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This is what the Stephen Lewis Foundation does with your generous donations

For those of you participating in our Dare to Draw challenge, your kids have been dutifully creating drawings everyday for the last month while you sponsor them to do so. Now that the campaign’s wrapping up, it’s time to turn in those generous pledge dollars!

Want a little more info about the Stephen Lewis Foundation? Here’s what they do:

“The Stephen Lewis Foundation was created with the express purpose of putting money directly in the hands of community-based organizations working on the frontlines of the AIDS pandemic in Africa. We support women, children orphaned by AIDS and the indomitable grandmothers who have stepped in to care for them, and sustain associations of people living with HIV and AIDS, who are bravely declaring their status and working to address stigma, educate their communities and press for change.”

The foundation gives any money raised to community groups working in Africa because they believe “that if anyone is going to turn the tide of AIDS in Africa at the community level, they will be found in the communities themselves.”

Just as an example, we asked our pals at the Stephen Lewis Foundation for just some of the ways that your donations help families in Sub-Saharan Africa. Here’s what last year’s donations could get in Tanzania:

• $8:    One home-based care visit: includes counselling, pain management, basic domestic chores and palliative care
• $10:     Purchase of Mosquito nets for a Person Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA)
• $20:     Monthly food parcel for a bedridden PLWHA
• $26:    For a home-based care worker to receive specialized training in palliative care and counselling.
• $28:     For a PLWHA to attend weekly cooking lessons for 9 months with a focus on health, nutrition and HIV.
• $48:    Monthly allowance for peer educators who provide nutrition counselling and HIV education to 40 PLWHAs
• $72:    Purchase and delivery of medicines to combat opportunistic infections for a PLWHA for one year.
• $170:  Monthly salary for full-time nurse
• $250: Purchase of HIV test kit
• $340: Monthly salary for full-time doctor
• $891:  Annual college tuition

As you can see, whether you pledged a little or a lot, your contribution to the Dare to Draw efforts can make a big difference in someone’s life.

Photo via Stephen Lewis Foundation