Friends of Grassroot Grannies
NEWSLETTER
We appreciate your interest in the Grassroot Grannies and the work we do to support the
Canadian grannies
supporting
African grannies
Fall 2025 Issue
Hello friends,
The first snowfall has arrived indicating the start of winter and hopefully a white Christmas for us in Canada and warmth and sunshine for those in other climes. We can look back on a busy, successful year and look forward to seeing you at the events we will be undertaking in 2026. As always we appreciate the support you give our work for African grandmothers and their families.
Grassroot Grannies Update - What happened in 2025
We began our fundraising with the Grassroot Grannies Plant Sale and Market Place on Saturday, May 10, a beautiful day, at our familiar location on Knudsen Drive in Kanata. It turned out to be an exciting community event and a true harbinger of spring signalling the planting that was to come and Mother's Day.. It turned out to be our most successful sale to date raising $9,360 for the SLF!
After 17 years our members assisted by loyal family supporters and high school volunteers work as a well-oiled machine to make the day such a success. There is no sign we will stop this wonderful fundraiser.
Our third event that happens in the fall that used to be a book exchange and social coffee morning became the Fall Author Event this year with a local author speaking about his book and interacting with the audience. This afternoon event was combined with a craft and bakesale. Nancy Hough, the original proponent behind the Ride suggested this event and did much of the work bringing this idea to life and what a success it turned out to be! We raised $4,950 for the African grandmothers! Cathy Curry a city councillor for Kanata mentioned this sold-out event in her newsletter calling it an incredible afternoon and saying the Grannies do incredible work in our community to support grannies in Africa. Jim Sherman the owner of Perfect Books brought and sold all the copies he brought of our speaker Brent Popplewell's book entitled Outsider. We are already looking forward to inviting another writer to next year's new event.
SLF Update
The Stephen Lewis Foundation's 20th Anniversary plans are underway for a National Gathering in Ottawa for a 3-day event in September 22-24, 2026. Grandmothers will be coming from across Canada and from Africa.
People will be able to attend in person or virtually. A call will go out to see if any of our Ottawa grandmothers can billet a visiting grandmother for the gathering. The event will include a march on Parliament Hill, the display of the Solidarity Quilt and a marketplace.
Stephen Lewis has sent out a personal, special message in honor of World Aids Day. He spoke about the need for courage and leadership in our world because all the progress made against AIDS is under threat. Since the dismantling of USAID the Canadian Government has cut its international assistance by 2.7 billion. Our giving is needed even more to show that we are behind the African grandmothers.
The SLF has been encouraging our Government to make a pledge to keep the Global Fund strong. Since 2002 the Global Fund with funding from governments around the world has saved thousands of lives through funds to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
Staff from the SLF and other partner organizations met with MP Yasir Naqvi ( Parliamentary Secretary to the Secretary of State responsible for International Development) on Nov. 16 to discuss the importance of supporting African grandmothers and their offspring at the community level where the funding can have the most impact. Naqvi was interested in hearing about how the SLF allows partner organizations to decide how best to use the funds rather than setting out specific goals. A fundamental recognition that communities know best what will work for them is essential. Mr. Naqvi was in total agreement.
Ottawa Gatineau Regional Grandmothers Network (O-GRGN) Update
The planning committee will start up in January to plan the Regional Grannyfest set for Thursday May 21, 2026.
Origin of GRAN
In 2011 the advocacy arm of the Grandmother to Grandmother Campaign established itself as an independent organization taking on the name Grandmother Advocacy Network or simply GRAN. Its work focuses on the human rights of older women and issues related to health, education, violence again women and climate justice. GRAN chooses one issue a year to focus on. This year it has been child hunger.
Conclusion:
As 2025 comes to an end let us reflect on the past year. Starting early in the year, many of the grassroots organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa that the Stephen Lewis Foundation (SLF) supports found themselves in financial difficulties, due to cuts in international development giving by several countries. However, where possible these resilient organizations continued their work; sometimes paid workers even continued as volunteers. Also, the SLF secured emergency funding, some of it through donations from individual supporters such as yourselves.
Spurred on by this, the Grassroot Grannies are proud to have raised $75,478 this year in our three events: the Spring Plant Sale and Market Place, The Ride to Turn the Tide in September and the Fall Author Event in November. We are happy to have welcomed some new members and remain committed to our mission to raise money for, and awareness about, the grandmothers and vulnerable children and youth in their care.
We thank you for your support and wish you a joyous and peaceful holiday season.
Stella Val,
Chair, Grassroot Grannies
Our second event, The Ride to Turn the Tide, in its 16th year, was held on Sept. 3 and 4. Registration was lower this year with 17 cyclists and 4 support people but still managed to raise $61,168 for the African grandmothers. The success of our Ride is due to the many people who support us, our sponsors and of course our participants. Our Ride to Turn the Tide Committee headed by Stella Val will meet in 2026 to discuss and decide whether to continue this fundraiser and what form it will take.
Dinner at Diana Bracegirdle's property in Perth.
