High commissioner brings news of gratitude from afar

On a rainy cold day on Salt Spring Island, a group of grandmothers had the rare opportunity to bask in rays of hope from Africa.

They came together at the home of host Marion Pape to welcome Her Excellency Me Motseoa Senyane, the Lesotho High Commissioner to Canada.

Tiny and formidable, Me Senyane has been representing her country at Ottawa’s high commission since 2006. She has been active in organizing her fellow African diplomats and has worked closely with the various charitable organizations in Canada who work in Lesotho. Prior to her diplomatic work, Senyane was a leader in Lesotho’s civil society, participating in the shift from military dictatorship to democratic government, and taking on corruption and human rights abuses surrounding a World Bank-funded hydro-electric dam project.

In spite of her responsibilities, Senyane is a delight: quick to laugh and revels in the informal company of fellow activists.

“There’s a lot of groundedness in people here on Salt Spring,” she observed.

Senyane returns to Salt Spring to follow-up on our community’s progress on initiatives that range from building a primary school for orphaned children, sending a shipment of medical supplies and computers, sending volunteers to offer assistance in health, education and agriculture, and providing high school scholarships to young women and solar cookers to aged grandmothers.

“Once you go to Africa, you never get over it,” said Diana Knox Morris, who poignantly spoke of her life-changing journey to the continent.

Others had never experienced Africa first hand, but were moved by the stories of their fellow elders to find ways to respond to the AIDS crisis.

The Salt Spring grandmothers are part of a movement that is sweeping across Canada. The Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign was launched in 2006, when 100 grandmothers from Africa gathered with 100 Canadian grandmothers to share, celebrate and find ways to work in solidarity across the world to take on the devastation of the AIDS pandemic. The Raging Grannies first heard about the Grandmothers’ movement through Judy Jackson, a Salt Spring filmmaker whose documentary A Race Against Time aired on CBC’s the Nature of Things. Jackson invited the grandmothers to watch a clip she filmed of grandmothers in Lesotho, who were caring for their children’s children after having suffered the loss of their own children to HIV/AIDS.

“We asked Judy, ‘What can we do?’,” says Marg Simons. “She said, ‘Oh, don’t worry, you’ll think of something!’ and suggested that we contact an Ottawa organization called Help Lesotho. It was then suggested that we get involved with providing solar ovens to rural grandmothers to ease the burden of feeding their many grandchildren and gathering scarce firewood in deforested Lesotho.” Since they began their fundraising campaign, the Salt Spring Raging Grannies have provided 15 solar ovens to needy grannies in remote parts of mountainous Lesotho, and have sent the money for another 30 to be delivered in early 2009.

Along with the ovens, each of the Lesotho grannies received a hand-written note and a miniature floral hat like the ones Raging Grannies wear with pride.

“When I went to visit the grannies, they were very curious about these tiny hats!” laughs Senyane. She added: “Solar ovens are highly practical for our country, as Lesotho has close to 300 days of sunshine per year.”

“The connections between the grannies kept Salt Spring Island quite alive in my heart,” says Senyane. “I’ve met grandmothers in Lesotho whose lives have been made better because of you. The grannies are thankful

“The money is important, but more important is that personal touch. That is what I convey when I go back to Lesotho.”

In addition to the Raging Grannies, the tea was attended by the Raking Grannies, a group of elder women who gather to work in one anothers’ gardens and talk politics. Another group, which will be raising money for the Stephen Lewis Foundation’s groundbreaking Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign, has been launched by long-time Africa supporter Patricia Brown. As it involves men, too, and “non-grandmother” elders, the group’s informal moniker is “People Who Run With the Grannies.”

Their task is enormous. Lesotho is among the poorest countries in the world, with over 30 per cent of the population infected with AIDS. The AIDS pandemic has knocked out an entire generation, leaving hundreds of thousands of children without parents.

“The story of HIV has not passed me by,” said Senyane. “My own younger sister passed away because of AIDS. At 40 years old I am already a grandmother. I’ve lost so many of my peers, colleagues, people I grew up with — those of us who are left bear the burden of kids who are orphaned. It is desperate.

“Grandmothers know the complexity of having to care for young kids, with almost nothing.There’s no way of bringing money into the family. But they go on. They pour their hearts into raising their grandkids against all odds.”

Another woman then mentioned an upcoming Scrabble tournament that is being organized by People Who Run With the Grannies group. The idea came from another granny group in Edmonton, which raised an incredible $50,000 for the Stephen Lewis Foundation by hosting “virtual” scrabble parties. The tournament, which will involve schools, community groups, and the hospice, is planned for February.

The People Who Run With the Grannies will meet Tuesday, Nov. 18 at Salt Spring Inn at 6:30 p.m. Contact Patricia Brown at 250-653-9406.

The Raging Grannies get together on Thursdays: look for them this week as they take to the streets, urging people to vote in Saturday’s election. To donate to the solar oven project, contact Jill Willmott at 250-537-8343.

“I have to thank you from a personal level, also from the level of government and from the people of Lesotho,” said Senyane. “The work you are doing is not in vain.”