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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday May 12, 2007 - 3 Stephen Lewis raises $90,000 for African orphans By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF The plight of the grandmothers of Africa, who struggle to support grandchildren orphaned by AIDS, echoed throughout the Arena of Appleby College Thursday as more than a thousand people gathered to learn and to do their part to help. The fundraiser organized by the Oakvillebased grandmother group oomama to support their counterparts in Africa featured Stephen Lewis, former United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, as guest speaker. Lewis commanded a staggering turnout as 1,400 people from Oakville and the surrounding area turned out to hear him speak. Appleby College's soccer field was turned into a makeshift parking lot to accommodate the fleet of vehicles. "You have raised $90,000 tonight and that will translate into thousands of changed lives in Africa," said event organizer Sherry Ardell to the crowd as the event began. Before Lewis spoke a single word he received a standing ovation from the audience, the magnitude of whose applause rivaled any thunder produced by Mother Nature. Despite the serious nature of his presentation Lewis began the evening on a light note comparing the size of the audience to the size of the annual Oakville NDP meeting. "I live a rich fantasy life," he said before moving on to the more serious nature of the evening. Lewis began by speaking of a hopeful sign he had seen in Africa's battle against AIDS, pointing to a report issued two weeks ago by the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, and UNICEF. This report stated that of the 2 million people receiving treatment for the virus around the world 1,300,000 of those people are in Africa. "That is in fact an astonishing piece of progress over the last two or three years because as recently as 2003/2004 there were only a couple hundred thousand people in treatment across the entire planet." Despite this progress Lewis says there is still a long way to go with so many more in desperate need of lifesaving medication. "Five million additional people require treatment now," he said. "They're in a desperate race against time and if we can't get the medicines rolled out and with real tenacity and determination get them into treatment then, as sure as I'm standing here those five million people are going to die agonizing and premature deaths." During his five-year term as the United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa Lewis saw the devastation and sorrow caused by AIDS first hand. "I can't tell you how many huts I've LIESA KORTMANN/ OAKVILLE BEAVER IMPASSIONED SPEAKER: Stephen Lewis attracted more than 1,000 people to Appleby College to hear him speak about the millions of orphaned children in Africa who have lost their parents to the HIV/AIDS virus. entered over the years, I don't even want to remember it psychologically or emotionally," he said. "You're always met with the same spectral figure of the mother lying in the last throws of full blown AIDS on the floor of the hut and the little children are running around franticly trying to find an aspirin to diminish the pain or to find a wet cloth to wipe their mother's brow. These kids, these 4,5,6,7,8,9-year-old kids they stand in the hut and they watch their mother die and they're bewildered and struck with incomprehension as to what has happened." Lewis' sadness at having seen these horrible images is tempered by frustration over the fact that this is totally avoidable. "We have the antiretroviral drugs. We now have them at prices that can be afforded and if the western world would deliver on its promises the drugs can be provided free," said Lewis. "What in God's name is wrong with the world that is willing to see a continent as expendable?" Lewis's voice quivered with anger as he spoke about what has been lost due to simple indifference and greed. "It is forever inexplicable to me that we can allow these things to continue. How can we find expendable hundreds millions of men, women and children? What is that all about?" Canada is not blameless in this travesty allowing bureaucratic red tape to get in the way of legislation that would have seen the manufacture of drugs to fight AIDS in the developing world, Lewis said. "Canada having the legislation in place never managed to issue a simple compulsory license, which was what was required by the government, to a generic company to allow them to produce a generic version of the patented drug." However, a ray of hope has emerged for the victims of AIDS in Africa in the form of former American President Bill Clinton. "I've often said I don't care what he did during his presidency," said Lewis, provoking roaring laughter from the audience. "All I know is what he is doing now is positively heroic. It's astonishing the way his foundation has emerged and he has emerged resolutely determined to make a contribution to subduing the virus." Lewis said, through negotiations with Indian drug companies, Clinton brought about the creation of AIDS medications that are equivalent in every way to the brand name drugs but are available at a greatly reduced price. "The Clinton Foundation has negotiated the cost down to less than a dollar a day (per patient) over the course of a year. This is a magnificent contribution," said Lewis. "I've often asked myself why wasn't that done by my colleagues in the United Nations over the years? Why wasn't it done by one of the major bilateral donors? How is it that we require the emergence of an ex-president in order to civilize the international community?" Even though such breakthroughs in treatment have been made, for millions of people in Africa it is already too late. "What's happened in Africa was that the death rates from AIDS have been so high in the late 1990s and the first several years of the 21st century that, as never anticipated, the numbers of orphans rose dramatically and continues to rise," said Lewis. "You have many countries now with over a million orphans." Having lost in some cases all of their immediate family Lewis says many of these children are severely traumatized. "When I wander through a community centre, an orphanage, a school these little kids grab me by the pant leg and they hold on as though it's life itself just for some kind of tactile sense of an adult." In an act unprecedented in human history millions of grandmothers, who have lost their children to AIDS, have stepped in to take care of their orphaned grandchildren, but this has done little to alleviate the problem. "They can barely find the next meal to eat, See Audience page 4 PREPARE FOR THE ROAD AHEAD. Next course: May 15th, Tuesday & Thursday Evenings (4 weeks) 6:00 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. May 26, 27 and June 2, 3, Sat. & Sun. 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. www.youngdrivers.com 905.845.7200 MTO APPROVED BEGINNER DRIVER EDUCATION COURSE PROVIDER