Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Back home
Hi all! We are back home from our whirlwind southern Ontario tour. We had a great few days, and sang and told stories to more than 600 people! We keep receiving such warm welcomes and affirmations. It is very humbling.
World AIDS Day is in two days...December 1st. We started this work 8 years ago, and perhaps we were naiive, but I honestly don't think that Darryl and I thought that we would still be singing and raising awareness, and money through cd sales 8 years later. But AIDS has not gone away. Sadly, tragically, it has only become more urgent. 33 million people living with the virus. 16 million orphans from AIDS. Statistics say that very time one person receives potentially life saving antiretroviral therapy, another two people are infected with HIV. And resources are drying up. Governments, organizations and individual donors are losing interest and moving onto other issues. People are suffering... specifically grandmothers, mothers, wives, young women, children...the most vulnerable. They are the ones who are feeling the weight of the crisis.
With the cd project, we are close to having raised $700,000 for MCC's work with AIDS just through cd sales. It is so exciting! But there is no room for us to stop. The work has to continue. MCC has felt the impact of the economic recession, as have so many others, and as a result, program budgets are being cut. Partners that we have supported for years are now receiving tens of thousands of dollars less. This cannot be acceptable. We have to keep reminding people how important this work is. AIDS, food and water security, peace work...it is all connected.
World AIDS Day is in two days...December 1st. We started this work 8 years ago, and perhaps we were naiive, but I honestly don't think that Darryl and I thought that we would still be singing and raising awareness, and money through cd sales 8 years later. But AIDS has not gone away. Sadly, tragically, it has only become more urgent. 33 million people living with the virus. 16 million orphans from AIDS. Statistics say that very time one person receives potentially life saving antiretroviral therapy, another two people are infected with HIV. And resources are drying up. Governments, organizations and individual donors are losing interest and moving onto other issues. People are suffering... specifically grandmothers, mothers, wives, young women, children...the most vulnerable. They are the ones who are feeling the weight of the crisis.
With the cd project, we are close to having raised $700,000 for MCC's work with AIDS just through cd sales. It is so exciting! But there is no room for us to stop. The work has to continue. MCC has felt the impact of the economic recession, as have so many others, and as a result, program budgets are being cut. Partners that we have supported for years are now receiving tens of thousands of dollars less. This cannot be acceptable. We have to keep reminding people how important this work is. AIDS, food and water security, peace work...it is all connected.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Hello from Ontario!
Hi all! We are writing to you from Vineland, ON. It's day 2 of our four day tour in southern Ontario, and we are having a great time! Yesterday we sang/spoke at 5 events at Rockway Mennonite Collegiate, beginning with chapel at 9:20 with 300 students, and then speaking to 3 classes throughout the day, ending with a concert in the evening. Fun day! This evening we were at Vineland United Mennonite Church for a fundraiser, and sang/spoke to 120 folks, sold lots of cds, and raised money for AIDS work. It has been a good two days! Tomorrow morning we are back at the Vineland church for the worship service, and then we are off to Leamington for an evening concert.
People have been so gracious, warm and affirming, and we have been told over and over to not stop what we are doing to promote the crisis of AIDS, and the work that MCC partners are doing with AIDS. 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS, 15 million orphans, and generations lost to AIDS. Poverty, desperation, hunger, violence, lack of access to basic resources like food, water, education, war, rape as a tool of war...that is AIDS. Every time we view the video on the Take Your Place dvd and see the people that we met in places like Najile, and remember their stories, their kindness and hospitality, their struggles, we are reminded why it is so important to keep doing what we do.
People have been so gracious, warm and affirming, and we have been told over and over to not stop what we are doing to promote the crisis of AIDS, and the work that MCC partners are doing with AIDS. 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS, 15 million orphans, and generations lost to AIDS. Poverty, desperation, hunger, violence, lack of access to basic resources like food, water, education, war, rape as a tool of war...that is AIDS. Every time we view the video on the Take Your Place dvd and see the people that we met in places like Najile, and remember their stories, their kindness and hospitality, their struggles, we are reminded why it is so important to keep doing what we do.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Off to Ontario!
Hi everyone! Darryl and I are sitting at the Winnipeg airport waiting for our flight to Toronto, ready to hit the ground running in southern Ontario! Abe Janzen, Exec. Dir. of MCC Alberta, will join us a few hours later. We sing at Rockway Mennonite Collegiate tomorrow morning during their chapel, and Abe will tell stories from his recent trip to Nepal, visiting MCC AIDS partners there. We also will be speaking to three or four classes during the day, and a concert tomorrow evening at Rockway. Should be fun!
More later, with pics and no doubt pithy and witty blog entries.
Kim
More later, with pics and no doubt pithy and witty blog entries.
Kim
Friday, November 5, 2010
MEDA Convention
Just home from a very fine evening at the MEDA Convention in Calgary. This evening Darryl and I led two songs and sang one song on our own to a crowd of about 400 people at the Westin Hotel in downtown Calgary. Tomorrow morning we are back there for a 75 minute sing-a-long session. And back again on Saturday and Sunday. Darryl has far more experience leading singing than I do, so this feels like a bit of a stretch for me. But people were very gracious, and seemed to enjoy the music this evening. Hopefully that will be the case over the next few days as well!
If you don't know about MEDA, check out their website: www.meda.org They are doing some amazing work!
Kim
If you don't know about MEDA, check out their website: www.meda.org They are doing some amazing work!
Kim
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Ok, the clever man comment...
Well, I was asked to sing "With My Own Two Hands" this evening at the Stephen Lewis event. I haven't been that nervous in quite a long time. It was a total honour to share the stage with Mr. Lewis. I had hoped to impress him by using some big words. In the end, just before I sang the song, all I could come up with, in front of everyone, was "It's just really cool to sing at the same event that you are speaking at." Wow. And then, to top it all off, as Abe was taking a picture of me with Mr. Lewis, Mr. Lewis said to me, "You're comments were very clever". And, yes, like a twit, I said, "You're pretty clever too." Sheesh. Oh well. He seemed to take it all in stride. What a total thrill this evening was for me, and I think for everyone that was there. Here are a few pics (we were asked not to take pictures during the event itself, so the pictures were taken after the evening was over).
Friday, October 22, 2010
A clever man, with an amazing vocabulary!
Hi everyone. Just home from a really inspiring evening listening to Stephen Lewis talk about AIDS in Africa, the Grandmothers who are raising their grandchildren and other orphans, and the fatigue of donor nations, both in the private and government sectors, in giving to the crisis of AIDS.
Mr. Lewis spoke for almost an hour to more than 500 people, and highlighted 6 important points from the most recent International AIDS Conference in Vienna this past July.
1. Treatment as prevention - putting people on antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) before they exhibit full-blown symptoms of AIDS lowers the viral load to almost undetcable levels which means that someone who is HIV+ and on ARVs is unlikely to pass on the virus if they have unprotected sex. Treatment is prevention.
2. Microbicide for females. It has been shown that male circumcision either as an infant or an adult reduces the chances of infection by up to 60%. A microbicide for women, which is applied to the vaginal area 12 hours before sexual intercourse and 12 hours after, reduces the rate of infection by up to 54%. A vaginal ring is being developed that can be inserted and will release the microbicide over a period of three months. Around the world women do not have the power to refuse sex. And sexual violence, particularly as a weapon of war, is sadly more and more common. The ring will prevent infection for young girls and women. 75-80% of young girls who are HIV+ were infected through sexual violence.
3. 2010 was named as the Year of Universal Access to Treatment, Prevention and Care. Sadly, promises from G8 countries were not met. More than $20 billion was promised, which would have given the Global Fund the money and resources to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Currently 5.2 million HIV+ people are receiving treatment. At least another 10 million people require treatment. The world raised only 11.7 billion dollars. A death sentence to millions of people who will now not receive treatment. The main reason? The recession. And yet trillions of dollars are spent on bank bailouts, encouraging economic growth, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
4. The rate of HIV infection is soaring worldwide. The reality of poverty, hunger, injustice, stigma and inequality create desperate situations for many, many people. Young girls who have children due to sexual violence are faced with watching their babies die, or selling their bodies for sex so that they can feed their children. In Uganda, there is a bill before parliament, not yet passed, that would sentence practicing homosexuals to death. And if you if you fail to report such behaviours to the authorities, you could be sentenced to five years in prison. This means parents will report their own children. Right wing conservative churches in the US are supporting this legislation.
5. Sexual violence - Transmission of the virus is 2 to 3 times more likely if the perpetrators are more HIV+ and also because the sexual violence is so brutal that there is direct blood contact. Over the past decade more than 600,000 women in Congo have been raped as a strategy of war. Worldwide, 150 million girls have suffered sexual violence.
6. Pediatric AIDS. A single dose of the drug Nevirapine, given to a mother during child birth, will reduce the chance that her baby will be infected by 50%. A 50/50 chance. It has been discovered that Nevirapine actually reduces the effect of ARVs down the road for the women that take Nevirapine during child birth. So, their babies will have a 50/50 chance of not being infected with the virus during child birth, but the mothers will die because Nevirapine reduces the effectiveness of ARVs they are taking. In North America, people who are HIV+ are generally put on a triple full course of ARVs. If women are taking the triple full course, and give birth, the mother to child transmission of the virus is reduced by 99%.
An amazing evening. A bit discouraging. Enlightening. Completely inspiring. 500 people attended. I think it's safe to say that all of us walked away feeling more passionate about working to address the crisis of AIDS worldwide.
Mr. Lewis spoke for almost an hour to more than 500 people, and highlighted 6 important points from the most recent International AIDS Conference in Vienna this past July.
1. Treatment as prevention - putting people on antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) before they exhibit full-blown symptoms of AIDS lowers the viral load to almost undetcable levels which means that someone who is HIV+ and on ARVs is unlikely to pass on the virus if they have unprotected sex. Treatment is prevention.
2. Microbicide for females. It has been shown that male circumcision either as an infant or an adult reduces the chances of infection by up to 60%. A microbicide for women, which is applied to the vaginal area 12 hours before sexual intercourse and 12 hours after, reduces the rate of infection by up to 54%. A vaginal ring is being developed that can be inserted and will release the microbicide over a period of three months. Around the world women do not have the power to refuse sex. And sexual violence, particularly as a weapon of war, is sadly more and more common. The ring will prevent infection for young girls and women. 75-80% of young girls who are HIV+ were infected through sexual violence.
3. 2010 was named as the Year of Universal Access to Treatment, Prevention and Care. Sadly, promises from G8 countries were not met. More than $20 billion was promised, which would have given the Global Fund the money and resources to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Currently 5.2 million HIV+ people are receiving treatment. At least another 10 million people require treatment. The world raised only 11.7 billion dollars. A death sentence to millions of people who will now not receive treatment. The main reason? The recession. And yet trillions of dollars are spent on bank bailouts, encouraging economic growth, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
4. The rate of HIV infection is soaring worldwide. The reality of poverty, hunger, injustice, stigma and inequality create desperate situations for many, many people. Young girls who have children due to sexual violence are faced with watching their babies die, or selling their bodies for sex so that they can feed their children. In Uganda, there is a bill before parliament, not yet passed, that would sentence practicing homosexuals to death. And if you if you fail to report such behaviours to the authorities, you could be sentenced to five years in prison. This means parents will report their own children. Right wing conservative churches in the US are supporting this legislation.
5. Sexual violence - Transmission of the virus is 2 to 3 times more likely if the perpetrators are more HIV+ and also because the sexual violence is so brutal that there is direct blood contact. Over the past decade more than 600,000 women in Congo have been raped as a strategy of war. Worldwide, 150 million girls have suffered sexual violence.
6. Pediatric AIDS. A single dose of the drug Nevirapine, given to a mother during child birth, will reduce the chance that her baby will be infected by 50%. A 50/50 chance. It has been discovered that Nevirapine actually reduces the effect of ARVs down the road for the women that take Nevirapine during child birth. So, their babies will have a 50/50 chance of not being infected with the virus during child birth, but the mothers will die because Nevirapine reduces the effectiveness of ARVs they are taking. In North America, people who are HIV+ are generally put on a triple full course of ARVs. If women are taking the triple full course, and give birth, the mother to child transmission of the virus is reduced by 99%.
An amazing evening. A bit discouraging. Enlightening. Completely inspiring. 500 people attended. I think it's safe to say that all of us walked away feeling more passionate about working to address the crisis of AIDS worldwide.
Stephen Lewis event
Hi everyone! Well, I am gearing up for this evening. Six MCC Alberta staff are going to hear Stephen Lewis speak at a Grandmothers to Grandmothers (a program of the Stephen Lewis Foundation) event. I'm excited to hear Mr. Lewis speak! A few days ago I received a call from one of the organisers asking me to sing a song at the event. Foolishly, I said "Sure!" Now I'm getting seriously nervous. Where are you Darryl??
Anyway, I will haul my guitar, my voice, and a dictionary to the event (Stephen Lewis has the most amazing vocabulary!), and I know I will come away inspired and energised by the evening. If you are not familiar with the work of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, check it out online.
We'll take some pictures of the evening and post them this evening.
Kim
Anyway, I will haul my guitar, my voice, and a dictionary to the event (Stephen Lewis has the most amazing vocabulary!), and I know I will come away inspired and energised by the evening. If you are not familiar with the work of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, check it out online.
We'll take some pictures of the evening and post them this evening.
Kim
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Sweet Interlude
We enjoyed singing at Sweet Interlude, a fundraiser at Menno Simons Christian School in Calgary. The highlight for us was definitely singing four songs with the students:
- With my own two hands
- Glory Bound
- Take your place (at the table)
- The House
Here's a rough video of us singing Take your place (at the table), with them. Stick it out until the end... you can finally hear them singing. Up on the stage, it was awesome.
Take Your Place with Menno Simons singers from darryl on Vimeo.
- With my own two hands
- Glory Bound
- Take your place (at the table)
- The House
Here's a rough video of us singing Take your place (at the table), with them. Stick it out until the end... you can finally hear them singing. Up on the stage, it was awesome.
Take Your Place with Menno Simons singers from darryl on Vimeo.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Joseph and Elizabeth Kiranto welcome their new baby, Joel!
Joseph welcomes Joel home from the hospital. Three days old.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Abbotsford, Brandon and Edmonton
Hi everyone! It's been a while since we have written on this blog. Sorry about that! We have really enjoyed our concerts over the past month, but we are behind in our updates! Over the past few weeks we have visited Abbotsford, BC, Brandon, MB, and Edmonton, AB. The folks that planned the events in each place were wonderful and welcoming, and created really great spaces and events for us to sing at. I hope to add more details, along with some pictures, in the next few days!
Kim
Kim
Friday, September 3, 2010
Next stop, BC
So, we're singing at a few events in BC next weekend related to their MCC Relief Sale. Check the schedule on the official take your place site. The link is to your left.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Hurtin' 4 Haiti
Sunday, July 25/10. Five runners arrive in Calgary, after 9 days of running from Winnipeg to Calgary. The group, Bill, James, Donovan, Chantal, Wade, Neil and Flavio (massage therapist extraordinaire), ran for Haiti. What began as a small idea soon grew to inspiration and then one idea fed another, and within a very short period of time, a concrete plan was born! Five runners would make the trek from Winnipeg to Calgary, averaging 25 to 30 kms/day each, running, in relay form. And today they arrived in Calgary. What an accomplishment! Me, Abe Janzen and Adam Beriault met them at Foothills Mennonite Church where some of them will stay for the night. They will head back to Winnipeg tomorrow morning. We are so grateful for their determination and commitment to help the people of Haiti. Although this is not specifically about AIDS, it is about a country in desperate need of help, with multiple layers...economic, housing, water, food, medical. It is all related, and MCC is so grateful for their effort!Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
A great three days in Seattle and Portland
What a great weekend! Friday night at Seattle Mennonite, Saturday evening at the Hess Yoder place, Sunday morning at Lebanon Mennonite, and Sunday evening at Albany Mennonite. We had the privilege of singing to more than 400 people, meeting really amazing folks, listening to Abe Janzen (MCCA Executive Director) inspire and challenge the crowds (and us) to respond to the crisis of AIDS.
Each concert had a group of volunteers who organized and advertised the events. Bob and Barb Buxman (MCC West Coast) worked for months prior, both with the committee's and with raising funds, and attended each of the events, representing MCC, giving greetings, selling cds, doing so much in front and behind the scenes. By the end of the weekend, more than $53,000 was raised for the Generations program!
One of my favourite moments at each of the concerts was the offering time. Just in front of the stage were large baskets, and people were invited to come forward (some people even danced forward!) and give their offerings as Darryl and I sang a song. This is a common practice in many churches around the world, but not so common in Mennonite churches. We experienced this in Kenya, and were inspired by the public show of commitment and accountability of giving. In North America, we tend to view our giving as private and personal. In Kenya, what we saw was a public commitment to sharing what was available with the church community. Everyone gave something. The amount didn't matter. Giving mattered. This is what we saw this weekend, and it was overwhelming to watch.
Thanks, Bob and Barb, the committee's, our hosts, and all the good people who came to listen and give!
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