On this December 1st, Rima El Kouri from La Presse has written a column about a man infected with AIDS and his time at Maison du Parc (in French) where we Elves have been delivering Holiday gifts since our beginnings. This article illustrates so well why the Little Elves persist with their work :
“With the arrival of tritherapy in 1996, the situation has changed. Treatments that keep improving have kept death further and further at bay. Patients coming to Maison du Parc are not as sick. They don’t necessarily go there to die. Which doesn’t mean their lives are easy either. Social misery, extreme poverty, substance abuse, mental health problems, isolation issues… People infected with AIDS often bear all these problems.
Even with treatments that offer more and more hope, AIDS remains a chronic illness with very grave episodes.” (loosely translated)
What’s Left to Do and How You Can Help
With our last fundraising weekend at Jean-Talon Market with Santa Claus himself (view our album) our Elves are keeping their eyes on the prize. Indeed, we have only ten days left to raise $10,000 and finish procuring the 3,500 gifts before the Wrapping Weekend of December 10 & 11. We call on your generosity and hope that you will be able to make a donation.
You can donate online through our partner CanadaHelps.org. You will receive your tax receipt immediately in PDF format.
You can also mail in a check*, made out to The Little Elves Foundation, to :
The Little Elves Foundation
C.P. 121, Station Place d’Armes
Montreal, Quebec
H2Y 3H8
*Tax receipts will be mailed out in February.
AIDS in Québec and Canada
Finally, in her article published yesterday in La Presse, Sophie Allard reminds us that
«(…) AIDS cases are as numerous in heterosexual society as in the gay community and, of the 18,000 people who live with HIV-AIDS [in Québec], one in four is not aware of his or her status. ‘It complicates things, because erroneous presumptions about our own statut and that of our partner constitute an area of vulnerability. Many think they are HIV-negative when they are in fact HIV-positive’, says Martin Blais. The decision to protect yourself or not is not taken in light of the actual risk factors.
‘HIV detection has to be optimized. It is still very taboo, says Dr Thomas. Kids are not talking about it enough. For them, it’s a disease of old people; for the older population, it’s a disease that affects the younger set. Sex education has to make a return in schools. The AIDS pandemic is shrinking around the World, but it is not the case in Canada. We can do better.’» (loosely translated)