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News Release

March 09, 2006

AIDS Awareness Week Set

The University of Guelph is hosting a lecture and a film series to promote education and raise funds for clinics in Africa as part of AIDS Awareness Week runs March 13 to 17.

Organized by the Guelph AIDS Awareness Partnership (GAAP), which was launched this fall following a talk on campus by Stephen Lewis, UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. GAAP is made up of representatives from Student Housing Services, Student Life, the Wellness Centre, the Multi-Faith Resource Group, Science for Peace, Students Against Global AIDS (SAGA), Alumni Affairs and the AIDS Committee of Guelph and Wellington County.

A lecture will be given March 13 by B.J. Caldwell, an AIDS educator from the AIDS Committee of Guelph and Wellington County, at 7 p.m. in Room 121 of the MacKinnon Building.

Film screenings begin March 14 with Dying for Drugs, a documentary investigating the power of the world’s pharmaceutical industry, at 9 p.m. in Room 121 of the MacKinnon Building.

Other films are:

March 15: Tsepong:A Clinic Called Hope, a film that follows a Canadian medical team as they implement an initiative to combat HIV/AIDS at the Tsepong HIV/AIDS clinic in Lesotho, South Africa, will be shown at 7 p.m. in Room 115 of the MacKinnon Building.

March 16: A Closer Walk, a film that was the first to depict humanity’s confrontation with HIV/AIDS. The film, narrated by Will Smith and Glenn Close will be screened at 7 p.m. in Room 120 of the MacKinnon Building.

The screenings are free and open to the public, however donations to the Tsepong HIV/AIDS clinic will be accepted.

“We hope these films will inspire students and community members alike to become more aware of the issues surrounding global AIDS,” said SAGA president Nadia Saad.

Throughout the week, students, staff and faculty are encouraged to make donations or buy bracelets to support the Tsepong HIV/AIDS clinic at an information table that will be circulating around campus.

During the week of March 20 to 24, students living in residence will be making paper cranes to benefit an AIDS clinic in Lesotho, that is sponsored locally through Dr. Anne-Marie Zadlik, founder of the Masai Clinic, a local agency that serves clients with HIV/AIDS in Guelph-Wellington, Waterloo, and Grey-Bruce regions. Students will be making the cranes, which will travel to Africa with Zadlik, and will donate $1 for each crane sent. The donations and cranes will be accompanied by messages of hope from U of G students to the youth of Lesotho who are living through the AIDS crisis.