CANADA: Africa's Heroic Grandmas to Attend AIDS Conference

We must end the silence, stigma, writes Nancy A. Draper, Bridgton, Maine in the Opinion column of The Toronto Star TORONTO (The Toronto Star), August 14, 2006: As Toronto hosts the 16th International AIDS Conference this week, 100 African grandmothers will be in attendance. I applaud their courage in this fight against AIDS. They have been by the bedsides of their adult children, watching them die from such an insidious disease. Now, they have the responsibility of caring for their grandchildren who are orphaned. My own mother, a grandmother to six children, was a victim herself. At the age of 66, she was diagnosed with HIV due to a contaminated blood transfusion. She kept her HIV infection a secret because she feared rejection. Only a handful of family members were aware of the true nature of her illness. She felt like a leper. Once when I gave her medication, I accidentally dropped a pill on the floor. I said, "That one is dirty, mom. I'll give you another pill." She replied, "It really doesn't matter. I'm already dirty." It hurt me to hear her say those words. Two months before she died, she asked me to write about her having AIDS. "I don't want anyone to know I have AIDS now. But after I'm gone, I want you to write about this disease that killed me so no one else will have to suffer in silence like we have." I honoured her wishes. My mother was "the grandmother" who died of AIDS. The grandmothers in Canada know what it's like to care for someone dying from this noxious disease. I admire them. We must demand a cure. We must demand comprehensive sex education for people of all ages. We must end the silence, complacency, stigma and apathy surrounding AIDS. Bless these grandmothers for being the real heroes in the fight against AIDS. Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited