Latest news with #SlaightFamilyFoundation
Hamilton Spectator
30-07-2025
- Health
- Hamilton Spectator
Slaight Foundation to help address ‘immediate and devastating' USAID cuts with $13 million in funding
The Slaight Family Foundation will provide $13 million to more than a dozen Canadian humanitarian organizations over the next two years to help address what it describes as 'urgent gaps' from cuts in U.S. foreign aid. U.S. President Donald Trump's shuttering of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been 'immediate and devastating,' the foundation said in a press release announcing the donation on Wednesday. Child protection services have been shuttered, the recruitment of children by armed groups is increasing, and medical aid has been 'severely reduced,' it said. The Trump administration terminated more than 80 per cent of the USAID's programs earlier this year, while the remainder have since been absorbed by the U.S. State Department. The move has drawn sweeping criticism from politicians and aid groups who warn it will cause a humanitarian disaster. The U.S. agency — which was the world's largest provider of foreign aid — helped prevent 91 million deaths worldwide between 2001 and 2021, according to a recent study published in the Lancet medical journal. Researchers behind the study project the cuts will lead to more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, a third of which would be children. 'These cuts are happening at a time when global needs have never been greater,' said Samantha Nutt, founder and president of War Child Canada, one of the recipients of the Slaight Family Foundation's donation. 'Without swift action, we risk losing an entire generation to violence, displacement and preventable suffering,' she said in a statement, adding that the additional support to her agency is 'a powerful reminder that Canadian philanthropy can lead where others have stepped back.' The foundation will donate $1 million to War Child and 12 other agencies: Canadian Red Cross, Crossroads International, The Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace and Security, Human Rights Watch Canada, Kinvia (previously Canadian Feed the Children), Partners in Health Canada, Right to Play, Save the Children, Stephen Lewis Foundation, UNHCR Canada, UNICEF Canada and World Vision. 'Several Canadian organizations are delivering life-saving international aid in crisis zones like Bangladesh, Yemen and South Sudan, and they need support now more than ever,' said Gary Slaight, the foundation's president and chief executive. 'We hope this funding will help sustain access to health care, food, education and protection for the world's most vulnerable,' he said. The Slaight Family Foundation was founded in 2008 by Slaight's late father, John Allan Slaight , a prominent media mogul, philanthropist and rock and roll pioneer. The foundation and Slaight Music have supported charities related to health care, at-risk youth, the arts, international development and social services. With files from The Associated Press Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Toronto Star
30-07-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Star
Slaight Foundation to help address ‘immediate and devastating' USAID cuts with $13 million in funding
The Slaight Family Foundation will provide $13 million to more than a dozen Canadian humanitarian organizations over the next two years to help address what it describes as 'urgent gaps' from cuts in U.S. foreign aid. U.S. President Donald Trump's shuttering of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been 'immediate and devastating,' the foundation said in a press release announcing the donation on Wednesday. Child protection services have been shuttered, the recruitment of children by armed groups is increasing, and medical aid has been 'severely reduced,' it said.
Globe and Mail
30-07-2025
- Health
- Globe and Mail
Slaight Family Foundation to give 13 organizations $1-million each after ‘horrifying' USAID cuts
The Slaight Family Foundation will donate $13-million to more than a dozen humanitarian organizations while they respond to crises that groups say have intensified because of billions in U.S. foreign aid cuts. Gary Slaight, the foundation's president and CEO, said it decided to give 13 organizations $1-million each because of what has unfolded since U.S. President Donald Trump slashed funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. The cuts were condemned by aid organizations, who warned they will result in millions of deaths globally. A study published in medical journal The Lancet said the move could lead to more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030 – 4.5 million of which would be children under five. USAID funding played a critical role in improving global health and was largely directed to low and middle-income countries, particularly in Africa, the study said. 'It's horrifying what's going on in some of these places,' Mr. Slaight said. A recent report from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS said the cuts have already destabilized supply chains, led to the closure of health facilities, left thousands of health clinics without staff, set back prevention programs, disrupted HIV testing efforts and forced many community organizations to reduce or halt HIV work. The Slaight Family Foundation is a Canadian philanthropic organization established in 2008 by Canadian broadcasting pioneer and music industry leader, the late John Allan Slaight. It supports a number of charitable causes, including in health care. More than 90 per cent of U.S. aid programs abruptly cancelled, jeopardizing thousands of lives Program director Terry Smith said several Canadian groups shared concerns about being able to sustain humanitarian programs. They said people are dying, such as those who cannot can't access HIV medication. She said the 13 organizations identified where funding is most needed, such as to fight famine, supply shelter and water, and provide urgent assistance for women and children. The foundation will disburse an initial payment of $500,000 on Thursday and a second will be made in a year, Ms. Smith said. The recipients are the Canadian Red Cross, Crossroads International, The Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace and Security, Human Rights Watch Canada, Kinvia, Right to Play, Partners in Health Canada, Save the Children, Stephen Lewis Foundation, UNHCR Canada, UNICEF Canada, War Child and World Vision. Samantha Nutt, the president of War Child Canada and a physician who has worked for decades in some of the globe's most dangerous conflict zones, said the $1-million donation is a lifeline for her organization and others. Dr. Nutt said the emergency funding will allow War Child Canada to maintain the quality of its programs in Sudan, Yemen and other places where USAID is no longer available. Opinion: Canada can lead efforts to reform foreign aid that neither cuts nor continues the status quo 'For Canadian organizations, it definitely means that we can fill some of those urgent needs and urgent gaps in a way that would have been disastrous without it,' she said. Sevaun Palvetzian, the president and CEO of UNICEF Canada, said that watching governments, particularly the U.S., retreat from life-saving work is 'catastrophic.' The Slaight Family Foundation's donation will mean malnourished children in Ethiopia can be fed through 1.3 million packages of protein-rich, ready-to-use therapeutic food, she said. The funding will also help to screen hundreds of thousands of children for malnutrition and to admit more than 10,000 for emergency treatment, Ms. Palvetzian added. The Slaight Family Foundation hopes other donors will also make financial contributions. 'People are dying,' Mr. Slaight said. 'We're not going to solve the crisis with our $13-million. But we definitely feel we can help.'
CBC
24-06-2025
- Health
- CBC
'Very emotional': Brain-scanning tech gives kids with disabilities new powers
It sounds like something from a futuristic film: Technology that allows users to control their environment with mere thoughts. But for kids with disabilities in Ontario, it's an emerging reality that's helping them connect with the world around them in unprecedented ways. For 10-year-old Irelynn, who's non-verbal and has limited mobility, it means she can make a toy play music just by thinking about clapping. "Probably the best thing I've ever seen," says her dad, Jeff. Out of respect for the family's safety concerns, CBC is withholding Irelynn and her father's last name from this story. The technology, known as brain computer interface (BCI), relies on a black headset equipped with several circular sensors that listen to electrical signals inside Irelynn's head. "She has taught software to recognize a particular command thought," says Susannah Van Damme, an occupational therapist and the team lead of the clinical BCI program at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto. "So for Irelynn, she loves applause, she loves clapping, so that was the first command thought that we worked with." Van Damme led the recent session with Irelynn at the John McGivney Children's Centre in Windsor, Ont. The centre, which provides services and care to local kids with disabilities, is among the first in the province to train with the tool. A $30 million donation from the Slaight Family Foundation late last year is helping spread the technology beyond Holland Bloorview, which pioneered it. Jodi Fischer, manager for occupational therapy and physiotherapy at McGivney, says the training is in the early stages, but that it's been "very exciting" so far. "They see a way that they get to control their environment […] in a way that they've never been able to do in lots of instances," she says. "It's giving them a tool that they didn't know was possible." She said one boy she's worked with for years used the technology to make a machine throw a ball — something that could be integrated into a group program, or even allow him to play with his family in the future. "It is very emotional, and we've seen that time and time again in different demos," she said. The technology, built on decades of research at Holland Bloorview, is far from perfect. It takes a while for staff in the McGivney gymnasium to secure the headset and its multiple sensors in just the right spots on Irelynn. But Irelynn, wearing pigtails and a red summer dress, sits calmly in her wheelchair. She's done this before. "In order for us to get those signals, we need to make sure every electrode is making good contact with her skull," Van Damme said. "So we have to move hair around. We have little felts that are soaked in saline solution so that salt helps with conductivity," she said. "And once we know that the headset is well connected, then we're able to move forward and train the system to recognize when she wants to activate a toy." The current headsets were designed for adults, Van Damme says, so she hopes they can keep improving the technology. But for Jeff, Irelynn's father, the device has already opened up their worlds. She was diagnosed with STXBP1 disorder, a rare genetic condition, when she was a toddler, he says. "It just shows that children are capable of so much more than what we really know," he said. Both Jeff and Fischer, the therapy manager at McGivney, said the tool gives them hope for what technology could do for people with disabilities in the future. "Who knows where it will go?" she said.
