In 2023,

Climate change is jeopardizing human rights, including the rights to life, water and sanitation, food, health, housing and development. In increasing numbers and with steadily growing concern, SLF partners are sounding the alarm and calling for action.

They are experiencing increasingly unpredictable weather and natural disasters that devastate and decimate communities. Drought, cyclones and floods are destroying homes and displacing families. In under-resourced regions where communities are already experiencing food insecurity, erratic weather events are further threatening farming, fishing and income generation.

Recently, severe flooding has had serious impact for SLF partner HOYMAS in Nairobi, Kenya. In addition to its regular health and well-being services, the community-led organization is now also providing emergency relief — including food and medications, like anti-retroviral therapy (ART) — to mitigate the impact of the crisis on the HIV response.

HOYMAS is also helping to relocate some community members and assisting with the higher cost of rent in safer, less flood-prone areas for longer-term solutions.

St. Joseph’s Home in Zambia is reporting reduced rainfall throughout the region, which directly threatens food and income security. Many communities primarily depend on growing and selling produce.

In sub-Saharan African countries that rely heavily on agriculture, women, children and older people disproportionately suffer the immediate and long-term impacts of climate change.

Some of our clients stop taking their medication when they do not have enough food.

Food security is essential for HIV interventions to be successful for individuals and communities. For HIV medications to work, adequate nutrition is key to both HIV prevention and treatment adherence. People receiving ART require nourishment in tandem with reliable access to medications.

When people are displaced due to extreme weather events, continuity of care is at risk. In addition to risking access to food and safe water sources as well as medications and supports, communities affected by HIV are challenged in myriad ways.

Chiedza Child Care Centre has observed that drought in Zimbabwe is increasing rates of hunger among the children and families they serve. Chiedza noted how hunger is linked to lower school attendance for children in both urban and rural areas.

When there is hunger, food becomes the priority and children's education will not be prioritized.

In Uganda, Nyaka AIDS Orphan Project is also calling to attention the complex and dangerous health, social and safety impacts climate change is having for individuals and communities.

The disruption of crop harvests means no livelihoods, hunger and increased incidences of sexual and gender-based violence.

As climate change is putting health and human rights at risk for families in already under-resourced communities in sub-Saharan Africa, the SLF continues our work with partners who are exploring and innovating ways to generate income, improve access to healthy food, and adapt to new climate challenges. They remain determined to protect their communities from the effects of environmental degradation and extreme weather events, in the context of the HIV epidemic.

This summer, expect clotheslines to grab your attention as they appear in sometimes surprising private and public spaces across Canada!

In honour of Grandparents’ Day (September 8), mobilized groups of grandmothers and grandothers will be creating clothesline installations, engaging with their communities and raising awareness about the impact of the award-winning and internationally recognized Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign.

The Clothesline Campaign, led by grandmothers groups and supported by the SLF, is driven by the critical need to keep HIV and grandmothers’ human rights on the global agenda. The Eastside Grannies of Sherwood Park, Alberta, put forward the idea to raise awareness about the vital role grandmothers have in addressing the impacts of the HIV epidemic in countries that bear the highest burden in sub-Saharan Africa.

The clothesline represents the role many grandmothers play as lines of support for their families and communities. Their day-to-day contributions, sometimes unrecognized and other times celebrated, have supported learning, connection, and healthy and strong communities through grief and joy.

We will not rest until they can rest. This rallying cry of grandmothers groups everywhere will be shared throughout the Clothesline Campaign. The declaration was first made at the Grandmothers Gathering in Toronto in 2006 and continues to guide the global solidarity movement. Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign members are reaffirming their commitment to working alongside African grandmothers to claim their rights and dismantle the inequities that allow the HIV epidemic to persist.