Amy Gillespie, a Woodland Park resident and Founder of TIOS, (Training Internationally for Orphans and their Survival), will speak about her experiences, the plight of women and children stricken with HIV and AIDS in Africa, and how groups all across the country are making a difference, in celebration of International Women’s Day. Free and open to the public. Sponsored by PPCC Libraries and Campus Life.

International Women’s Day Speaker
Wednesday March 4, from 10:30 a.m. to Noon
Centennial Campus Atrium
5675 S. Academy Boulevard

Amy Gillespie is a Woodland Park resident and Founder of TIOS, or Training Internationally for Orphans and their Survival. In 2003, Amy arrived in Mozambique with a personal mission to make sure every child orphaned by AIDS had the tools necessary to keep themselves and their siblings alive and to lead productive lives. In a short time, she realized she needed to expand her work to the adults who are caring for these children and set an example for living. With this goal, she created a full curriculum of survival skills, including income generation for girls which allowed them to disengage from dangerous practices of trading sex for favors.

Gillespie’s work expanded with her creation of the TIOS 'Five Components of HIV' program. Her holistic approach to HIV education, together with empowering women, is quickly becoming recognized as a "best practice” in HIV awareness. It was recently published in a compendium by the International Center for Research on Women in Washington, DC as a comprehensive approach to HIV and gender in sub-Saharan Africa. 'Five Components' continues to attract the attention of many world relief organizations, and the program is now being used in 15 countries, including Russia and Indonesia.

One of the purposes of TIOS is to link youth from developed countries to directly assist orphans through training and resource support. Teenagers and children from developed countries are acting as philanthropists, educators, and ambassadors, and developing to be better citizens and world leaders. In 2007, Gillespie was a top 15 finalist for CNN Heroes.

International Women’s Day is an occasion marked by women’s groups around the world. This date is commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.