TORONTO — The Slaight Family Foundation says it is donating $1 million each to 15 global organizations working to improve human rights for women and girls.
The groups work mainly in impoverished, fragile or war-torn areas, and tackle issues including human rights abuses, child marriages, sex trafficking, legal support, HIV and AIDS and education.
Projects include CARE Canada's efforts to improve menstrual hygiene management for school-age girls with female genital mutilation in Somalia, and a Human Rights Watch program that documents abuses of male guardianship in the Middle East and North Africa.
Money will also go towards the Stephen Lewis Foundation's efforts to improve access to HIV prevention services in Sub-Saharan Africa and World Vision efforts to reduce early marriage in Mali.
It will also help a War Child program to give legal support to those affected by gender-based violence in countries including Afghanistan, Uganda and Iraq.
War Child Canada president Samantha Nutt says the funds "will directly assist more than one million women and girls in some of the world's most fragile regions."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 3, 2020.
The Canadian Press
