Mamta Lulla
LIFE REPORTER

Elaine Anselmi
SENIOR REPORTER

Humber North hosted the latest chapter of the President’s Lecture Series, entitled Turning the Tides on HIV and AIDS in Africa: listening to grassroots experts on the frontlines of the pandemic.

Speaker Ilana Landsberg-Lewis is the Executive Director of her notable father’s organization, the Stephen Lewis Foundation, and also the daughter of writer and social activist, Michele Landsberg.

A politically saturated upbringing led Landsberg-Lewis into human rights law and extensive involvement in social activism within women’s rights; working with The United Nations Development Fund For Women.

Landsberg-Lewis posed a question to the crowd of about 80 Humber staff and students: “How do you contribute to improving the human condition?”

World efforts, she said, could realistically cure the pandemic of HIV and AIDS in Africa.
While there are six million affected people in Africa on antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) – which not only extend life but also exponentially decrease transmission rates – she said, there are still 10 million people in the continent without access to such drugs.

“It’s somehow acceptable to let people die in the continent of Africa where it’s not here,” she said, as HIV/AIDS sufferers in Canada are routinely put on a full course of lifesaving ARVs.

She orchestrated the Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign in which those left to raise the over 14 million AIDS orphans have taken part in workshops and movements to support each other and their communities with the struggles of their submersion in death and disease.

Landsberg-Lewis said the campaign also seeks to change the stigma surrounding HIV and AIDS.

“The international apathy and inertia, that’s the real disease,” said Landsberg-Lewis. “It’s about getting engaged in making this world a more humane and seriously better place.”

“Should there be enough money in the hands of these grassroots organizations I would not be surprised if the tides turned in Africa,” said Ian McElroy, 22, a first-year general arts and science student who attended the lecture.

Other students came from relevant programs like pharmacy technician, or were involved in discussions on “issues like how AIDS money is distributed and how we can be sure that it’s used effectively,” said Dr. Ian Gerrie, a professor of critical thinking and philosophy.

Targeting the youthful audience, she said, “young people are the backbone of what is going to happen.”