Penticton grandma Cheryl Halsted spent part of this year in South Africa and Eswatini, meeting with grassroots organizations supporting grandmothers raising orphaned children in communities affected by HIV/AIDS.

Halsted was one of 16 Canadians who took part in the 14-day trip in May, organized through the Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign of the Stephen Lewis Foundation. The tour followed cuts to HIV/AIDS funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development and aimed to strengthen ties between Canadian and African grandmothers.

The group visited three organizations near Mancini in Eswatini and seven in South Africa, with stops near Cape Town, Durban, and Pietermaritzburg. Travel was often long and difficult, but each destination brought warm welcomes from local leaders and comm

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