The Xtending Hope Partnership

Our Mission

The Xtending Hope Partnership aims to mobilize the extended StFX university community of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and local community to assist and support the people, governments and non-governmental organizations of Botswana and Rwanda to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

 

 

About the Xtending Hope Partnership

The Xtending Hope Partnership is a St. Francis Xavier University (StFX) initiative that is mobilizing the extended university community to assist and support the people, governments and NGOs in Rwanda and Botswana as they deal with the HIV/AIDS pandemic. St FX answered the call made by Stephen Lewis, former United Nations Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa (and current Professor in Global Health at McMaster University and Senior Advisor to the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York) for Canadian citizens and institutions to help African countries address the pandemic.
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Botswana

The Republic of Botswana is situated in Southern Africa, located between Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Botswana is a multi-party democracy with a growing economy and a stable political environment. It has some of Africa's last great wildernesses including the famous Okavango Swamps and the Kalahari desert. It is the largest exporter of gemstone diamonds in the world.

Botswana has one of the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates in the world.

• Location: Southern Africa
• Population: 1,700,000
• Infection rate (adults): 24.1% of adults 15-49
• Orphans: 120,000 orphans between the ages 0 - 17 years

Rwanda

The Republic of Rwanda is a small country about half the size of Nova Scotia in east-central Africa. It shares borders with Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the west is the Parc des Volcans, one of the last sanctuaries of the mountain gorilla. This region is composed of volcanic mountains, of which two, across the frontier in Democratic Republic of Congo, are still active.

Known as the Land of a Thousand Hills, Rwanda is a country of stunning beauty with its green hills stretching as far as the eye can see. Rwanda is also a country with a troubled past. In 1994, over 800,000 people were massacred in an attempted genocide.

A second genocide of sorts is now underway, with well over 500,000 Rwandans infected with HIV/AIDS without access to life-saving drugs.

• Location: Eastern/Central Africa
• Population: 8,600,000
• Infection rate: 3.1% of adults 15-49
• Orphans: 210,000 orphans between the ages 0 - 17 years