The Stephen Lewis Foundation

Today on Transgender Day of Remembrance (November 20) and every day the Stephen Lewis Foundation condemns all forms of transphobia. We recognize that racialized trans people disproportionately experience transphobic violence, particularly Black trans women. As we remember trans people who have been killed as a result of transphobia, and those who continue to experience injustice and violations to their fundamental human rights, we also acknowledge that such violence, disc...rimination and stigma continue to drive the AIDS pandemic. We celebrate trans activists and human rights defenders at the forefront of LGBTIQ movements around the world, and we are honoured to declare our solidarity with grassroots organizations in sub-Saharan Africa, run by and for LGBTIQ communities, who are working with determination to claim and defend health and human rights, and end transphobia. #TransDayofRemembrance

In the lead up to World AIDS Day 2020, Kiambu People Living with Hiv - Kipewa is organizing a new kind of beauty pageant for people who are living with HIV, called, #IAmNotMyDiagnosis. The pageant celebrates the beauty of overcoming obstacles. At the event, Ambassadors of Hope, like Beth Wanjiku, a community health volunteer, will share their stories and defy stigma. I realized I was not alone, Beth says in this video about the support KIPEWA provided to help her come t...o terms with her status, access and adhere to treatment, and stay healthy. Beth now helps people to love and accept themselves and to know that being HIV positive is not the end. Community-based organizations, like KIPEWA, restore hope, resilience and wellbeing for individuals and communities affected by HIV and AIDS. KIPEWA is an SLF partner in Kenya. #WorldAIDSDay #WAD2020

With the holiday season nearly here, we invite you to reconnect, share cheer and act in global solidarity. This year, consider making donations and sending beautiful printed cards or e-cards to your family, friends and colleagues. Simply donate online to send e-cards for easy and immediate delivery. We could also send you cards to personalize and deliver yourself or mail cards on your behalf. Your contributions will have meaningful and tangible impact for our grassroots partners and their communities in sub-Saharan Africa. Please visit: http://stephenlewisfoundation.org/holidays

Expert organizations led by and for their communities like Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse, an SLF partner in Eswatini have the established networks of care and trust needed to reach community members. Facing new challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they’re introducing safety protocols and adapting services and outreach so that their work can continue to address violence against women and girls and inequalities that continue to drive #HIV and AIDS.

Expert organizations led by and for LGBTIQ communities have the established networks of care and trust needed to reach their community members and address inequalities, stigma and discrimination that continue to drive the #HIV and AIDS pandemic. To prevent the spread of #COVID19, Icebreakers Uganda is sourcing and using personal protection equipment, while continuing to safely deliver vital services and supports. Learn more about how LGBTIQ organizations in sub-Saharan Africa..., including Icebreakers Uganda, are pivoting to address the impacts and implications of intersecting pandemics, and championing health and human rights for LGBTIQ communities. Register for the second in our series of #SLFPride Talks as leaders from two SLF partner organizations discuss the importance of mental health programming, on October 27: https://slf-pride-talks-2-championing-mental-health.eventbr See more

We’re excited to share this latest Grassroots newsletter with our SLF community: https://bit.ly/Grassroots-Fall-2020. In this Fall 2020 edition, you’ll find an excerpt of a personal and candid conversation with two remarkable young leaders, Ruth Awori and Aziwe Mkhungekwana, based in Uganda and South Africa. They speak about youth-led HIV treatment and prevention initiatives, and of raising awareness, and promoting positive living for children, adolescents, and young people across sub-Saharan Africa. Learn how these young women are inspiring change in their communities, and how their activism is a critical part of the work required to turn the tide of HIV and AIDS.

On October 21, SLF Executive Director, Meg French, will be speaking at Pride at Work Canada's online event, along with several notable panelists. Meg will discuss championing health and human rights with LGBTIQ activists and organizations across sub-Saharan Africa, and the Partners in Pride campaign: https://prideatwork.ca//panel-discussion-making-a-global-/ #solidaritynotcharity #SLFPride #LGBTIQ #LGBTQ #HIV #prideatwork

Community-based organizations like HAPA Kenya restore hope, resilience and well-being for individuals, families and communities affected by HIV and AIDS. Their people-centred responses are proven in promoting effective HIV treatment and prevention. They know what works. They have documented results. And when they have access to the resources they need, they can sustain this progress, support frontline workers, and expand their reach. HAPA Kenya is an SLF partner. https://www.facebook.com/HapaKenya001/posts/877744526095413

Register now for #SLFPride Talks: Championing Mental Health Programs for LGBTIQ Communities, on October 27 at 11 am Eastern time. Hear directly from two accomplished activists and courageous leaders from SLF partner organizations based in Uganda and Kenya: https://slf-pride-talks-2-championing-mental-health.eventbr Kennedy Otieno Olango (Men Against AIDS Youth Group, in Kenya) and Herbert Ayesiga (Icebreakers Uganda) will discuss the impact of the #COVID-19 pandemic on the m...ental health needs of their communities, as individuals face a surge in homophobia and transphobia, extreme financial hardship, stress and anxiety, and disruption of #HIV services. Find out how community-based organizations are responding, and how you can become part of a global movement for LGBTIQ health and human rights, through the SLF’s Partners in Pride campaign.

Grandmothers and older persons around the world are experiencing the impacts of the #COVID19 pandemic. In sub-Saharan Africa, in communities affected by #HIV and AIDS, grandmothers are working to meet new challenges brought on by the intersecting pandemics. Today, on #InternationalDayofOlderPersons, we recognize and honour the resilience and dedication of grandmothers raising a generation of children. Reach One Touch One Ministries - ROTOM is a long-standing SLF partner, based in Uganda.

Today, on #InternationalDayofOlderPersons, and every day, grandmothers and older persons around the world are experiencing the impacts of the #COVID19 pandemic. In sub-Saharan Africa, in communities affected by #HIV and AIDS, grandmothers are working to meet new challenges brought on by the intersecting pandemics. With support from their community-based organizations, grandmothers are leading holistic responses to improve and ensure access to resources water, soap, medicati...ons, health services and home-based care, food and income to be healthy, live with dignity, and care for orphaned and vulnerable children as well as each other. Their vital work continues and adapts so that grandmothers’ voices are heard, and their needs, human rights, and priorities are not overlooked while the world faces COVID-19, not ever. Health and human rights for older persons must be safeguarded. #iopd #amplifyvoices #grandmothersmovement #solidaritynotcharity

#COVID19 threatens to erode the progress made in protecting the health and wellbeing of women, adolescents and children affected by HIV and AIDS. In #solidaritynotcharity, SLF Executive Director, Meg French has signed on to #protecttheprogress. To download the Every Woman Every Child report and sign the letter, visit: https://protect.everywomaneverychild.org

Education is a human right, critical for the well-being of girls and whole communities. But this school year, closures due to COVID-19 are having serious impacts on children around the world. And in communities affected by HIV and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, SLF partners have reported that as a result of school closures, girls living with HIV have had reduced access to the food they need to stay on treatment. Lockdowns have also put girls at greater risk of gender-based viole...nce and teenage pregnancy. SLF partners are pivoting to empower and protect girls in their communities. In Uganda, a Nyaka staff counsellor visits students to provide them with direct support around sexual and reproductive health and rights. Positive Life Kenya, has distributed learning materials for students to use at home. As schools reopen in Tanzania, MWEDO is providing menstrual hygiene products and teaching girls about their sexual and reproductive health and rights, to prevent and eliminate barriers to education. As part of the holistic response to intersecting pandemics, #HIV and AIDS and #COVID19, these community-based organizations continue their ongoing work to ensure girls have the opportunity and support they need to complete their education, stay healthy, and thrive. At this time of global vulnerability, you can make an important act of global solidarity: www.stephenlewisfoundation.org/donate

On this International Day of Peace, and every day, join us in solidarity with SLF partners in sub-Saharan Africa whose holistic responses to HIV and AIDS address factors that continue to drive the pandemic, including their work to end violence against women and girls. Panzi Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo treats survivors of sexual violence as a result of war and armed conflict. The founder of Panzi Hospital, Dr. Denis Mukwege, was awarded the 2018 Nobel Peace ...Prize, which sent an important message to the world that we must all take action to condemn violence against women and girls as a strategy of war, and help ensure that survivors and the staff who treat them, have access to the resources, healthcare and supports they need to rebuild resilience. The SLF is proud to partner with Panzi Hospital and all our partner organizations striving to end violence against women and girls as a result of armed conflict, and gender-based violence of every kind. #solidaritynotcharity #PeaceDay

Grassroots and community-based organizations in sub-Saharan Africa are experts in the response to HIV and AIDS. Their holistic approaches improve food security for grandmothers and the children in their care, and access to the nutrition needed to be healthy, stay healthy, and thrive. Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust is a long-standing partner of the SLF, based in South Africa.

It's time to recognize that grandmothers at the forefront of the HIV and AIDS crisis must have our human rights respected and protected. It's time to support our organizations fully and put systems in place to address our needs and the needs of the children in our care. It's time to recognize our contribution to the survival of our communities and the expertise we have developed to do so, by giving us our rightful place and voice wherever decisions are being made. Seven yea...rs ago, the Stephen Lewis Foundation (SLF) hosted the African Grandmothers Tribunal in Vancouver, Canada. Six grandmothers, from Eswatini, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe, gave personal testimonies of the grief, financial hardship and human rights violations they confronted as the AIDS pandemic tore through their communities. The strength, vulnerability and leadership of those who testified at the Tribunal, and the many thousands of women across sub-Saharan Africa who have been affected by #HIV, helped mobilize grandmothers into regional and national networks to demand their rights and social justice in their communities and countries. The #COVID19 pandemic, like all crises, exacerbates inequalities and injustices. Many communities report increases in gender-based violence. Limitations on movement and safety restrictions have had an immediate impact on grandmothers’ abilities to provide basic necessities for their families. Grandmothers’ movements are responding to this new pandemic. With the community-based organizations that support them, they are adapting support and services, sharing reliable information, and are calling for the protection of women’s and older persons’ rights with more urgency now than ever. Join us as we continue to listen and bear witness to the voices and experiences of African grandmothers. Watch the full Tribunal film here: https://vimeo.com/103912306. If you’re able to, please consider donating to support this work, as an act of solidarity: www.stephenlewisfoundation.org/donate #amplifyvoices #solidaritynotcharity #grandmothersmovement

"We all have different roles to play, said one young leader, Ruth Awori, of MUJHU YGA - Young Generation Alive (Uganda), about effective responses to the AIDS pandemic. On this UN #InternationalDayofCharity, our focus is on those many roles, which exist among our growing SLF community of supporters, galvanized grandmothers, human rights defenders, and community leaders around the world. Your collective sustained support, steadfast solidarity, and continued commitment to turn... the tide of HIV and AIDS, is both humbling and inspiring. Today and every day, we recognize the impact of grassroots and community-based organizations in sub-Saharan Africa, and the people who contribute to the holistic response to HIV and AIDS, including mentor mothers, peer supporters, counsellors, youth and community leaders of all ages, home-based care workers, healthcare workers, teachers, students, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) educators, people living with HIV and AIDS, HIV activists, human rights advocates, social justice workers, legal advisors, LGBTIQ rights advocates and defenders, women’s rights defenders, those working to eliminate all forms of stigma and discrimination, SLF supporters around the world, Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign members and supporters, individual donors, monthly donors, foundations, unions, fundraisers, humanitarians and philanthropists, and everyone helping to raise awareness of the vital role community-based organizations, expertly run by and for their communities, have in responding to intersecting pandemics, #COVID19 and #HIV and #AIDS. Through acts of #solidaritynotcharity, we can all help address the inequalities and inequities that continue to drive the AIDS pandemic. If you are able, please donate today to support this work: www.stephenlewisfoundation.org/donate

In this edition of Voices, you’ll find two videos that bring together women from across generations, regions and community-based organizations in sub-Saharan Africa. Through candid and informative conversations, you’ll hear from grandmother and youth leaders about the impact of their expert responses to HIV and AIDS: https://bit.ly/Voices-AIDS2020Update-Grandmothers-and-Youth Shown at #AIDS2020Virtual the 23rd International AIDS Conference, in July in sessions organized b...y the SLF, we’re excited to now share these important conversations with you. PHOTO: Youth leaders from MUJHU’s Young Generation Alive, in Uganda. Ruth Awori (rightmost) is one of the speakers in the panel conversation. #amplifyvoices #solidaritynotcharity