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The Victoria Grandmothers for Africa has grown to more than 150 members, and cyclist Peggy Frank has been a part of it since the beginning.
“I got involved because I live with HIV, and I just felt like it was very unjust the way that we were able to access medication in Canada and people in Africa were not,” Frank says.
Pedalling with a purpose, they’ve raised more than $2 million since 2006 for the Stephen Lewis Foundation‘s Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign to help grandmothers taking care of grandchildren in AIDS-ravaged Africa.
And this year, the fundraising is more important than ever due to the Trump administration’s devastating USAID cuts.
“When you begin cutting the community organizations that are helping so much and supported by the grandmothers, that the ripple effect throughout their communities is going to be huge,” says Tory Stevens of the Victoria Grandmothers for Africa.
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Clinics have been closing and medication isn’t being given out, which threatens to undo decades of hard-fought progress in the HIV movement.
“Incredibly heartbreaking!” Frank says. “Just knowing that it’s HIV medication that keeps me alive, and knowing that medication now creates a situation where the virus is non-transmissible, so under medication, it creates a very safe world.”
“We hear from Africa that they’re afraid we’re going to get back to the 90s and of course, that’s devastating,” Stevens adds. But also it’s going to come — it’s going to come to North America in a big way as it spreads.”
Non-profits had been working towards a goal of ending AIDS by 2030.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty,” says Bonnie Yarish of the Victoria Grandmothers for Africa.
Bonnie Yarish went to Africa in May with the Stephen Lewis Foundation, and she says it was gratifying to see the difference Canadians are making, despite all the uncertainty.
“It was pretty amazing!” Yarish says. “You know, we’ve worked hard to support and to raise funds, and it was really gratifying to see the work that’s being done in Africa and to meet the people that we are helping.”
This summer marks the 19th year for the Victoria Grandmothers for Africa Cycle Tour, and the grandmothers are hoping to kick fundraising up a notch.
“We can do something,” Frank says. “It feels like the governments aren’t doing as much as they could be doing, but we as individuals have an opportunity to do what we can.”
The cycle tour runs until Sept. 7 and anyone can take part.