Positive Perspectives

The Mountain Movement: Innovative fundraising idea

If you would like to help the Stephen Lewis Foundation's work with AIDs in Africa but are not sure what you can do, read this article by Lynn Martel in the Rocky Mountain Outlook and see what other Canadian are doing. It just might inspire you to do your part.

"Canada’s Rocky Mountains are just about as far away from African villages swamped in the suffering of AIDS as anyplace could be.

But as Paul Zizka returns to his job as a dining room server at the historic Num Ti Jah Lodge on the idyllic shores of Bow Lake this summer, AIDS in Africa will be prominent in his mind.

Zizka, 26, has teamed up with several co-workers to create The Mountain Movement, a collective of Num Ti Jah staff, university students and volunteers from across Canada working to raise funds and awareness of HIV/AIDS-related issues in Africa."

Read the rest of the article Servers fundraising for AIDS in Africa.

For more ideas about how you can help read this post, visit the Stephen Lewis Foundation, and visit The Mountain Movement whose mission is:

"Help us help others. This summer (2006) in Banff National Park, we, a group of volunteers from across Canada are organizing a series of events with the goal of raising funds and awareness HIV/AIDS related issues in Africa.

Our chosen beneficiary is The Stephen Lewis Foundation, an organization that helps to ease the pain of HIV/AIDS in Africa by funding community-level projects that provide care and support to women, grandmothers, orphans and people living with AIDS."

Stephen Lewis: He continues to race against time

I wrote about Stephen Lewis' Race Against Time and raved about the speech he gave. Stephen Lewis is the United Nations General Secretary’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. Stephe Lewis calls HIV/AIDs in Africa “the ultimate ethical issue”.”

No exaggeration - listening to his speech was and continues to be life changing experience for me. You can access Stephen Lewis' speech recorded at the joint conference of the American Counseling Association and the Canadian Counselling Association's April conference.
Audio Download lewis.mp3 Video Download lewis.wmv

If these links don't work you can also access his speech at the American Counseling Association.

After you listen to the Stephen Lewis speech here's a list of nine things that you can do today to help the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

1. Download the video or audio: invite family, friends, and colleagues to view the video and use it as a fundraiser. Give each person a copy of the video to take home with them to share with others.
2. Bring the video to your workplace and view and share over lunchtime – again use it as a fundraiser.
3. If you belong to a professional associaiton you could use the video as a fundraiser. Organize a meeting,  invite your members, ask them to share the video with others.
4. Invite all the grandmothers you know to watch the video and give them information about Stephen Lewis’ Grandmother to Grandmother campaign. There is information on the foundation site about how Canadian grandmothers can start a group, and/or donate.
5. Put a link to the Stephen Lewis Foundation from your website.
6. Write about Stephen Lewis’ work on your blog or website.
7. Consider tithing 5 or 10% of your income to the Stephen Lewis Foundation.
8. Buy a copy of Stephen Lewis’ book Race Against Time, read it, and pass it along to your family, friends, and colleagues. You can purchase Race Against Time at:
   Amazon.com, Chapters/Indigo, Amazon.ca
9. Write letters to the editor in the newspapers that you read in response to any AIDS in Africa stories in general and to specific articles regarding Stephen Lewis and the foundation.

Stephen Lewis' Race Against Time

I had the priviledge of listening to one of the world’s greatest speakers (in my opinion), Stephen Lewis, the United Nations General Secretary’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa at a Montreal conference a few weeks ago.

Stephen Lewis calls HIV/AIDs in Africa “the ultimate ethical issue”.” (April issue of Time Magazine Canada article by Rebecca Myers, How the World is Failing Africa)

“He said the international community has lost “its moral anchor” and cited the industrialized world’s systemic failure to provide adequate aid to countries where the infected population of dead and dying could reach 100 million before the pandemic’s end.

Lewis specifically lamented the plight of women and called for the creation of an international UN agency to deal specifically with women’s issues. “Women are at the heart of the pandemic,” he said, with women and girls making up 76% of those infected between the ages of 15 and 19.”

I am just beginning Stephen Lewis’ book, Race Against Time, (published by Anasi Press), which starts off with his comment “I have spent the last four years watching people die.” Race Against Time is the written version of the 2005 Massey Lectures. You can listen to the first in the serious at CBC Radio where you can also order the broadcast series.
I urge you to listen to - it is unlike anything you’ve ever heard.

You can purchase Race Against Time at:
Amazon.com, Chapters/Indigo, Amazon.ca

You can get more information about the important and urgent work that Stephen Lewis is doing by visiting the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

Other links:
The Killing Train blog
Breaking the Back of the Pandemic
African Renewal
Blogcritic’s review of Race Against Time ”It is a book that everyone should read, that everyone should be frustrated and angered by.”