Bringing Volunteers Together

Friday, 5 April 2019 14:54

Mayor of Brant County David Bailey was in attendance, along with other members of the community, held inside the Dominion Telegraph Event Centre.

The Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Elizabeth Dowdeswell attended a roundtable discussion this morning in Paris.

PARIS - A roundtable discussion was held on volunteerism in Paris today.

Among today's guests was the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Elizabeth Dowdeswell who was invited to attend and participate in the discussion.

The roundtable featured the Grand River Grannies from Brantford.

Dowdeswell hopes this event gave them a chance to raise awareness and network.

"One of the things that often happens when we bring together groups like this is we realize that there's often not an opportunity for them to come together as that kind of group, they may know people in the community, but to actually sit down around the table with 20 people it's a chance to share among themselves. In other communities, one of the things that has happened is that they have a reason to then come back together around a particular issue. Sometimes it's co-ordination, sometimes it's just learning about approaches to dealing with particular issues that they might not have thought of before, so they now can network, they now have someone else they can talk to about something else that's happening."

The Grand River Grannies Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign raises awareness and funds for grandmothers in Africa, who raise orphaned children or children living with HIV/AIDS. They have been raising money for the cause since 2009 and they also have other chapters throughout Brant County and across Canada as well.

Co-Chair Jennifer de Alwis says it was a pleasure meeting her Honour.

"It's a great honour to meet her Honour, Elizabeth Dowdeswell. She's very approachable and is quite a charming woman. She shared stories with us and we had looked at her information and we knew that she had liked that approach as well. She's just a very approachable and charming woman."

The ceremony also featured the Mayor of Brant County David Bailey and other members of the community, which was held inside the Dominion Telegraph Event Centre.

A majority of the funds raised from The Grand River Grannies goes towards the grandmothers in Africa.

de Alwis says she hopes the members in the community can raise awareness in their own communities following today's roundtable.

"Further awareness of what we do, further awareness of the importance of assistance for the HIV pandemic in Africa. Really, it's awareness raising because there was a sense a couple of years ago that the epidemic was over and it is far from over because now we have the young generation who are infected. So testing is important, access to drugs is important because if you get the right dosage of the antiretroviral drugs, sure you take them for the rest of your life, but you live a life. It's your own life and it's important that we still work on helping."