Schwartz began med school after returning from a five-month volunteering stint at the Hillcrest AIDS Centre in South Africa.  

At the centre, Schwartz learned of the handcrafted artwork sold in their on-site store. The Little Traveller dolls were a small component of the Woza Moya income generation project (Zulu for “come spirit of change”).  Then, there were a few dozen women who made the Little Travellers weekly for small orders.  

Little Travellers are small, hand-knit dolls on pins originally designed by crafters living in the Valley of a Thousand Hills, in KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, which has one of the highest incidents of HIV infection in the world.  

When Schwartz returned to Winnipeg from South Africa, he brought a dozen of these pins to give to people as gifts.  

“I knew when I was in South Africa that I had to do something to draw attention and resources to this tragic situation, but I had no idea how,” Schwartz said.

During orientation week at the University of Manitoba’s medical school, he wore a Little Traveller. People began asking about it and how they could get one.  

“I sold those first dozen pins for donations to the AIDS Centre and the wheels started turning,” said Schwartz. “Over the next few weeks, I formed a group called ‘Simunye’ (Zulu for “we are as one”) with some other medical students to raise funds and awareness for those affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa by selling Little Traveller pins.  

“We placed our first order for 1,000 pins, and changed our name to Little Travellers to reflect our focus on the pins.  Our mission is to show solidarity with people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa.”

Since Schwartz and his growing group began selling the Little Travellers, the generosity and support he has seen has been amazing, he said.
“People started volunteering by selling the dolls with such gusto,” said Schwartz. “They wanted to do whatever they could to help in this cause on the other side of the world. Now I think I’ve gotten used to it, but I’m still shocked by it from time to time.”  

Canadians have “an increased sense of concern and a heightened global consciousness,” said Schwartz. “They see that by assisting others they’re helping themselves. You can see this in the increased visibility of and demand for fairly traded commodities.”

Initially, Winnipeg’s Little Travellers group was made up of about 15 people (mostly medical students).  They now have a core working board of 12 people, plus about 20-30 others selling the pins.  

Chana Thau has been a Little Travellers’ volunteer for about a year.  

She said, “There’s a good mix of people in the group of females, males, students, and a good number of older people from the Jewish Community.  Being a part of this makes me feel like one person really can make a difference, and it feels good to know that I’m doing something important.”

Thau said the pins sell themselves (going for just $5 each), and “everyone feels like they’ve contributed in some small way.”
According to Schwartz, the most active international chapter right now is in South Korea.  

“They’ve really been lifting this initiative lately with their enthusiastic and refreshing fundraisers,” he said. “We also have very active chapters in North Carolina, Vancouver and Toronto, with active pin sellers in Australia, Japan, England, Israel, Brazil, and South Africa.”
Some of what the Little Travellers have achieved is getting the endorsement of Stephen Lewis: Creating jobs for more than 100 families most hard-hit by the pandemic and poverty in the Valley of a Thousand Hills in South Africa, creating a network for hundreds of people to get involved by volunteering and enabling the construction of a much needed hospice for end-of-life care of AIDS patients in South Africa.
Since it’s inception, the Little Travellers group has raised about $150,000. About half of the funds go to the crafters, and the rest goes towards building a hospice/respite unit at the AIDS Centre. None of the money goes to administrative fees for the organization.

The group has collaborated with local humanitarian initiatives like Run-4-Darfur, Grands ’n’ More (a grandmother group of the Stephen Lewis Foundation) and various student groups.

Schwartz said he hopes that “Little Travellers will become widely recognized symbols of the struggle of HIV/AIDS in Africa, like a second-generation red ribbon. I think we are on our way.”

The Hillcrest AIDS Centre’s services include nursing and home-based care, a respite unit where people are cared for when their families can no longer do so, HIV testing and counselling services, HIV prevention and treatment education workshops, a feeding scheme to provide food for hungry families, a horticulture program that teaches people to grow vegetables and provides them with materials and seeds to do so, and an income-generation project to enable people to earn a living through making crafts and artwork. The centre is a non-governmental, non-profit organization.

For more information about this initiative, visit http://www.littletravellers.net.