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News Release

September 27, 2005

Stephen Lewis to Speak on Campus

Stephen Lewis, the United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, will speak to University of Guelph students and community members Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. in War Memorial Hall.

Lewis's talk will focus on international issues with an emphasis on globalization, conflict, poverty and disease. He will also give his audience a greater understanding of what they can do to make a positive difference in the world. His lecture was spearheaded by the Philosophy Graduate Students Association (PGSA) and is sponsored by various U of G colleges and offices.

"Stephen Lewis is a well-respected speaker and activist with a great deal of passion that comes out in everything he does," said David Peck, PGSA president and event organizer. "I believe people will come away with a greater sense of what social justice is and their individual responsibility towards creating change. Too often we fail to use the knowledge we receive in a practical manner that might allow for significant social change. It seems to me that knowledge without action is meaningless."

Lewis is an internationally recognized public health advocate and has long worked to further the causes of compassion and HIV/AIDS prevention. He was appointed by the Organization of African Unity to a Panel of Eminent Personalities to investigate the genocide in Rwanda in 1997. He was also deputy executive director of UNICEF in New York, where he served from 1995 to 1999, and Canadian ambassador to the UN from 1984 to 1988.

In 2003, he founded the Stephen Lewis Foundation. Through this organization, he provides community-level care to HIV-infected women who are dying, assists orphans and other AIDS-affected children in Africa, and supports associations of people living with HIV/AIDS so they can educate themselves and their communities. The foundation currently funds more than 60 initiatives with 35 organizations in 12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

In April, Lewis was named by Time Magazine as one of the most influential people in the world in the category of "Heroes and Icons."

Tickets for the event are available at the door or at the information desk, on the first floor of the University Centre. Tickets are $5 for U of G students or $10 general admission.