Gulf Islands Driftwood, October 5, 2005
A SOLID chance for change
By SEAN MCINTYRE
Staff Writer
If participants took anything from Stephen Lewis’ 2004 visit to Salt
Spring, it should be that the situation in Africa is not only dire, it
is an unprecedented human tragedy.
A year after his lecture at Gulf Islands Secondary School, the United
Nations’ Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa and the CBC’s 2005 Massey
Lecturer continues his crusade to highlight the plight of the forgotten
continent.
Lewis’ message is that help doesn’t always consist solely of cash
infusions, food aid or government subsidies, but rather on people
reaching out and communities getting in touch.
Forming these community-to-community links is what Salt Spring
Organization for Life Improvement and Development (SOLID) is doing and,
if the high turnout at Friday’s film presentation and panel discussion
is anything to go by, islanders are eager to provide support.
The 75 people assembled to hear SOLID’s latest developments at the
Lions Hall were treated to moving accounts of the current situation in
Africa by Gary McNutt, Melanie Furman, Anna Callegari, Andrea Palframan
and Heather Martin-McNab.
During the past seven years, SOLID has initiated four projects,
including an orphanage and community garden in South Africa and, most
recently, a tree nursery in Lesotho.
The projects directly touch the lives of a few hundred people, but
evidence of their success is visible in McNutt’s documentary film made
on a recent visit to the area.
The Power is the People shows people developing the skills to help
their villages not only become self-sustaining but also stronger
economic entities.
When he first became involved with the AIDS cause, McNutt said, the
warning signs were evident. The fallout from a lack of political will,
he said, is now beginning to make itself felt, as thousands die each
day.
Bringing support to the community level, McNutt said, helps put a human
face so often left unseen amidst talk of billion-dollar aid agreements
and mind-boggling statistics.
The statistics remain powerful just the same.
In Lesotho, 300,000, or 29 per cent of adults between 15 and 49 years
of age, live with HIV/AIDS.
The situation in Lesotho, a country of 1.8 million, is a drop in the
bucket when compared to the overall rate in sub-Saharan Africa, where
more than 23-million cases of HIV/AIDS were reported in 2003.
Nearly 75 per cent of the infected are women between the ages of 15 and
24 and, by 2010, the number is expected to climb to 25 million.
“You hear statistics, but when you’re living there in a house with a
family, it’s just so much more realistic,” said panelist Melanie
Furman. “We were way more exposed to the realities of the virus.”
While statistics convey the numbers of lives lost to the disease, they
do little to demonstrate the effects on the living, people whose social
and economic being is forever altered by the epidemic, she said.
Furman spent six months in Africa earlier this year. Much of her visit
was spent living and working alongside villagers setting up a tree
nursery planned by the community and sponsored by SOLID.
The panelists’ experiences in Africa prove that the will of a community
can indeed make a difference in people’s lives, a belief underlying
Lewis’ message to the world.
As was made clear during his September 2004 visit to Salt Spring, “The
situation of people living and dying with AIDS in parts of Africa is so
desperate that even the most basic help will bring solace and hope.”
SOLID is holding numerous fundraising events throughout the fall and
winter. For more information visit www.solidsaltspring.com.