World Vision Canada
Understanding that more than 22,000 children were dying every day due to preventable causes, LIFE Founder, Malcolm MacKillop decided to do something about it.
LIFE has made a tremendous impact in the fight against child poverty in Africa.
In Tanzania, thousands of children under the age of 5 were protected against the biggest threats to their health through World Vision’s Survive 5 projects. At risk children were immunized, medical clinics were supplied with antibiotics, families received insect repellent bed nets, and mothers were taught how to improve the nutritional diets of their children.
Over the past two years in eastern Africa lifesaving essentials like food, water and shelter have been distributed to families impacted by the devastating food crisis.
The Stephen Lewis Foundation
HIV & AIDS have had an especially devastating effect on children across Africa. More than 13.3 million children under the age of 17 have been orphaned by AIDS, the overwhelming majority of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Still countless others are left vulnerable as a direct result of the devastation wreaked on families and communities. Young women – often the first to be pulled out of school to help care for dying mothers and raise families of orphaned siblings – are particularly vulnerable, increasing their chances of contracting HIV.
That’s where community-based organizations come in. They are mobilizing to identify and support these children by providing food, uniforms and school fees, HIV testing and counselling, helping to build homes and tend gardens, and ensure that girls have an equal chance to attend school, learn how to protect themselves from the virus and flourish, especially when they are looking after their siblings in ‘child-headed households’.
With the support of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, and organizations like LIFE, this is the generation that will be leading Africa out of the pandemic.
The rationale behind LIFE is truly excellent – that the greatest need for struggling communities and programmes in Africa is financial support, and to that end the legal profession in Canada can play a critical role. The Stephen Lewis Foundation is profoundly grateful to LIFE for working to take things a quantum leap forward. LIFE offers the opportunity for additional numbers of lawyers to engage in a concerted effort to turn the tide of AIDS and poverty among children in Africa. The future of Africa is in the balance. Sustaining the support to children and those who care for them could not be more critical and new initiatives like LIFE bring hope that there are still many who have not forgotten or forsaken the next generation of Africa. I salute LIFE for its principled commitment to the humanitarian imperative.” ~ Stephen Lewis