Member awarded Peace Medal
Posted By KARLEEN BRADFORD
Posted 2 months ago
Mariposa Grandmothers were delighted to honour member Mary Maltby, who was awarded the annual YMCA Peace Medallion for 2009. This award is given for outstanding activities and contributions in the cause of peace.
We thank, also, the Ontario Public Service Employees' Union for its generous donation of $1,000 to our work with the Stephen Lewis Foundation (SLF).
In his latest message in the Stephen Lewis Foundation newsletter, Grassroots, Stephen Lewis writes:
"The Grandmothers Campaign, focused on orphans, is helping transform life for hundreds of thousands of kids. It's desperately important to remember that these children are deeply bewildered, wounded, agonized by the sudden, inexplicable loss of their parents.
"Our new determination to 'Turn the Tide' on the pandemic is very much an effort to reach huge numbers of orphan kids -- literally a million of them over the next five years -- and restore joy and hope to their future. It's not just a matter of school fees and health care, and clothing and shelter; it's equally a matter of creating an environment for the children that will liberate their young lives. All the studies show that the best prospect to make that happen is the orphan-grandmother equation."
As reported also in Grassroots, the SLF is working with communities throughout Africa in many ways. Fifteen of the projects the SLF supports were invited to a round-table meeting on orphan care. For three days, they
exchanged strategies on reaching vulnerable households, providing care and psycho-social support, and creating programs that give children the chance to become leaders in their communities.
CHILDREN LIKE CAROL
At age 7, Carol had the grown-up responsibility of tending her mother during her final days. After her mother's death, Carol went to live with her grandmother, but soon it became clear that she had contracted HIV. Her grandmother was desperate to get care for her, but was unable to, and by the time Carol turned 11 the doctors gave up hope. She was sent home to die.
At this point, a neighbour suggested they contact Ripples International, a small faith-based organization run by husband and wife Chidi and Mercy Ogbonna. With support from the SLF, Ripples has been able to reach thousands of children and families. They nursed Carol back to health -- putting her on antiretroviral drugs and treating her for tuberculosis -- and offered grief counselling to help Carol work through the trauma of losing her mother. Slowly, she began to heal. Three years later, at age 14, Carol entered Grade 5. She excelled at school and was accepted into a prestigious high school.
Ripples was there to pay her school fees and buy the supplies that would allow her to continue her education. They supported Carol's grandmother by sending the family food baskets and giving her a goat to earn a small income.
Carol is now an eloquent and outspoken Grade 9 student who dreams of becoming a doctor. She does peer-to-peer counselling for other youth and has spoken to the entire student assembly about her life story and her HIV-positive status.
"I am so grateful to Ripples and to my grandmother for not giving up on me," she says. "Ripples has been my mom and my dad. They have given me hope for the future."
The Mariposa Grandmothers meet on the third Friday of the month at 9:30 a. m. at St. Paul's Church in Orillia. All are welcome. We also have a speakers' bureau that will provide speakers to organizations that would like to learn more about the work of the Grandmothers- to-Grandmothers projects.
For further information, please call Karleen Bradford at 484-5754 or Myrtle Gordon at 538-2243.
Karleen Bradford is a member of the Orillia Grandmothers to
Grandmothers branch.
