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8 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday January 7, 2009 www.oakvillebeaver.com Humanity's capacity for good rises above By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF The Rwandan Genocide may have passed into the pages of history, but an AIDS epidemic taking place in Rwanda has not. Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn became acutely aware of this sad truth during a visit to the central African country, where he witnessed first hand the cost of the disease and the work being done by Canadian drug company, Apotex, to help. "Profit was not their motivation, they were just trying to do the right thing and at the end of the day they might have actually lost money because the process dragged out." Flynn noted Apotex took part in a federal government program called Canada's Access to Medicines Regime (CAMR), allowing it to manufacture patented AIDS medications for the Third World. Through this program, Apotex combined three medications into one pill called Apo TriAvir, which patients take once a day. There is no shortage of need for such a drug in Rwanda. An estimated three per cent of the population is infected with HIV and the country is too poor to afford brand-name AIDS medications. Aware of the work Flynn has done to raise money for an orphanage in Kenya, Apotex invited him to journey to Rwanda. Flynn agreed, paying his own way, and landed in the Rwandan capital of Kigali in mid-October. "Rwanda is a gorgeous country. The thing that strikes somebody first is how clean Kigali is," said Flynn. "It's a Third World city. There are close to two million people living there, but what they do have is a clean up day. One day a month, on a Saturday morning, everything stops, taxis stop running, stores don't open and everybody goes out and cleans up outside." Flynn noted the society appeared very labour intensive with agriculture a main source of employment. Flynn said he did not have to go too far to see evidence of the country's troubled past, visiting a memorial to the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 ethnic Tutsis were murdered by Hutu extremists. "We visited a church were 10,000 people had been killed. Tutsis thought they could take shelter in a church and the sanctuary would be respected. It wasn't and the people were slaughtered," said Flynn. "They've left the church in the original shape it was found, with the doors broken open." Flynn said a mass grave is located around the church, however, clothes people were wearing at the time of their deaths remain inside the church, scattered on the pews. Flynn noted some of these clothes were small, a grim reminder many massacre victims were children. "It really makes you think about what man is capable of and how people can use a message of hatred for their own political ends," he said. While the memorial showed humanity's capacity for evil, work on fighting AIDS within the country shows humanity's capacity for good. Flynn noted campaigns aimed at educating Rwanda's youths about AIDS seem to be working in that the explosive rate in which the disease was spreading has been slowed. The main challenge facing the country is learning to live with AIDS. "That's where Apotex and its SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER RIGHT AT HOME: Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn with children from the Mully Home in Kenya. drugs come in," said Flynn. "Some of the reasons they went over there were to determine who would get the drugs, how that would be decided, to take a look at some of the hospitals where those drugs might go and how they would be distributed." Flynn noted working out a consistent delivery system is important because the recipients must take the drug every day for the rest of their lives and have to start taking the drug before their symptoms get bad. During his visit, Flynn found that the social stigma against people with AIDS persists in Kigali with some people refusing to hire those they know are infected. One group of drug recipients has fought through this marginalization creating its own co-ops with help from World Vision. "These ladies make building blocks and they've got more business than they can handle," said Flynn. "The fact is, once a person is in one of these co-ops, the program is so successful you never have to give that person anything ever again. That person looks after themselves and their family and they have enough to make a living with." Flynn is investigating aid options that can be brought to these programs because currently it costs the equivalent of $40 to join, a major impediment for most Rwandans. Many of the people Flynn met during his visit had very little, but offered what hospitality they could. One woman, who was being treated with the Apotex drug, had little more than a shed to live in, but offered Flynn fruit when he visited. "That was a huge purchase for her," said Flynn. "These people are so happy to have so little. Her home wouldn't even be considered a good shed. We would consider it 25 per cent finished and, yet, to her it's a finished house and she thinks she's the luckiest woman in the world because she's got a place to raise her kids." With his trip to Rwanda complete, Flynn and some of the Apotex See Helping page 10 Vision ­ To be the most livable town in Canada ROAD CLOSURES By-law 2009-012 Closure of Part of Burgundy Drive, Oakville Adjacent 277 Burgundy Drive, Oakville TAKE NOTICE THAT: 1. The Council of the Corporation of the Town of Oakville proposes to pass a by-law pursuant to Section 34 of the Municipal Act, 2001, in order to close and stop up for all purposes part of Burgundy Drive, being Part 1 on Reference Plan 20R-18062, Town of Oakville, Regional Municipality of Halton. 2. This matter will be heard at the Council meeting of February 2, 2009 commencing at 7:30 p.m. in the council Chambers at Town Hall, 1225 Trafalgar Road, Oakville, Ontario. 3. If you wish to make representation at Council with regard to this road closing, please make application to the Clerks Department on or before noon of the day preceding the Council meeting. 4. A copy of the Plan 20R-18062, identifying the lands, is available for inspection at the Office of the Manager, Realty Services, at the address shown below, during normal business hours. Maynard Millman, AACI, P.App., PLE, Manager, Realty Services, Legal Department, 1225 Trafalgar Road, Oakville, ON L6J 5A6.