A group of grandmothers sold jewelry at Carleton Nov. 20, but this isn’t your typical craft fair.
The Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign partners Canadian grandmothers with African grandmothers to fight HIV-AIDS through the Stephen Lewis Foundation.
Kazuri jewelry is made in a fair trade women’s workshop in Nairobi, Kenya and sold to Canadians through the campaign. “Kazuri” means “small and beautiful” in Swahili.
The Capital Grannies sold these pieces in the atrium. All proceeds go to the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which works with grassroots HIV-AIDS projects in Africa.
Kazuri jewelry has raised over $600,000 for the Stephen Lewis Foundation since the company was founded in 2007 by grandmothers Peggy Edwards and Margaret Thompson.
Edwards said she became a member of the grandmothers’ campaign after attending a gathering of 200 Canadian grandmothers and 100 African grandmothers in Toronto in 2006.
“I was blown away by their courage and the situation they were in. I went with my friend and when we drove away, we were kind of in shell shock. We said ‘doing nothing’s not an option,’” Edwards said.
In 2007, Thompson visited the Kazuri workshop in Nairobi. She asked Edwards to start a company with her to sell the jewelry to Canadians through the Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign. Kazuri jewelry sales are now held across the country.
The Capital Grannies held their first sale at Carleton two years ago with the help of member Lynne Young, then an associate professor of applied linguistics and discourse studies. Young retired this June after teaching at Carleton for 35 years.
“I loved the teaching, I loved the students, and I loved my field,” she said.
Young found that when they organized the previous jewelry sales, word spread fast through the university network.
“It’s been successful. People are interested and nice and the sales have been pretty good,” she said.
Young said she thinks Canadian grandmothers can offer support to African grandmothers.
“There are grandmothers in Africa who are dealing with up to 10 or 15 grandchildren, their own and maybe other’s grandchildren, and they haven’t got enough food, they haven’t got enough money to help them go to school,” Young said.
