On August 15th 2009, Waterloo Mayor Brenda Halloran will take a personal vacation to travel to Lesotho, Africa and work alongside Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik of the Bracelet of Hope Campaign at the Tsepong HIV/AIDS Clinic located in the town of Hlotse in the Leribe region of Lesotho.

Mayor Halloran was inspired by Anne-Marie during a talk at the K-W Zonta breakfast at the Walper Hotel in Kitchener. An avid supporter ever since, Halloran has been a key in building a committee to launch the Bracelet of Hope Campaign in Waterloo.

The two later agreed to travel together to Lesotho this August when Anne-Marie is scheduled to do a three week cover-off for a full time clinician at the Tsepong Clinic who will be on leave at the time. Mayor Halloran will join Anne-Marie for two of those three weeks where she will act as a nurse at the clinic. Mayor Halloran’s varied background includes being a trained nurse.

Also joining Dr. Zajdlik on the trip will be award winning journalist Rob O’Flanagan from the Guelph Mercury,.(The Mercury has been a key factor in the success of the campaign in Guelph since Dr. Zajdlik founded it in late 2005), International photographer Philip Maher (http://philipmaher.ca/), and Andy McDougall, executive director for the campaign.

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Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik, the founder and visionary behind the Bracelet of Hope campaign, is joining Student Reach International’s live blog from Africa. Later this summer, Dr. Zajdlik returns to the Tsepong HIV/AIDS Clinic in Lesotho, Africa which remains open thanks to her Bracelet of Hope campaign.

About Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik

Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik is a mom, a family doctor and an HIV physician in Guelph, Ontario. In 2005, she founded and now directs the Masai Centre for Local, Regional and Global Health, in response to the growing numbers of HIV/AIDS patients in the Guelph area. The birth of an HIV negative boy named Masai to two HIV positive parents from Ethiopia turned Anne-Marie into an international AIDS activist.

In 2005, Anne-Marie launched the Bracelet of Hope campaign with a goal of raising $1 million in Guelph for the Ontario Hospitals Africa Tsepong Clinic in Lesotho. With the help of over 100 volunteers, that goal was reached in October 2008. Anne-Marie’s dream now is to take the campaign national, across Canada, with the ultimate goal of freeing Lesotho in southern Africa from the death grip of HIV/AIDS.

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