"Go go" is "Grannie" in Zulu. Thus many of the groups formed had "gogo" in their names. Our local group is the "SO GO Grannies, Penticton Branch". SO stands for South Okanagan, leaving the door open for other branches to form if desired.

The group has several focuses. Spreading awareness is foremost. Many Canadians, even in the Okanagan, have wrong impressions about Aids itself. The local Grannies will speak to any group. With help from the latest Stephen Lewis video, it has held one church service. Their next project was to run the Café at the Free Trade Fair. There they sold tea and coffee, and popular soup for lunch, plus baked goods and other Grannie contributions. This was a great success as a fundraiser.

Sadly in Africa, Aids has become a disease of women and children. Young women are brought up determined to practice abstinence, and faithfulness in marriage but their families often marry off these innocent young women to older men. Alas, men reign supreme in marriage here. They have a feeling of absolute entitlement. Sexual freedom is taken for granted, and they are completely promiscuous. They spurn any idea of protecting their young wives, who soon become infected. They may live to produce two or three children--and then they die, often still in their twenties.

Their motherless children are raised by the grandmothers. Sometimes Grannies are struggling to feed, clothe and send to school as many as 18 or 20 children, not all from their own family. This is where we can help. One generation has been wiped out, but this new generation can be saved. Education is the key word here, especially for boys. It is urgent that they grow up with respect for girls, and later, women. Such fundamental social change will come slowly. Meanwhile, it takes very little of our Canadian money to help feed, clothe, and educate these children.

Every branch of the "Grannies" movement takes place under the careful supervision of the Stephen Lewis Foundation. Tax receipts can be issued. And you needn't be a Grannie! To contribute, contact Sue Mackay Smith, who handles the local Grannies bank account. No money stays around long. It is dispatched quickly to the Stephen Lewis Foundation. Think of it, a small contribution now means one more children may go to school. And that is what African children long for most! If you ask them what they want most in all the world, it is "to go to school." They treasure their school uniforms, a badge of pride. Some of the greatest need, according to a spokesperson for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, is in the Refugee Camps. Grannies there have a dreadful struggle to send children to school. So we in Penticton strive to make our small contribution.

Unfortunately, the record of government support for this cause has been poor. Medicine promised three years ago has never arrived, medicine that could have saved newborns from being infected. Canadians need to urge their government to do much more. When I last saw Stephen Lewis on TV, he spoke of going into a tiny house in a village, where a matriarch in her eighties sat on one side of a very small fire. On the other side of the fire were two other Grannies, both in their seventies. And crowded on the floor, scrubbed and prepared for for his visit, were thirty-three children, of various ages. It's hard for us to comprehend such need. Yet these women manage to get together in a support group. They sew small items to help raise money for their charges. And they share their grief for the lost children.

An interviewer asked one of the Grannies brought here by the Foundation what we could best do to help. After a pause, she answered, "Well, it would be nice to have a cup of tea while we are doing our sewing…."

They ask so little. And we have so much.

Dec 06, Dodi Morrison