Donate your Aeroplan Miles
Do you have any Aeroplan Miles that will expire before you can
use them? Those miles can be donated to the Stephen Lewis Foundation.
Ilana Lansberg-Lewis, the Foundation’s Executive Director has graciously
agreed to let us use all the miles that you designate for our climbing
team.
We are looking for enough Aeroplan Miles to get all the climbers
to continental Europe (60,000 per climber). The money that the
climbers save on airfare, allows them to focus their efforts,
energy and limited funds to the fundraising events which indirectly
benefits the orphans and their grandmothers. So please help us, help
them in every way that we can.
The cost of climbing Kilimanjaro varies dramatically between routes,
duration and tour operators. Since failure is not an option, we have
opted for a climb that has a 98% chance of success to reach the summit
and a 100% guarantee that we will survive the climb (1 to 15 climbers
die on the mountain each year). But those odds come at a price. Given that we are
all on limited budgets, this is a means of reducing our costs by at least
$1,000 each. Please let us enjoy the reward miles rather than see them expire.
Click
here to donate your miles to the Stephen Lewis Foundation online.
Then make sure to send me an e-mail
to confirm the number
of miles donated to help us track against our goal. Without the confirming
e-mail there is no way to track the miles that you donate for our climb.
There’s no cost to donate and tax receipts cannot be provided.
|
|
|
A grandmother's lament:
"God has got it all wrong now. He is taking the young people
and leaving the old ones to look after the children. It no longer makes sense."
|
CLIMBING TO THE TOP TO HELP THOSE AT THE BOTTOM SURVIVE!!!
However, I just can’t picture myself going to Africa empty handed
or as just another tourist. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is something that
cannot be ignored or glossed over as just another fact of life.
Having lost my brother to AIDS in 1995, I decided that I would
dedicate my climb to his memory. This very special event in my life
is a perfect opportunity to raise funds to fight this disease which
not only affects the victim but tears entire families apart and in
Africa an entire continent.
- More than 25 million people in Africa are infected with HIV/AIDS. [*1]
- In sub-Saharan Africa alone, approximately 14 million children
have been orphaned by AIDS — a higher number than the total of
every under-18-year-old girl and boy in Canada, Norway, Sweden,
Denmark and Ireland combined. That figure is expected to reach
more than 18 million children by 2010. [*2]
- In Botswana and Malawi over 50 per cent of orphaned children live in grandparent-headed
households and over 60 per cent in Namibia,
South Africa and Zimbabwe. [*3]
As a grandmother myself, the Stephen Lewis Foundation through the
Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign has provided me with the
perfect vehicle to achieve another goal --- to raise $19,335.60 ($1 per foot)
to support these courageous Grandmothers in Africa who have lost
their own children due to AIDS and are now raising their children's
children, who in many cases themselves, are living with this horrible
disease.. With your generous donations
and my unwavering determination,
my dreams will be realized but more importantly Grandmothers in Africa
will get some of the much needed relief that they so desperately long for.
 |
|
Zambia: Stephen Lewis visits grandmothers in Malala Village, Zambia.
Photo by: Anurita Bains |
|
How We're Doing:
$56,840.34 of $77,422.40 (We're going to raise $4 per foot!)
