Supporting the work of the Grandmothers Advocacy Network (GRAN), the Grassroot Grannies advocate through displays, speaking engagements, media, letter writing campaigns, and participating in organized advocacy events. We have signed petitions, spoken to our MPs and marched on Parliament Hill several times urging our federal government to keep their promises.
On this page of our website, we are now including the GRAN Updates on a quarterly basis.
GRAN Spring Update 2025
Advocating for grandmothers, vulnerable children and youth in Sub-Saharan Africa
Canadian grannies
supporting
African grannies
In an Associated Press article, InterAction, an alliance of international and American NGOs, said “Women and children will go hungry, food will rot in warehouses while families starve, children will be born with HIV - among other tragedies.” According to the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) has saved 26 million lives, and, up until recently, it directly supported more than two-thirds of all people receiving HIV treatment in the world.
A Critical Gap in Global Development
Cooperation Canada, which brings together civil society groups working in the international and humanitarian sectors, recently released a statement in the face of cuts to USAID (United States Agency for International Development). We’re sharing it here for your information.
“Cooperation Canada is deeply concerned about the dismantling of USAID and the impact of the immediate pause in United States foreign assistance. ‘This pause is already having catastrophic consequences on communities around the world,’ said Kate Higgins, Chief Executive Officer of Cooperation Canada. ‘Food crises are worsening, health services are vanishing, and entire communities – many of them women and children – are being left without protection. These cuts are costing lives. They are also undermining the global rules-based order that Canada has long championed,’ Higgins said.
As the world’s largest donor, the U.S. withdrawal creates a critical gap in the global humanitarian and development system. We encourage you to read the full statement here.
Child Hunger Team
The Child Hunger team met in early February to review projects underway and our action plan going forward. First, a great big thank you to everyone who sent postcards to MPs, Ministers and others. Together we sent more than 300 postcards, and in doing so helped the Nutrition Working Group, led by Results Canada, encourage an early announcement by Canada of $360 million in support for nutrition. We have celebrated and thanked Minister Hussen for this announcement, while encouraging an additional commitment at the Nutrition for Growth Summit in March, to bring Canada’s commitment up to $750 million over five years
GTA GRANS at the Daily Bread Food Bank - Gaye Frances Alexander, Sheila Smolkin, Nancy McElhinney, and Pat Evans
The team discussed the many activities being planned by Regional and Watch Groups – learning events, workshops and local volunteering. The next event on the calendar is a webinar with Save the Children and Feed Ontario on February 20th. This is being organized by the Ottawa-Gatineau GRANs We are also developing a slide presentation you will be able to use, based on the GRAN Child Hunger Backgrounder .
Education Watch Group
Great news for Global Education! During International Development Week, Minister Ahmed Hussen announced new funding of $50 million to advance global education, skills training, and economic opportunities for marginalized youths. Read the full news release here.
“The future is brighter when young people can achieve their fullest potential… We’re equipping youths with relevant education and training so they can develop skills and secure successful employment in today’s ever-changing labour market. Together, we can build a better future today.” (Minister of International Development Ahmed Hussen)
The recently published UNICEF report, Learning Interrupted: Global snapshot of climate-related school disruptions in 2024 reveals many alarming statistics. For instance, in Africa, over 107 million children are already out of school, and climate-related disruptions in 2024 have put an additional 20 million children at risk of dropping out. Nearly half the world’s children -- approximately one billion children -- live in countries with extreme risk of climate and environmental shocks. The report also details the excellent work being done by UNICEF to help introduce promising practices and scalable solutions and calls on governments to protect children, increase financing, and strengthen systemic and robust data collection.
Health Watch Group
Breaking News
Our new Prime Minister Mark Carney was sworn in March 14th and appointed his new Cabinet. It is a
much smaller group of Ministers, and Ahmed Hussen is no longer Minister of International
Development. Minister Mélanie Joly will take on that portfolio in addition to her role as Minister of
Foreign Affairs. A full list of the new Ministers is here. GRAN thanked Minister Hussen on Twitter for all
the foreign aid investments he has made, as did many other international CSOs.
We now look forward to an event later this month being organized by the Education Watch Group, entitled Good Nutrition = Successful Learners. Three guest speakers will be with us via Zoom on Thursday, March 27 at 2:00 p.m. ET to speak on the value of school meal programs: Fatima da Silva from Nourish Cowichan in B.C., Gabriele Matheson from Friends of Gashora in Rwanda, and Zoe Boutelier from CARBE (Combatting Absenteeism and Barriers to Education) in Mozambique. Click here to register.
Ahead of International Women’s Day, UNICEF, Plan International, and UN Women released the report, Girl Goals: What has changed for girls? Adolescent girls’ rights over 30 years, reviewing how adolescent girls’ lives have changed in the last 30 years since the Beijing Platform for Action was endorsed by 189 governments in 1995. Despite significant achievements in areas such as education over the last three decades, millions of adolescent girls around the world today are still out of school, ill-equipped for the future, facing gaps in life-saving health services, and at risk of harmful practices such as child marriage, female genital mutilation, violence, and abuse. The report reveals the urgent need for global action to unlock the enormous potential of adolescent girls, putting forward a number of specific recommendations. You can access the “Fast Facts” here and read the full report here.
On March 7, Ahmed Hussen, Canada’s then Minister of International Development, announced a pledge of $675 million to GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, in support of global immunization efforts. GAVI’S goal is to immunize at least 500 million children from 2026-2030. “This vital support builds on many years of partnership, and as we look forward, this investment will ensure that hard-won gains are preserved, global vaccine given the opportunity to thrive.” – Dr. Sania Nishtar, Chief Executive Officer of GAVI. This is very good news, especially given the impact of the massive USAID shutdowns which have affected NGOs and their life-saving programs all over the world.
Photo courtesy of GAVI
Mining Justice Watch Group
A recent urgent request from Greenpeace Africa is asking us to send a message to the new Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), Leticia Reis de Carvalho, calling for ocean protection. The ISA was established under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to ensure that the oceans were kept for “the benefit of mankind”. Here are some points to select from if you send a message:
•
The ocean is a lifeline for millions of Africans, providing food, livelihoods, and cultural heritage.
The ocean is a lifeline for millions of Africans, providing food, livelihoods, and cultural heritage. •Deep-sea mining threatens these vital resources and the communities that depend on them.
Deep-sea mining threatens these vital resources and the communities that depend on them. •Profits from deep-sea mining will likely go to foreign corporations while African nations bear the environmental and social costs.
Profits from deep-sea mining will likely go to foreign corporations while African nations bear the environmental and social costs. •Africa’s oceans are already under threat from overfishing, pollution, and climate change.
Africa’s oceans are already under threat from overfishing, pollution, and climate change. •Africa has suffered from destructive extractive industries on land, and we must not allow deep-sea mining to repeat this history of environmental harm and resource exploitation.
Africa has suffered from destructive extractive industries on land, and we must not allow deep-sea mining to repeat this history of environmental harm and resource exploitation. •I stand with Indigenous Peoples, scientists, environmental groups, and 32 countries in calling for a pause or moratorium on deep-sea mining.
I stand with Indigenous Peoples, scientists, environmental groups, and 32 countries in calling for a pause or moratorium on deep-sea mining. Greenpeace Africa is also encouraging us to sign this petition calling for governments to protect the deep ocean and stop deep-sea mining before it starts.
Photo courtesy of Greenpeace
GRAN Website
Work on the design phase of the refreshed website is complete. The next phase of "building" the new site has begun. No news yet on a timeline for when the new website might be ready to go live. Stay tuned. In the meantime, our current website is still active and available!
Hold the Date! – GRAN Annual General Meeting
We look forward to welcoming all GRAN members to our 12th Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, June 11th, 2025 at 3:00 p.m. ET. This is a great opportunity to look back on our busy year, celebrate our successes, and be grateful for the GRAN community we have built together.
Book Corner
World Tuberculosis Day is coming up on March 24. Bestselling novelist and non-fiction writer John Green’s new book, Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection, is set to be released on March 18.
Publisher’s synopsis: “In 2019, author John Green met Henry Reider, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone. John became fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequities that allow this curable, preventable infectious disease to also be the deadliest, killing over a million people every year.
Listen to a recent interview with the author on CBC’s The Current.
GRAN Events: Save the Dates!
Thursday, March 27, 2:00 p.m. ET -- “Good Nutrition = Successful Learners” Webinar organized by GRAN’s Education Watch Group on the many benefits of school meal programs. Register here.
Wednesday, April 23rd, 3:00 p.m. ET -- “Keeping GRAN Strong” Workshop organized by GRAN’s Recruitment Team with guest speakers from the G2G campaign. An opportunity to explore how we can all help grow and strengthen our network and promote inclusivity and diversity in our groups. All are welcome. Invitation with registration link to come.
Saturday, May 3, 10:00 a.m. PT | 1:00 p.m. ET -- “Ending Poverty Together” Greater Vancouver GRAN and Food for the Hungry are co-hosting this event. The workshop is an opportunity to consider the roots of poverty and how it can be addressed in new ways. This will be a hybrid event, in-person for those in the Vancouver area and online for those farther afield. Invitation with registration link to come.
Wednesday, June 11, 3:00 p.m. ET -- GRAN AGM. Invitation with registration link to come.
Action
Continue making community connections and raising awareness on child hunger. Consider how and where you might use the new Child Hunger slide presentation now available on our website.
GRAN is currently meeting with CSO partners who are in “election-planning mode”. We are collaboratively strategizing messaging and actions for a federal election campaign, expected soon. Stay tuned!
