I was first introduced to the essence of Ida at a Grandmothers Fund Raiser in Niagara-on-the-Lake Canada hosted by the Group, Nyanyas (Grandmothers) of Niagara, just one of the over 240 such groups in Canada alone. 

Ida was unable to attend this event so we were introduced to her by video. 

She talked about the successes she experiences when she visits a project where there is medication, children are going to school & the grandmothers have food to eat. But she re-iterated strongly that the issues are still there as Aids has not disappeared and people are still dying.  As we all know only too well, there is a great deal of work to be done.

In 2013, at the First Nareyever Synagogue in downtown Toronto, Ida brought slides of her work in the field and told us amazing tales of change created through SLF funds and resilient grandmothers.

One such illustration was in a small village in Ethiopia where SLF funds were used to initiate micro projects such as vegetable growing. One grandmother delighted in the fact that she now had a bank account (balance $5) and that she could now buy oil for cooking for her grandchildren and soap with which to bathe them. Ida herself choked up relating their stories. 

Rather than tell her story for you… Here she is to tell you herself...