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This page is devoted to articles, speeches, films, publications and media materials created by SOLID.
Download a pdf version of a press friendly SOLID overview:
presskit

Download a clip from our 2004 interview with Stephen Lewis.

SOLID has also been working with the Global Youth Project of VIDEA;
check out some of our culture jamming posters here.

Local News Stories About AIDS:

United Church group selling Beads of Hope pins • Education is primary tool in combatting HIV/AIDS stigma • Salt Spring ready to pursue grassroots AIDS projects • Value of Life AIDS and Stephen Lewis film makes world debut on Salt Spring • World AIDS Day • ISS participation highest at educational AIDS day • AIDS Day speaker shares insights about life with HIV • Stephen Lewis Foundation benefits from Beaver Point boogie • Red ribbon boxes first signs of AIDS Day fundraising

United Church group selling Beads of Hope pins

While awareness of the need to help people in developing countries combat HIV/AIDS is slowly growing around the world, United Church members have been working on a targetted fundraising campaign since December 2002.

Members of the Salt Spring United Church's outreach committee are pleased to have raised $2,500 for the Beads of Hope Campaign in its first year and that the nationwide goal of $1 million has already been surpassed.

"Beads of Hope has been a big focus for us over the past two years," said committee member Nancy Powell.

And with a new shipment of African-made Beads of Hope pins recently arrived to sell on the island, they know even more money will be collected for the cause.

Powell, Betty Thompson and other outreach committee members will be at the Our Island, Our World Film Festival this weekend selling the attractive, red-and-white beadwork pins.

Cost is $25, with $5 returned to the communities where the pins are made for labour and materials. The remainder is used at the local level for education, advocacy and treatment of HIVAIDS, especially for antiretroviral drugs. Eighty per cent of the funds benefit communities in Africa, with the rest going to agencies in the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia.

The United Church plugs into already-running grassroots programs in various countries.

Also at the film festival, church members will be collecting signatures on the United Church of Canada Signatures of Hope petition. It presses the Canadian government to increase financial support for global and Canadian AIDS programs, ensure patents do not deny access to life-saving medicines and work towards cancellation of impoverished countries' debts to other nations.

Most Salt Spring United Church funds were raised from the sale of pins and from congregation members' "loonie-a-month" donation program.

Thompson notes that some church members have spent time in Africa working in the educational, agricultural and medical fields.

Anyone wanting to buy a pin can call Thompson at 537-1814 or the United Church office at 537-5812.

Beads of Hope pins have become symbols of support for the estimated 40 million people worldwide who are infected with HIV/AIDS.

Education is primary tool in combatting HIV/AIDS stigma

By ROB WILTZEN

Special to the Driftwood

“Live and Let Live”is the theme for the UN-sponsored World AIDS Day on December 1, but fear of discrimination and its effects are as apparent here in the southern Gulf Islands as anywhere else. 

Labelling and prejudices represent key obstacles to effective HIV/AIDS prevention and care around the world. For the second year running, World AIDS Day carries the theme of how this fuels the spread of HIV/AIDS around the world and prevents the treatment of those with AIDS. 

In the southern Gulf Islands, people living with HIV and AIDS find that prejudices and misconceptions are still a factor in how openly they deal with their conditions. Representatives of the Southern Gulf Islands AIDS Society (SGIAS), a support group for HIV+ people living in the southern Gulf Islands, choose to stay anonymous because they fear discrimination and reprisal.

“There is still a perception that people with AIDS are gay men, while the majority of our members are not gay men,” one SGIAS member said. “People with school-age children have not only themselves to protect, but their children who would suffer the fallout from ignorance-based prejudice as well. Anonymity is a key part of creating a safe space.” 

According to the representative, other people living with HIV/AIDS in the southern Gulf Islands are not represented in the membership since they are still closeted with regard to their medical status. These people feel too jeopardized to admit their condition even to the support group.

The SGIAS representative said that although the greater community is in general very supportive and understanding, most individuals fear they could be victims of discrimination if their HIV status were to be common knowledge.

Prejudicial attitudes spread through even the most progressive communities. The threat of discrimination in housing and employment is enough to stop HIV+ people from speaking out and, in some cases, seeking the support available to them.

Alex Keating is an exception. She has been living with HIV for 17 years and been a Salt Spring resident for about three years. For her, the issue of anonymity is both a political and an intensely personal one.

She has been a political activist on the issue and has made decisions resulting in considerable publicity of her name and her status. Keating believes that political advocacy is of the utmost importance, but it was not the prime motivation for her to go public with her status 10 years ago.

“It was more a healing process for me,” she said. “It was a way for me of losing my shame. I feel much better about not living with that secret.”

However, the nature of smaller communities affects the impact of that decision considerably, she notes. 

“It is possible to be very public in the city and still remain anonymous,” she said. “I did experience some reprisals in the city in the form of threatening phone calls and once lost a place to live, but one could reverse the decision to be public quite easily and still blend in to the city most of the time.”

Since deciding to live on Salt Spring, Keating has noted there is still an enormous amount of misunderstanding among the population here.

“There is a lot of fear and denial out there in this community, ” she said. “Ignorance is driving that fear.”

Her experiences over the years have demonstrated that this fear is also what leads to discrimination and the expectation of it by people who live with HIV/AIDS.

“It is unfortunate but I do feel that I have come to expect the backlash,” she said.

“Partners in the business community may end up feeling the repercussions from a decision by somebody to be open about their status,” said one SGIAS member.

“The fact that this has been treated as a moral issue from Day 1 with groups of people affected, rather than certain behaviors putting people at risk, has fanned the fears and prejudices,” said Keating. “People must come to the realization that they probably do know people with HIV and that the stereotypes are not accurate.”

Ignorance about HIV/AIDS is problematic in more than one way. Not only does it breed unreasonable fears about people who live with HIV/AIDS, it also means that behaviour may not be changing in ways to deal with the very real risks of the spread of the virus. A recent survey reported by Canada Newswire revealed that there is still a belief among Canadian youth not only that there is a cure for HIV/AIDS, but also a vaccine available to prevent HIV infection. 

The facts remain that AIDS is a terminal condition with no cure and there is no vaccine. Provincial statistics show a steady increase in the proportion of heterosexual HIV transmission.

Education remains the primary tool to undermine the stigma of HIV/AIDS and the discrimination against those who live with it. It is the cornerstone building a common understanding of how to prevent HIV/AIDS and how to provide the community support for those who live with it. 

Salt Spring ready to pursue grassroots AIDS projects

By GAIL SJUBERG

Staff Writer

Representatives from Salt Spring groups combatting AIDS worldwide are gearing up for more community involvement in grassroots projects.

With an office now set up in the Creekside complex in Ganges, and a heartwarming response from a recent full-house film showing and discussion night at ArtSpring, the path is clear for more fundraising and positive international links.

“It was great,” said Gary MacNutt, referring to the ArtSpring evening where The Value of Life: AIDS in Africa Revisited was featured.

“The discussion was very emotional. It took everybody about five minutes to settle after the film was over.”

MacNutt was equally pleased with individuals’ commitments to contribute to the cause.

“It was very charged. People are looking to give it a lot of energy.”

Created by award-winning filmmaker and new Salt Spring resident Judy Jackson, it was shown by donation to the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which supports grassroots AIDS prevention, education and treatment programs.

The Value of Life follows United Nations HIV/AIDS envoy Lewis on a 2003 visit to Africa, where he was impressed by the work of grassroots organizations, yet frustrated by the dearth of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for AIDS sufferers there.

In Jackson’s The Value of Life film, Lewis points out that while governments around the world drag their feet on the ARV front, small community projects are making a real difference.

"All of Stephen's money is going to grassroots groups," notes Jackson. "You see immediately the difference that money can make."

One of those projects is the Salt Spring-linked Village of Hope initiative in Rwanda, spearheaded by Peter Bardon and Peggy Frank.

Their goal is to raise $50,000 to bring water and electricity to a courageous community of women who have HIV/AIDS as a result of rape during that country’s genocide in the 1990s.

Bardon said they now have $16,000 of the funds needed and, thanks to commitments made by Rotary Clubs on Salt Spring, in Parksville, Toronto and Kigali, a further $12,000 could be added in the near future.

Jackson visited the Village of Hope project and reports how the women there have "really changed” as a result of western world involvement in their lives.

“They are absolutely optimistic."

Bardon observes that even knowing somebody in another country cares about them "provides a huge spiritual uplift."

Rotary also gave funds for a Kenya community garden project being undertaken by Michael Nickels of Salt Spring.

Small amounts of money go a long way in Africa.

Bardon recounts how when Peggy Frank sent a Rwandan woman $50, it meant she could afford a whole year of school fees for her three children.

MacNutt and other islanders, including Memory Uglene, have also forged strong connections with individuals in the impoverished Vaal Triangle in South Africa, where an orphanage, community centre, telecentre with computers and community gardens have received resources through Salt Spring Organization for Life Improvement and Development (SOLID).

MacNutt said SOLID hopes to work with a Food and Trees group to get another acre under cultivation, and to become involved with a university intiative that could see some South Africans come to Salt Spring. 

"We're trying to build a community link so people get a better idea of what's going on there," said MacNutt.

Another idea is to see Salt Spring's young people write to orphans in Africa, while setting up a way for local youth to volunteer there is another.

Fraser Hope is an islander who has seen firsthand both the personal and societal devastation of AIDS in Namibia, and the effectiveness of local programs when he worked as an educator in Namibia through the non-profit VSO Canada.

"A tremendous amount of work is being done on the ground by volunteer groups . . . and they will often go beyond the scope of their assignments," said Hope.

"Working with local organizations makes sure all the money goes directly to the needs of a community project," said Hope.

Volunteers in Salt Spring's new AIDS umbrella office, at 5-B in Creekside on McPhillips Avenue, welcome inquiries on how people can help existing grassroots projects or even start their own.

More films illuminating the AIDS crisis and related events are set for a weekly Monday-night series at the office that began this week with the film 6,000 a Day.

The group is grateful to Keith Wilson, who has let the Creekside space at a much-reduced rate.

The office phone number is 537-8735.

Value of Life AIDS and Stephen Lewis film makes world debut on Salt Spring

By GAIL SJUBERG

Staff Writer

In the summer of 2001, filmmaker Judy Jackson followed an energetic, optimistic Stephen Lewis as he toured Africa in his then-new role as United Nations HIV/AID envoy.

The result was an award-winning film called Race Against Time, which impressed the need for immediate action in tackling the AIDs crisis in sub-Saharan Africa.

Two years later, Jackson returned to do a follow-up film with Lewis, capturing his growing disillusionment, anger and determination to forge change. Called The Value of Life: AIDS in Africa Revisited, it will be shown at ArtSpring on Sunday, January 18 (7 p.m.), at UVic the following evening and then on The Nature of Things on CBC TV on Wednesday, January 21 at 7 p.m.

People attending the ArtSpring viewing will be especially rewarded by the presence of a knowledgeable guest. Lewis’ special assistant Anurita Bains will join the audience for an after-film discussion.

Jackson’s film fiercely questions the role of the western world, drug companies and African governments in letting millions of people die when life-prolonging anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs are available.

"The thing that really shocked me is how little had happened in the two years, in terms of drugs," said Jackson last week.

And even in the most remote places, she said, villagers knew the drugs existed and asked why they were not available to their communities.

Lewis’ frustration with the lack of progress in seeing widespread distribution of ARVs flashes through the film.

“You want money to fight a war in Afghanistan; it’s there. You want money to fight a war in Iraq; it’s there. You want money to rescue people in Africa; it’s never there,” he declares.

The film illustrates both how few AIDs sufferers have access to ARVs in Africa, and what an amazingly positive impact their use has had on those able to take them.

AIDS is wiping out an entire generation of caregivers, leaving millions of orphans who are cared for either by older siblings, grandparents or adults who are still alive, even if they too are HIV-positive.

The ARV issue is not just about improving the length and quality of life for people with the disease; it’s about reducing the wholesale devastation to entire societies.

The Value of Life shows that if a woman of caregiving age can be kept alive by ARVs, then she will be able to care for other children whose parents have died from AIDS.

An estimated 11 million orphans live in Africa today.

“The whole society is being sustained by these women,” Lewis points out in the film after coverage of the “Go Go Grannies” support group in South Africa.

In that country, five million people are infected with HIV/AIDs, and 600 people die each day.

But The Value of Life culminates in a frame of hope, showing both areas of improvement and Lewis’ challenge for the Canadian government to pass proposed legislation to allow manufacture of cheaper generic ARVs for worldwide use.

Generic pill cost is about 36 cents a day in Africa.

Jackson, a multi-award-winning filmmaker, has now moved permanently to Salt Spring, where a number of individuals are working on behalf of communities devastated by AIDS in Africa.

Those include Gary McNutt and the Salt Spring Organization for Life Improvement and Development, with ties to a multi-faceted project in the Vaal Triangle in South Africa; the Village of Hope project to bring electricity and water to a community in Rwanda, being spearheaded by Peter Bardon and Peggy Frank; and Fraser Hope, who has done AIDS education in his role with VSO Canada in Namibia.

An AIDS umbrella group office is now open above Apple Photo in Creekside, and islanders are urged to drop by or call for information on how to get involved (537-8735).

Several Canadian and international films are on tap in coming weeks, as Salt Spring's AIDS umbrella group introduces regular film and discussion nights on Thursdays beginning January 22.

“These films have won lots of awards internationally,” notes Hope.

See next week’s Driftwood for more information on locally initiated projects and the film-discussion series.

World AIDS Day

Islanders have responded to “an overwhelming global AIDS crisis” by directly helping those affected by the disease, and their projects will be highlighted as part of World AIDS Day on Salt Spring.

Several other activities — including the planting of 7,000 crosses — are also in the works for the international day, which runs December 1.

The Southern Gulf HIV/AIDS Support group called the first planning meeting three weeks ago, and a group is now meeting weekly until World AIDS Day takes place.

But other volunteers will still be needed to help make the day a success.

Among the local projects highlighted December 1 will be Michael Nickels and friends’ efforts to plant gardens at a collection of shelters outside of Nairobi; Gary McNutt and his work with SOLID in the area of health and education with a south African group; Peter Bardon, Peggy Frank and others, who are raising funds needed to bring water and electricity to the Village of Hope in war-torn Rwanda; and the Salt Spring Garden Club’s Seeds for Malawi project (see related story in this issue). 

Information on these projects will be available in the Gulf Islands Secondary School multi-purpose room. Anyone with information on other local AIDS-focussed projects is asked to contact organizer Bardon at 537-5553.

As events for World AIDS day fall into place, Salt Spring organizers have several main focuses. 

The first priority is to inform the communityabout the current situation and what “global citizens” can do. To this end, World AIDS Day here will include information booths, films and talks by AIDS-enlightened individuals.  

Entertainment by local artists from midday through the evening will be a secondary focus, with a fundraising component incorporated into it.

In addition, the day will feature an AIDS walk and a red ribbon campaign.

Another proposed activity will involve community participation. To mark the 7,000 people throughout the world who die of AIDS every day, McNutt has suggested islanders place 7,000 small crosses in the Peace Park. For this visual arts piece, organizers will need help with materials, construction and installation.

Frank had an additional idea when she heard documentary filmmaker Judy Jackson observe that people are tired of hearing about the world AIDs crisis.

She wondered "if they are tired of hearing about it, how would they feel if they lived it and no one cared?"

To this end a proposed plan will see certain community volunteers “live” with AIDS for a week. After being given a “diagnosis” of AIDS, volunteers will take on the daily schedules and medication substitutes of real victims both in North America and Africa.

An event like the Southern Gulf Island World Aids Day requires a large team of volunteers to make it happen, notes press material, and the planning committee is looking for help in the following areas:

• a handful of certified flag people for the walk;

• people to help make and paint 7,000 miniature crosses;

• people to walk the walk on December 1, and others to sponsor them; 

• accommodation for out-of-town speakers and guests. 

Anyone who can help or who needs further information should contact Bardon. 

GISS participation highest at educational AIDS day

More than $4,000 was raised from the red ribbon box campaign and other activities related to World AIDS Day on December 1.

Peter Bardon, one of the event organizers, said the group didn’t make a surplus of money for the cause.

Pledge forms gathered over $1,900 and the Friday dance brought in $300. As of Friday, December 5, the red ribbon boxes placed throughout the community contained about $900 in donations. Other business and private donations helped top up the $4,000 figure.

“The whole idea behind it was awareness, it was not made to be a money-maker. It turned out to be marginally more than break even,” he said.

With education as the goal, the day was successful.

Bardon said Gulf Islands Secondary School principal Nancy Macdonald was 100 per cent behind the day.

“She liberated a quarter of the school every half-hour in the afternoon,” he said. “All the school was present for a portion of our event.”

Bardon hopes students were paying attention during the afternoon of speakers.

“We hope that it’ll save lives,” he said.

Over 100 adults attended the day-long event.

AIDS Day speaker shares insights about life with HIV

By CAREY RUDISILL

Staff Writer

At Monday’s World AIDS Day, over 50 community members listened to Minneh Kamau talk about living with human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV).

Kamau discussed how self-worth, ignorance and substance abuse are linked to HIV and AIDS.

AIDS is the last phase in HIV, where the person’s body is no longer able to fight infections or disease.

“These three things go hand in hand with a person getting infected,” she told the Driftwood after her presentation.

Kamau moved to Canada from Kenya in 1996 after attending a Vancouver AIDS conference. She now lives in Victoria and has volunteered with AIDS Vancouver Island for the last five years.

Kamau sees AIDS as a similar problem, no matter what continent a person resides on.

“The problems that face humankind are the same throughout the world. The approach to preventing HIV and AIDS has to be the same,” she said. “Are people using substances to cover up something else like emotional problems or problems from dysfunctional families? If that’s not nipped where it should be, the person is likely to contract HIV.”

She said her own lack of self-worth was what put her health in jeopardy.

“I was insecure and vulnerable. I didn’t know that my life was on the line,” she said.

Kamau hopes other people find an outlet for voicing their feelings to build or maintain their self-worth.

“I recommend everyone has a journal to write stories down in,” she said. “Illness has brought for me a realization that everyone is special and unique, and if each person took care of themselves with that in mind, it’d be a better place.”

Kamau has known for 10 years that she was HIV-positive, but said she could have been infected earlier.

“For five years, I had no hope. The other five years, I had hope, medication, self-worth and a balanced diet,” she said.

Kamau said the loss of her daughter seven years ago at the age of six made her stronger.

“She broke the cycle of abuse in my family,” she said. “I told myself I’d never yell at her and one time I yelled at her and she said ‘Mom why are you yelling?’”

She believes that the nurturing of children is of utmost importance.

Kamau has spoken to Gulf Islands Secondary School (GISS) and Salt Spring Elementary School classes in the past and enjoyed the different interaction with a younger audience.

She recommends that parents and educators tell children and young adults how to protect themselves and not to expect too much.

“What I teach is that if you cannot abstain [from sex] here are the tools. This is the way for you to become sexual. See sex as a friend and we can get rid of the virus,” she said.

Kamau hopes more parents talk frankly with their children and teenagers.

“These conversations should take place around the kitchen table,” she said.

Kamau was one of several presenters and performers at AIDS Day events at GISS.

From getting educated to raising funds, World AIDS Day is for everyone

By PEGGY FRANK

Special to the Driftwood

World AIDS Day on Salt Spring is receiving unprecedented attention this year with a week-long awareness campaign culminating in a full day of events on Monday, December 1.

In and near the multipurpose room at Gulf Islands Secondary School (GISS), there will be award-winning films documenting the situation in North America and many parts of the developing world.

There will also be information and education booths with subjects ranging from support agencies, planting gardens in African slums, helping orphans and widows, and safer sex. Even though the magnitude of the global AIDS crisis is staggering, you will be amazed at what individuals can do and have done to help global sisters and brothers. 

The information is compiled for one day only, so put the afternoon of December 1 on your calendar.

Adding to the afternoon will be a host of excellent speakers from Africa, Toronto, Vancouver and home. One young man’s talk entitled “If it can happen to me it can happen to you” is a candid reflection on the threat AIDS poses to any and all of us. 

There will also be music and dance and poetry.

In keeping with tradition, a candlelight vigil is planned at Peace Park at 7 p.m. alongside those 7,000 crosses. This will be an opportunity to quietly remember those we know who have died. 

It will also be a solemn time to reflect on the more than 38.6-million adults and 3.2-million children living with HIV (2002 United Nations statistics). Around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are 35. While medication has reduced the number of deaths here in Canada, AIDS remains a deadly disease, especially for the 95 per cent of all people with HIV living in the developing world.

The developing world is one of two simulated realities for a group of volunteers who will “Live with AIDS for a Week.” Half the group of volunteers will be given seven days of a typical African person living with AIDS, and the others will be given a Canadian situation. 

Those with AIDS in Canada will have an onerous pill-popping routine that is sure to see them in the dentist’s chair at the end of the week since medication has been replaced with candies. Arvid, Valdy, Briony and secondary school students will share their experiences on Monday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. 

Additionally, Salt Spring is doing something no other Canadian World AIDS Day event has tried. We are having an AIDS walk at 12:45 on December 1. Pledge sheets are available at Island Star Video, Thrifty Foods, GVM and many other outlets.

If you can’t make the walk yourself, find a student or someone else in the community to sponsor. The walk is not onerous for most. It will begin at Centennial Park and wind its way past the field of crosses to the high school.

In the school’s multipurpose room, the crowds will be greeted by YJP, an amazing young jazz band.  Once there, an afternoon of film, speakers, music, dance, poetry and information awaits you.

To support the struggle against HIV/AIDS, it is necessary to call upon the compassion, energy, and generosity of all people.

The planning committee recently got a call from the owners of Anise Restaurant, who wanted to have a benefit dinner on World AIDS Day. So on December 1, several three-course dinner options will be served ($25 a head), entertainment will be provided and AIDS organizations around the world will benefit.

If you are not yet involved in World AIDS Day, give planning committee member Peter Bardon a call at 537-5553. He will help you find a way to participate.

When you make your plans for World AIDS Day, be sure to include a tour of the Peace Park, either during the day or at 7 p.m. for the candlelight vigil. You can buy a souvenir cross for a one-dollar donation. Donation boxes will be located across the road at ArtSpring and at Creek House Realty. 

If the AIDS Walk fits into your plans, get a pledge sheet, fill it up and join us in solidarity.

If you want to understand more about the disease and what you can do to help people living with HIV (and widows and orphans left behind as too many die of AIDS), come to GISS where there will be plenty to see and experience. 

And if a pleasant dinner with entertainment fits into your schedule then buy a ticket for an evening at Anise. If you think of something you could do to help those affected by HIV and AIDS as you work during the day, just go ahead and do it.

World AIDS Day is the one day in 365 to acknowledge that the growing pandemic is affecting us all and we can all do something to help those most marginalized by AIDS.

Stephen Lewis Foundation benefits from Beaver Point boogie

Friday night’s full moon and reggae legend Bob Marley’s birthday have converged for an AIDS benefit dance at Beaver Point Hall.

The family event begins at 6 p.m. with a fundraising dinner. People should bring a potluck dish to raise funds for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which is helping communities in Africa affected by AIDs.

Organizers cite a wish list including energy drinks, baked goods, teas, apple juice, “and any other delicious snacks.”

An information table for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, along with a raffle of quality items, will also be set up.

Red ribbon boxes first signs of AIDS Day fundraising

People living with HIV/AIDS on Salt Spring and other Southern Gulf Islands are in need of support and the community will soon have an opportunity to help them get what they need.

Two separate fundraising initiatives to support the local HIV-positive population through the Southern Gulf Islands AIDS Society (SGIAS) are taking place during the lead-up to World AIDS Day on December 1 and the day itself.

“Red Ribbon Boxes” visible around the island will collect funds to directly support the society, and proceeds from December 1 fundraising events will also be shared equally with four other local AIDS support groups.

The SGIAS is unique among local groups in that it is a support group for people living with HIV/AIDS in the southern Gulf Islands. It has been active for about seven years and currently has 15 core members. 

The group evolved from informal meetings between two island women who travelled together to the same health centre on Vancouver Island. 

Members meet monthly to discuss and share research about medical issues, support each other in dealing with the added stresses and occasionally have guest speakers and healers. 

Some funds raised will go to cover the extra medical and living expenses of members living with HIV/AIDS.

The other projects sharing in the proceeds from the World AIDS Day dance at the Gulf Islands Secondary School multi-purpose room are SOLID (Saltspring Organization for Life Improvement and Development), which is currently working on four projects in South Africa; the Seeds for Malawi project assisting AIDS widows and orphans to obtain seeds and fertilizers; the Village of Hope, helping a Rwandan village without water or electricity; and Planned Parenthood at the CORE Inn, which is dedicated to promoting reproductive health.