South Africa-based journalist and author Stephanie Nolen will be bringing stories from the frontlines of the battle against HIV/AIDS to Toronto.
"HIV/AIDS: Stories From the Field" is designed to raise funds to bolster the fight and inspire people here to take action, said Eowynne Feeney, co-director of Listen to the Drumming, the group hosting the event.
"What we hope people get from this is that there is hope and there are people on the ground -- Africans on the ground -- who are doing amazing work," Feeney tells CTV.ca.
"We also would like Canadians to start thinking about this issue and how they can actively get involved, either through giving to organizations like ourselves who support local initiatives or volunteering, as well as petitioning our government to live up to our commitment."
The event will be held on Tuesday at Toronto's St. Paul's Bloor Street Church.
Listen to the Drumming is the African support wing of the Canadian Institute of Cultural Affairs, or ICA, an international organization with 30 partners in countries around the world.
Stephen Lewis was the keynote speaker at last year's event. This year, Nolen, of The Globe and Mail, was sought to speak largely because staff members were inspired by her book "28: Stories of AIDS in Africa.
"She has been reporting on the issue of HIV and AIDS for quite some time now, almost five years, and has worked with a lot of important African HIV/AIDS activists, and her book does such a great job of highlighting all the different aspects of HIV aids," said Feeney.
"It's such a complex issue and I think she's good at eloquently explaining it and giving people a personal connection to it."
Dr. Philip Berger, chair of community and family medicine at St. Michael's hospital, who spent seven-and-a-half months working at a clinic in Lesotho, will also speak at the event.
In addition to raising awareness and encouraging Canadians to volunteer, organizers also hope the event will raise money so their work of partnering with groups in Africa, can continue.
Feeney says the group's priority is always to support and develop local groups, as opposed to parachuting in foreign workers to tackle the issues.
"Our mandate is to support our sister organizations in Africa through supporting local grassroots initiatives. And the capacity on the ground of local African organizations to deliver is amazing. They just need the resources to do it and we're hoping we can mobilize those resources for them," she says.
But in addition to inspiring action and raising funds to tackle the massive problem, Stories from the Field is also designed to be a celebration of the efforts that are happening now and the progress that is being made.
One of those success stories, she said, involves a Masai village in northern Kenya that approached the group. The small, isolated village had no access to HIV testing, and community leaders wanted to improve monitoring efforts.
ICA co-operated with a local group that had trained workers in the area, recruiting community members for the project and raising awareness in the village about the importance of being tested.
Within six months, one-sixth of the village population had been tested -- a major breakthrough for a community that previously had no access to the service.
"Right now we're actually working on this model to see if it can become a community care model that we could use with other communities to prevent the spread of HIV," Feeney said.
Meanwhile, a program in South Africa is educating young people on HIV and AIDS prevention, but also focuses on empowerment and leadership training with the goal of raising up leaders to set a new standard among their generation.
That program is being run by a 19-year-old South African -- clear evidence that the initiative is having an impact, Feeney said, adding that she hopes people leave the event filled with inspiration and motivation.
"Stephanie is a riveting speaker and she also inspires us all to do something, little or big. And we also want people to come and talk to us about how they can get involved with our organization."
Both programs will benefit from Tuesday's event, Feeney said.
Tickets are $35, or $25 for students.
