The following are the personal recollections of Fergus resident Laurie Black Rooney, who was at a Grandmothers’ conference in Swaziland earlier this year.
Black Rooney was featured in the Wellington Advertiser’s Inside Wellington shortly before her departure.
Below is the letter sent out to friends shortly after she arrived back home in Fergus.
Hello Friends,
What follows is a rather long email. Grab a coffee or a glass of wine, sit back and humour me.
I am still absorbing and processing everything. Many have asked how my trip was and it has been difficult to respond in a few words.
First and foremost, my days in Africa were many things—powerful, inspiring, emotional, profound, intense, and phenomenal.
My experience included preparation days in Johannesburg, visiting projects funded by the Stephen Lewis Foundation (SLF), attending the historically significant African Grandmother conference in Swaziland and a Solidarity March with over 1,000 African women and children. The purpose of this trip with the Foundation was to view the projects to witness first hand how the money we raise is distributed, to learn from the expertise of the African Grandmothers in the face of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and to gather together to share ideas.
Meeting for the first time, 42 Canadian Grandmothers from across Canada arrived in Johannesburg. I was incredibly honoured to be a part of this amazing group of women. They are intelligent, passionate, committed, energetic, undeniably compassionate, funny and imaginative. I was the second youngest woman and one of four “GrandOthers” (not grandmothers). My roommate for the entire trip, from the plane rides there and home to accommodations in three different lodges, was Elizabeth. She is the same age as my mom and I am the same age as her daughter. I had the honour of helping her in many ways while on the trip and that was really good for me … We are life pals now.
Nothing could prepare me for the incredibly tight security we endured in Johannesburg. We were not allowed out after dark, even with a driver. We could not be out alone in the day. We had to be escorted everywhere. Everything was gated and wired. We had to travel in packs to the ATM machine and stand with our backs to the person withdrawing money.
Then we had to get back in the van, drive the few feet down the road to the store we wanted to go in. While driving, we could not stop at red lights, you just slow down and roll on through – stopping is an opportunity to be robbed.
The first few days were spent in orientation sessions, debriefings, and workshops to get ready for the project visits and the Conference in Swaziland. We went in to Soweto and had a first hand look at the extreme poverty of the people in that particular village. Our “rest days” were spent visiting museums, animal reserves and African craft markets. The Apartheid Museum and the Mandela exhibit were fabulous.
The project I visited, along with seven other Canadian Grandmothers, was Cotlands. It is one of the largest projects funded by the SLF. It offers a variety of residential and community-based programs to vulnerable children, including paediatric hospices, places of safety, home-based care projects, nutrition, and early childhood development centres. It makes a positive impact on the lives of more than 3,700 children and caregivers either directly (through home based care and residential care) or indirectly (via outreach, training, capacity building and counselling).
We visited the residential facility and the hospice. The hospice cares for up to 20 HIV positive children. Visiting the hospice section of the facility was very emotional for all of us. Gathering my thoughts that evening I was encouraged by the fact that there is such a facility to care for these vulnerable children.
However, it is just so sad to comprehend that these children are sick and have no immediate or extended family to care for them. Later in the day, we visited the outreach community centre where we were greeted in song by 12 African Grandmothers. We sat down with them, listened to their stories, saw pictures of their children (most of whom are dead) and grandchildren.
They showed us their income-generating projects with pride. They are able to get together, enjoy time away from the burden of care giving, have something hot to eat, borrow from a toy library, and make dolls, bowls, jewellery, clothes and much more to sell. We had lunch with them and the Canadian Grandmothers became quite emotional at times.
The African Grandmothers told us not to cry and said that they were happy. They just did not want us to forget about them and they wanted us to continue to raise money for this project that so clearly made a positive impact on them. It was so powerful for me to see the impact that the SLF has on Cotlands.
I’m sure you are aware by now of my complete admiration for the SLF and its staff. Ten staff members, including Ilana Landsberg-Lewis as executive director and Barbara Coloroso, as board member, travelled with us. We learned a little more with respect to how the Foundation works in Africa. Once a grassroots organization has been approved, money from the SLF goes directly to that organization within 5-7 days.
What is different about the SLF’s approach is that it does not stipulate how the money should be spent. It is left to the organization in the community to determine how best to spend the money and is driven by the needs of the community.
In that sense it is used in the most meaningful way. I was struck with how much the integrity of the project is intact because of this unique approach. Ninety per cent of money raised by the foundation goes directly to these projects. The SLF funds over 250 projects in 15 sub-Saharan countries.
After six days in unseasonably cold and rainy South Africa, we travelled to sunny Swaziland. There were 480 African Grandmothers (all associated with SLF projects) from 13 sub-Saharan countries gathered at a lodge outside of Manzini. I had the opportunity to meet many of them on a personal level. I ate with them, heard their stories, experienced their sorrow and listened to their concerns and immediate needs.
These women are old. They have buried their children and are caring for their grandchildren or their siblings’ children, or other children in their community with little or no money. I danced with them, sang with them, hugged them, laughed with them and cried with them. They are intelligent, joyful, extraordinarily creative, courageous, resilient, imaginative, amazing women who embody the triumph of human spirit.
They have had more sorrow in their lives than most of us can imagine. They have great faith. They don’t want pity. They accept their situation and don’t want lots, they just want enough. I shared pictures of my children with them and so many asked if my children were still alive. We have the love of our children-grandchildren as our common link.
These Grandmothers need our support. They are the backbone of the continent.
We had a day of workshops at the conference all associated with the Grandmothers’ response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. I attended the workshops Coping with AIDS and Disinheritance of Property.
Probably the most moving moment for me (and I still can’t watch the video without getting choked up) was the March in Swaziland. The solidarity of the March and the purpose of the March was monumental and magnificent. Carrying placards we marched for 45 minutes to the Trade Centre, singing, dancing, holding hands, crying out all kinds of African slogans, demanding action.
The conference ended with a closing plenary with 3,000 African Grandmothers (many bussed in from all over Swaziland). We listened as Ilana Landsberg-Lewis read the Manzini statement sending out a call for action and a demand to end violence against women and a demand for women’s rights.
Mother’s Day for me was spent in a van travelling seven hours from Swaziland back to South Africa. Although I missed my family and Mother’s Day with my own mom, what better way to spend Mother’s Day than with a group of dedicated and beautiful mothers.
We had an intense debriefing day back at the lodge in Johannesburg and the last night was quite sad, with lots of hugs from new found friends and renewed commitments that we will go home and be the voices of these women and continue to raise money and awareness, especially in light of the approaching G20 and G8 Summits.
Since returning I have attended a meeting with our local MP to demand that Canada simplify legislation to allow drug companies to send generic drugs to Sub-Saharan Africa.
I have also returned more committed to this campaign, and believe that we have a global responsibility to the women and children in Africa. I now know there is a deeper and more concrete meaning to solidarity. I have a huge obligation. I have witnessed the pain and the sorrow of the Grandmothers and the children and I need to “amplify their voices.” Thirty-four million people are living with HIV worldwide and 2/3 (22.4 million) live in sub-Saharan Africa. They need access to drugs. In Canada, anyone who is HIV positive or suffering from AIDS would immediately get all the drugs he/she needs – why should it not be the case in Africa? We must put AIDS back on the radar.
Thank you for your friendship. Thank you for all your support (financial and emotional) before and since returning.
A condition of my selection to attend this conference with the SLF was my commitment to speak about my experience to groups, schools, individuals, churches. If you know of any groups wanting a speaker, please drop them my name.
Love Laurie,
To learn more about the Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign, please visit: www.grandmotherscampaign.org.
