Education and Awareness Committee  – November Report

An update on the impact of the Stephen Lewis Foundation (SLF) in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since the Stephen Lewis Foundation was founded in 2003, there have been two decades of progress against HIV and AIDS:

    •  In sub-Saharan Africa in 2003, at the height of the AIDS pandemic, 3.2 million people newly acquired HIV. Twenty years later that number has fallen by 80% to an annual number of 660,000.
    •  In 2003, 2.3 million people in the region died of AIDS-related illnesses, driving the rise of child-headed households and children raised by their grandmothers. Since 2003, the number of deaths has fallen by 83%. In 2023, there have been 380,000 deaths.
    • The decrease in deaths is due to the increase in access to anti-retroviral treatment. More people are on ARVs and are virally suppressed, meaning they cannot pass on the virus.
    • Today, over 80% of people living with HIV are on treatment. In 2003, the UNAIDS report did not contain figures for the number of people were on treatment, because it was so rare. HIV and AIDS remain a public health emergency with devastating impacts on communities in sub-Saharan Africa, disproportionately affecting adolescent girls and young women, vulnerable children, grandmothers, and LGBTIQ communities.
    • While there are more and more medicines and tests available to prevent and treat HIV, what continues to fuel the HIV epidemic are inequities driven by racism, colonialism, gender inequality, homophobia, and transphobia.
    • Adolescent girls and young women, men who have sex with men, trans people, and sex workers are all more likely to be living with HIV because of violence, oppression, and discrimination they face.
    • Human rights abuses, inequities, discrimination, and stigma create barriers to HIV prevention and treatment and continue to drive the HIV and AIDS epidemic.

Grandmothers across sub-Saharan Africa have stepped in to care for millions of children orphaned by AIDS, many after losing their own children to the pandemic. SLF partners provide resilience-building support, often led by grandmothers, including healthcare, grief counselling, parenting assistance, leadership training, and income-generation. Grandmothers are developing networks and organizing to claim their human rights and collectively advocate for secure futures at local, national, and international levels.

Submitted by the Education and Awareness Committee (Judy Howe, Charmaine Reddy and Susan Plesuk)