic of its own, and Zajdlik said her team serves in a supporting role to the Ministry of Health in Lesotho.
The long-term goal is to treat the remaining 280,000 people affected in the region – as well as HIV patients in Malawi and other African nations – by outfitting every single Canadian with a bracelet.
“It’s a national response to a global pandemic,” said Zajdlik.
Besides the direct impact on HIV patients in Africa, the Bracelet of Hope campaign offers another impacting, if unforeseen benefit.
The bracelets are purchased from the Inina Craft Agency in South Africa, an innovative group of female entrepreneurs. The income from making the bracelets helps support upwards of 150 families.
McDougall explained that to date about $250,000 has gone to enabling the women and their families and to encouraging “sustainable development” in the area.
“That’s the part I’m most proud of,” Zajdlik said. “It’s an unexpected twist I’m really happy about.”
From Rockwood to Africa
Zajdlik has travelled to Africa three times – the last time being this past summer – and said the staff members at the Lesotho clinic “are like family” to her.
During a recent trip the women of the Inina agency honoured Zajdlik and fellow Bracelet of Hope volunteers with a “wonderful” ceremony of thanks.
“It was quite overwhelming; very touching,” she said.
While she loves travelling to Africa, and in particular visiting many people whose lives she helped save, Zajdlik is more than happy to call Guelph-Eramosa home.
She was born in St. Catharines and spent a good portion of her life in Guelph – where she still works – but Zajdlik much prefers a rural setting.
“We love it here,” she said. “[Rockwood’s] a nice, small community.”
It may seem ironic, but despite “putting down roots” in small-town Wellington County, Zajdlik remains dedicated to one selfless, lofty, global goal: ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa.
Considering 1,800 HIV-positive babies are born in Africa every day, some might call her crazy.
But citing the example of Masai, she remains very optimistic.
“Can it be done in my lifetime? Probably not. But I’d like to have the machinery in place before I go,” she said. “I want to build partnerships with like-minded Canadians and see how many people we can help.
“We have the tools. We are the first generation that can do this … I simply cannot stand by and remain comfortable.”
For more information about Zajdlik and the Bracelet of Hope campaign, visit www.braceletofhope.ca.
