 | |
| Abbreviation | SLF |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2003 |
| Founders |
|
| Legal status | Charitable organization |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
Region served | Sub-Saharan Africa |
Co-chairs |
|
Executive director | Meg French |
Revenue | C$9.4 million (2023) |
| Expenses | C$9.2 million (2023) |
| Website | stephenlewisfoundation |
The Stephen Lewis Foundation (SLF) is a non-governmental organization that assists mostly AIDS- and HIV-related grassroots projects in Africa. [1]
The foundation was started by Stephen Lewis, a former Ontario Opposition Leader and 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. [2] 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 totaled $275,000. [3] As of 2014, the foundation's website indicates that it has disbursed over $80 million to more than 1,100 initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa. [4]
For his efforts in starting the foundation, Lewis was named as person of the year by Maclean's magazine in 2003 and was awarded the Pearson Peace Medal in 2004. [5] He continues to travel and speak on the foundation's behalf. [6] Lewis's daughter, Ilana Landsberg-Lewis, was the foundation's executive director since its formation in 2003 until 2020, and its African Advisory Board is chaired by Graça Machel. [7]
As of 2020, the executive director has been human rights advocate Meg French [8] who worked previously with UNICEF and the United Nations, and had ties to the foundation since participating in the International AIDS Conference in 2006 when the Grandmothers To Grandmothers campaign was launched.
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. [9]
On March 7, 2006, the foundation launched the "Grandmothers to Grandmothers" campaign to encourage grandmothers in Canada to raise funds and awareness on behalf of African grandmothers caring for children orphaned by AIDS. [10] More than forty groups were started across Canada in the first five months of the initiative. [11] 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. [12] Several groups from the Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign were profiled in Grandmother Power, a book by photojournalist Paola Gianturco. [13]
On September 7, 2013, the foundation hosted a people's tribunal in Vancouver, BC, to shine a light on the discrimination and inequality faced by African grandmothers who are supporting communities and children affected by HIV/AIDS. Six grandmothers from across sub-Saharan Africa presented personal testimonies to four Tribunal judges: Theo Sowa, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, Joy Phumaphi and Gloria Steinem. [14]
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, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. [15]
The foundation’s approach to funding is based on the principle that community-based organizations are best poised to respond effectively to the HIV/AIDS crisis. [16] In evaluating funding applications from prospective partners, the foundation places particular emphasis on the involvement of women, community members, and people living with HIV and AIDS in decision-making processes. [17]
HIV/AIDS originated in the early 20th century and has become a major public health concern and cause of death in many countries. AIDS rates vary significantly between countries, with the majority of cases concentrated in Southern Africa. Although the continent is home to about 15.2 percent of the world's population, more than two-thirds of the total population infected worldwide – approximately 35 million people – were Africans, of whom around 1 million have already died. Eastern and Southern Africa alone accounted for an estimate of 60 percent of all people living with HIV and 100 percent of all AIDS deaths in 2011. The countries of Eastern and Southern Africa are most affected, leading to raised death rates and lowered life expectancy among adults between the ages of 20 and 49 by about twenty years. Furthermore, life expectancy in many parts of Africa is declining, largely as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, with life-expectancy in some countries reaching as low as thirty-nine years.
Stephen Henry Lewis is a Canadian politician, public speaker, broadcaster, and diplomat. He was the leader of the social democratic Ontario New Democratic Party for most of the 1970s.
Michele Landsberg OC, is a Canadian journalist, author, public speaker, feminist and social activist. She is known for writing three bestselling books, including Women and Children First, This is New York, Honey!, and Michele Landsberg's Guide to Children's Books. She has written columns for the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, and Chatelaine magazine, and is one of the first journalists in Canada to address sexual harassment in the workplace, racial discrimination in education and employment opportunities, and lack of gender equality in divorce and custodial legal proceedings.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) is a South African HIV/AIDS activist organisation which was co-founded by the HIV-positive activist Zackie Achmat in 1998. TAC is rooted in the experiences, direct action tactics and anti-apartheid background of its founder. TAC has been credited with forcing the reluctant government of former South African President Thabo Mbeki to begin making antiretroviral drugs available to South Africans.
The United States President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is a United States governmental initiative to address the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and help save the lives of those suffering from the disease. Launched by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2003, as of May 2020, PEPFAR has provided about $90 billion in cumulative funding for HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and research since its inception, making it the largest global health program focused on a single disease in history until the COVID-19 pandemic. PEPFAR is implemented by a combination of U.S. government agencies in over 50 countries and overseen by the Global AIDS Coordinator at the United States Department of State. As of 2023, PEPFAR has saved over 25 million lives, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa.
The European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) is a partnership between the European Union (EU), Norway, Switzerland and developing countries and other donors, as well as the pharmaceutical industry, to enable clinical trials and the development of new medicines and vaccines against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. The need for global action against these diseases in order to promote poverty reduction has been recognised by the United Nations, the G8, and the African Union, and the program envisioned the provision of €600 million for the period 2003–2007 in order to translate medical research results into clinical applications relevant to the needs of developing countries.
Keep a Child Alive (KCA) is a nonprofit organization that provides healthcare, housing, and other support services to HIV/AIDS-affected communities in Africa and India. Co-founded by Leigh Blake and Alicia Keys, the organization aims to "realize the end of AIDS for children and families, by combating the physical, social and economic impacts of HIV." Keep a Child Alive organizes the annual fundraiser gala The Black Ball, established in 2004, where celebrities and philanthropists gather to support and raise awareness for the cause. Since the first Black Ball, the organization has raised over $28.7 million for HIV/AIDS treatment.
28 Stories of AIDS in Africa is a 2007 non-fiction book by Canadian journalist and author Stephanie Nolen. It tells 28 stories of people who have worked tackling HIV/AIDS in healthcare, as advocates, and people who have been diagnosed as HIV positive and their family members.
Stephanie Nolen is a Canadian journalist and writer. She is currently the Global Health Reporter for The New York Times. From 2013 to 2019, she was the Latin America bureau chief for The Globe and Mail. From 2008 to 2013, she was the Globe's South Asia Bureau Chief, based in New Delhi. From 2003 to 2008, she was the Globe's Africa bureau chief, and she has reported from more than 60 countries around the world. She is a seven-time National Newspaper Awards winner for her work in Africa and India. She is tied for the most NNA wins in the history of the awards. Nolen is a four-time recipient of the Amnesty International Award for Human Rights Reporting. Her book on Africa's AIDS pandemic, 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa, was nominated for the 2007 Governor General's Literary Award and has been published in 15 countries. She is the co-founder of the Museum of AIDS in Africa.
Race Against Time: Searching for Hope in AIDS-Ravaged Africa is a non-fiction book written by Stephen Lewis for the Massey Lectures. Lewis wrote it in early to mid-2005 and House of Anansi Press released it as a corresponding lecture series began in October 2005. Each of the book's chapters were delivered as a different lecture in a different Canadian city, beginning in Vancouver on October 18 and ending in Toronto on October 28. The speeches were aired on CBC Radio One between November 7 and 11. The author and orator, Stephen Lewis, was at that time the United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa and former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations. Although he wrote the book and lectures in his role as a concerned Canadian citizen, his criticism of the United Nations (UN), international organizations, and other diplomats, including naming specific people, was called undiplomatic and led several reviewers to speculate whether he would be removed from his UN position.
The very high rate of human immunodeficiency virus infection experienced in Uganda during the 1980s and early 1990s created an urgent need for people to know their HIV status. The only option available to them was offered by the National Blood Transfusion Service, which carries out routine HIV tests on all the blood that is donated for transfusion purposes. The great need for testing and counseling resulted in a group of local non-governmental organizations such as The AIDS Support Organisation, Uganda Red Cross, Nsambya Home Care, the National Blood Bank, the Uganda Virus Research Institute together with the Ministry of Health establishing the AIDS Information Centre in 1990. This organization worked to provide HIV testing and counseling services with the knowledge and consent of the client involved.
HIV/AIDS affects economic growth by reducing the availability of human capital. Without proper prevention, nutrition, health care and medicine that is available in developing countries, large numbers of people are developing AIDS.
HIV/AIDS in Lesotho constitutes a very serious threat to Basotho and to Lesotho's economic development. Since its initial detection in 1986, HIV/AIDS has spread at alarming rates in Lesotho. In 2000, King Letsie III declared HIV/AIDS a natural disaster. According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in 2016, Lesotho's adult prevalence rate of 25% is the second highest in the world, following Eswatini.
As of 2012, approximately 1,100,000 people in Malawi are HIV-positive, which represents 10.8% of the country's population. Because the Malawian government was initially slow to respond to the epidemic under the leadership of Hastings Banda (1966–1994), the prevalence of HIV/AIDS increased drastically between 1985, when the disease was first identified in Malawi, and 1993, when HIV prevalence rates were estimated to be as high as 30% among pregnant women. The Malawian food crisis in 2002 resulted, at least in part, from a loss of agricultural productivity due to the prevalence of HIV/AIDS. Various degrees of government involvement under the leadership of Bakili Muluzi (1994–2004) and Bingu wa Mutharika (2004–2012) resulted in a gradual decline in HIV prevalence, and, in 2003, many people living in Malawi gained access to antiretroviral therapy. Condoms have become more widely available to the public through non-governmental organizations, and more Malawians are taking advantage of HIV testing services.
Consol Homes is a Malawi community organisation that supports orphans and young children affected by HIV and AIDs.
The Uganda AIDS Orphan Children Foundation (UAOCF) is a non-profit charity that helps vulnerable children and those orphaned by AIDS in Uganda. UAOCF received 501 (c) (3) charity status in 2003; subsequently, the Internal Revenue Service granted permanent public charity status in 2006. The foundation's mission is to provide support to orphans in foster homes and to support Hope House, the Kabale Diocese residential facility/technical school for orphans. As of April 2009, UAOCF supports over 50 children at Hope House and over 350 all together.
Paola Gianturco is an American photojournalist and former business executive. Her photojournalistic work has focused on women around the world who have overcome difficult issues.
PharmAccess Foundation is a part of the PharmAccess Group. PharmAccess is an international non-profit organization with a digital agenda dedicated to connecting more people in sub-Saharan Africa to better healthcare. By making use of public-private partnerships, they leverage donor contributions, which they believe will pave the way for private investments thereby contributing to healthier populations and social and economic development. Currently, PharmAccess employs a multidisciplinary team of professionals in Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and the Netherlands.
Liz Marshall is a Canadian filmmaker based in Toronto. Since the 1990s, she has directed and produced independent projects and been part of film and television teams, creating broadcast, theatrical, campaign and cross-platform documentaries shot around the world. Marshall's feature length documentaries largely focus on social justice and environmental themes through strong characters. She is known for The Ghosts in Our Machine and for Water on the Table, for which she also produced impact and engagement campaigns, and attended many global events as a public speaker. Water on the Table features water rights activist, author and public figure Maude Barlow. The Ghosts in Our Machine features animal rights activist, photojournalist and author Jo-Anne McArthur.
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