Organizers aim to collect funds for AIDS clinics in Africa
U of G is hosting a lecture and a film series to promote education and raise funds for clinics in Africa as part of AIDS Awareness Week March 13 to 17.
The events are being organized by the Guelph AIDS Awareness Partnership (GAAP), which was launched in the fall following a talk on campus by Stephen Lewis, UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. GAAP is made up of representatives from Student Housing Services, Student Life, the Wellness Centre, the Multi-Faith Resource Team, Science for Peace, Students Against Global AIDS (SAGA), Alumni Affairs and the AIDS Committee of Guelph and Wellington County.
B.J. Caldwell, an AIDS educator from the AIDS Committee, will speak March 13 at 7 p.m. in Room 121 of the MacKinnon Building.
Film screenings begin March 14 with Dying for Drugs, a documentary investigating the power of the world's pharmaceutical industry, at 9 p.m. in MacKinnon 121.
On March 15, Tsepong: A Clinic Called Hope, a film that follows a Canadian medical team as it implements an initiative to combat HIV/AIDS at a clinic in Lesotho, South Africa, begins at 7 p.m. in MacKinnon 115.
A Closer Walk, the first film to depict humanity's confrontation with HIV/AIDS, runs March 16 at 7 p.m. in MacKinnon 120.
The screenings are free, but donations to the Tsepong HIV/AIDS clinic are welcome.
“We hope these films will inspire students and community members alike to become more aware of the issues surrounding global AIDS,” says SAGA president Nadia Saad.
Throughout the week, students, staff and faculty will be encouraged to make donations or buy bracelets to support the Tsepong clinic at an information table that will be circulating around campus.
From March 20 to 24, students living in residence aim to make 1,000 paper cranes to benefit an AIDS clinic in Lesotho that is sponsored locally through Dr. Anne-Marie Zadlik, founder of the Masai Clinic, a local agency that serves clients with HIV/AIDS in Guelph-Wellington, Waterloo and Grey-Bruce regions. The students will send the cranes to Africa with Zadlik and will donate $1 for each one sent. The donations and cranes will be accompanied by messages of hope from U of G students to the youth of Lesotho who are living through the AIDS crisis.
