Stephen Lewis Foundation

The Stephen Lewis Foundation is a non-governmental organization that assists mostly AIDS and HIV-related grassroots projects in Africa.

Contents

History

The foundation was started by Stephen Lewis, a veteran Canadian politician and former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations. He first proposed the idea in an interview published in the Globe and Mail newspaper on January 4, 2003, citing the crisis of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.[1] Several readers responded with financial donations, the first of which arrived before the foundation had been formally established. By the time the foundation's first cheques were mailed out in June 2003 for projects, the donations totalled $275,000.[2] As of February 2011, the foundation's website indicates that it has received almost forty million dollars.[3]

For his efforts in starting the foundation, Lewis was named as person of the year by Maclean's magazine 2003 and was awarded the Pearson Peace Medal in 2004.[4] He has continued to travel and speak on the foundation's behalf.[5] Lewis's daughter, Ilana Landsberg-Lewis, has been the foundation's director since its foundation in 2003, and its African Advisory Board is chaired by Graça Machel.[6]

Activities

The Stephen Lewis Foundation is mandated to provide care for women suffering from HIV/AIDS, to assist orphans and other children affected by AIDS, to support grandmothers caring for orphaned grandchildren, and to support groups of people living with HIV/AIDS.[7]

On March 7, 2006, the foundation launched the "Grandmothers to Grandmothers" campaign to encourage grandmothers in Canada to work with grandmothers caring for children orphaned by AIDS in sub-Saharan African countries.[8] More than forty groups were started across Canada in the first five months of the initiative.[9] The first "Grandmothers to Grandmothers gathering" took place at George Brown College at the University of Toronto in August 2006, attended by two hundred grandmothers from Canada and one hundred from sub-Saharan Africa.[10]

The foundation mostly supports small frontline groups and charities, although on some occasions it has provided larger projects with money. It has supported initiatives in Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.[11]

References

  1. ^ Stephanie Nolen, "Stephen Lewis has one word for us: Help," Globe and Mail, 4 January 2003, F1.
  2. ^ Stephanie Nolen, "‘Someone is beginning to listen'," Globe and Mail, 28 June 2003, F3.
  3. ^ Financial Information, Stephen Lewis Foundation, accessed 19 February 2011.
  4. ^ Samantha Martin, "'I see almost exclusively the bad. I don't see a lot that's good'; Stephen Lewis speaks on AIDS in Africa during University of Guelph talk Thursday," Guelph Mercury, 4 October 2005, A3.
  5. ^ "Lewis passes torch after heroic effort," Toronto Star, 7 December 2006, R10.
  6. ^ About Ilana Landsberg-Lewis, Stephen Lewis Foundation, accessed 19 February 2011; The African Advisory Board, Stephen Lewis Foundation, accessed 19 February 2011.
  7. ^ Who We Are and Our Mandate, Stephen Lewis Foundation, accessed 19 February 2011.
  8. ^ Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign, Stephen Lewis Foundation, accessed 19 February 2011; "New Campaign to Support Africa's Unrecognized Heroes - The Grandmothers," All Africa, 8 March 2006, 08:13.
  9. ^ "Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign," Ottawa Citizen, 13 August 2006, B2.
  10. ^ Debra Black, "Grandmothers gather to share joys, sorrows," Toronto Star, 12 August 2006, A21.
  11. ^ Funding Projects, Stephen Lewis Foundation, accessed 19 February 2011.

External links