AIDS centre gets family help

REBECA KUROPATWA

In 2005, Ilan Schwartz spent eight months in South Africa. Some of that time was spent at the Hillcrest AIDS Centre in KwaZulu-Natal province. There, Schwartz witnessed some of the local women creating small, beaded doll pins for the centre’s gift shop. When he returned to Winnipeg, he brought 20 of these pins with him.

“Our whole immediate family fell in love with these dolls,” said Schwartz’s sister, Joanne, from her home in Vancouver.

“We were skeptical about being able to sell these 20. We started out by wearing them on our jackets. When people asked us about them, we’d tell them the story and sell them right off of our clothes.”

This tactic raised enough money for the family to order 100 more pins, which they immediately focused on selling.

“At first it was just our family selling them,” she explained. “Ilan and I sold them to our friends and colleagues. Our dad, Peter, a veterinarian, sold them at his clinic. Our mom, Hilda, a teacher, sold them at her school and at events. And our youngest brother, Adam, sold them at the university and events.”

These small-scale sales were what inspired the start of the volunteer-run AIDS/HIV initiative Little Travelers (LT). Money that is raised from selling the dolls goes directly to South Africa; half goes to the beaders and half to support the AIDS respite-care centre at Hillcrest.

The beaded dolls cost about $2.50 to make, and sell for $5. The number of beaders has gone from 30 to more than 100, with more than $300,000 raised by the nonprofit organization so far. Though LT started in Winnipeg, branches have been established in cities across Canada, and in Scotland, Israel and South Korea.

During the Second World War, the Schwartz family wound up in South Africa, which was, at the time, one of the few places in the world that accepted Jewish refugees. “This ... is my family’s opportunity to give back to the people of South Africa who gave us so much,” said Schwartz. “Judaism emphasizes the need for tikkun olam and giving back to people less fortunate, so we feel compelled to help people in South Africa who are less fortunate and don’t have access to the same health care and social services we have in Canada. South Africa is one of the epicentres of the pandemic, where death from HIV/AIDS is constant. How could we not help?”

An interest in medicine runs deep in the Schwartz family. Currently, Ilan is in his second year of residency in internal medicine at Queen’s University, planning to train in infectious disease. He is engaged to be married to Kristine Kristoph, a respiratory therapist who has also spent time volunteering in Africa.

Joanne has a master’s in social work from the University of British Columbia and is an addictions counselor at the immunodeficiency clinic at St. Paul’s Hospital. She hopes to create an exchange program between the staff at the immunodeficiency clinic at St. Paul’s and Hillcrest.

“Awareness of HIV/AIDS has increased in many parts of the world; I’m concerned about the lack of attention and awareness in Africa – specifically in South Africa – as that’s where my parents, siblings and I were born,” she said. “LT is great because it raises awareness and money in a fun, tangible way. We’ve now sold over 60,000 [dolls] worldwide. The project supports not only the beaders but also the home-based [caregivers] who go to sick peoples’ homes and provide hospice care. Because of the stigma of HIV, these hospice workers are desperately needed. Many people who contract HIV are abandoned by their families when they’re diagnosed or their whole family has died of HIV-related illness. So these workers … are a crucial lifeline in the community.”

Highlighting the differences in infection rates and treatment availability around the world, she added, “In Canada, there are about 65,000 people living with HIV (about 0.3 percent of the population), and we have access to antiretroviral therapy. Worldwide, the infection number is about 35 million (about 0.6 percent of the population). In South Africa, about 20 million people are infected, around 20 percent of the population, or about 65 times the rate in Canada. In KwaZulu-Natal, the infection rate is closer to 45 percent.”

Winnipeg-based Chana Thau is an LT volunteer. She was inspired to get involved after hearing Stephen Lewis, then-United Nations envoy for AIDS to Africa, give a Massey Lecture. “I was left feeling somewhat hopeless, but wanted to do something to help,” she said. “Then I heard Ilan speak as the opener for a JSA/Hillel event at [the University of Manitoba] featuring Lewis. Lewis endorsed LT and spoke about the effectiveness of grassroots groups…. It seems almost superfluous to say this work is a form of tikkun olam.”

For more information, visit littletravellers.net.

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

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