Elizabeth Sully

Committed to the On-Going Fight against Aids

From Vancouver to Montréal, with stops in Uganda and Kenya, Elizabeth Sully has already left her mark. For the young women from British Columbia, the world knows no boundaries and for this reason she never hesitates to get actively involved in various national and international organizations.

“I don’t simply have good intentions. I believe I can have a positive impact on the world,” points out Elizabeth, who is currently pursuing a multidisciplinary bachelor’s degree in political science and international development at McGill University. Next, she plans to pursue a master’s in public health.

“Miss Sully is motivated by a profound desire to make a very concrete contribution to the respect for human rights,” asserts Ian Hamilton, executive director of Equitas, the International Centre for Human Rights Education.

Indeed, even in her teens, Elizabeth worked with Children’s International Summer Villages (CISV), an organization that promotes peace, intercultural understanding and respect for human rights. When she moved to Montréal, she set about establishing a CISV chapter in the city.

However, it was her encounter with two women suffering from HIV-Aids in Vancouver that proved to be a major influence on the course she was to take. “They challenged me to continue in my dedication to people suffering from HIV-Aids and it was at this moment that I decided to go to Uganda. And for a year, I did my part in the fight against the disease,” Elizabeth explains.

“My career choice is a direct result of my trip to Uganda. While I was there, I became aware of all the complexities and injustice surrounding the country’s HIV-Aids epidemic. There are glaring consequences for both the families and their communities,” she adds.

Her dedication to the HIV-Aids cause is beyond doubt. “Elizabeth is steadfastly committed to the war against Aids. She plays a definite leadership role in the McGill Global AIDS Coalition. Last summer, she worked in Kenya for Liverpool VCT, a major non-government Aids prevention organization. She also gave of her time to the AIDS Vancouver Island organization and participated in a seminar on the face of Aids in Africa,” points out Shelley Clark, associate professor in the Department of Sociology at McGill University.

The truth of the matter is, Elizabeth does nothing by halves. In her studies as in her everyday life, every commitment she makes is linked to her values, in particular social equality and human dignity. Everything she does is likely to help further the causes she defends.

“She is forever looking for opportunities that will allow her to put into practice the theories she learns at school. For example, as part of a university project, she got in touch with us to make sure that what she was suggesting could indeed be put into practice by an organization such as ours, and that it would be useful to us,” Mr. Hamilton at Equitas explains.

To gain a deeper understanding of HIV-Aids, most of Elizabeth’s university assignments deal with the subject and thanks to the research she plans to carry out, she hopes to better grasp the dynamics of man-woman relationships and Aids.

Elizabeth Sully