Write an LTE if you want to make your opinion heard in a timely manner. You don’t need a lot of research, and your LTE can be brief and to-the-point - just 150-200 words! When time is of the essence, choose to write an LTE.
expert fact
Once submitted, you can track your letter by doing an internet search of your name and following up with the publication to find out if/when it is getting published.
secret tip
Your letter doesn’t have to be perfect, and you don’t have to be an expert to have an opinion. You simply need to care.
Share a photo with a monument lit in red to stand in solidarity with those in TB-affected communities.
expert fact
Tuberculosis (TB) is more than the deadliest infectious disease in the world. It stands as a stark emblem of global health disparity, as it continues to disproportionately afflict communities that are the most marginalized. Among the most vulnerable to this disease are children, whose struggles with TB often remain in the shadows of global health priorities. Every year, 1.3 million children develop TB. More than half of these children are never diagnosed, much less treated, and 18% do not survive.
secret tip
Share your photo on social media with a message about the need to #EndTB to save lives and tag the Member of Parliament relevant to the location of the monument.
“The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day; a movement is only people moving.”
- Gloria Steinem, American feminist, journalist, and activist
Recent executive orders signed in the United States to freeze all activities of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) – with the exception of provision for some urgent humanitarian assistance – is sowing chaos, threatening livelihoods, and jeopardizing decades of progress toward the eradication of extreme poverty.
In a small hospital in rural Burundi, for instance, warehouses of food were locked, and medical supplies vanished without warning. American doctor Jennifer Furin is fighting to save malnourished children with dwindling supplies of therapeutic food. She has the impossible and unacceptable task of choosing who gets to eat and who does not.
The ask: We call on the government of Canada to sustain and increase the International Assistance Envelope in 2025 to solidify global leadership and address the ongoing global gaps in immunization, nutrition, and education worldwide to ensure a more stable, equitable, and prosperous world.
The United States is the largest funder of international assistance programming in the world, with USAID providing assistance to about 130 countries, including 42% of all global health funding worldwide. The rollback of funding has created an enormous vacuum with critical personnel, infrastructure, programming, and partnerships ending abruptly.
global impacts of halting USAID
President Trump’s orders have:
Halted programs that helped eradicate polio and smallpox, or provided HIV/AIDS treatment to 20 million people across Africa;
Cut 30% of funding for the Family Planning Association in Malawi, resulting in the closure of 35 clinics – putting sexual and reproductive health rights at risk;
Interrupted the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis in over 50 countries, stalling the development of critically needed methods to immunize against, detect, and treat the world’s deadliest infectious disease;
Halted US-supported investigations and responses to outbreaks of diseases like Ebola, mpox and polio, leading to increased risks of outbreaks spreading regionally and globally.
efforts to end TB at risk
With USAID programs halted indefinitely, gaps will continue to grow across all the issue areas we advocate on and beyond. USAID is the largest bilateral donor in the fight to end TB, having invested more than US$ 4.7 billion to combat the airborne disease since 2000, which has saved more than 79 million lives. In 2023, USAID supported 5 million people to complete their TB treatment, which is an average of 11,000 people every day (figures are from the USAID TB report previously on their website and now taken down).
For example, in Cambodia alone, active case finding for TB has been halted, resulting in over 100,000 people missing out on TB screening. The halting of funding for critical TB services where people seek care, such as awareness raising, prevention, early screening and diagnosis, treatment, as well as supporting people throughout with mental health provisions, peer counselling, and nutritional support, poses grave risks to public health, threatening to undo years of progress made in TB elimination worldwide. With World Tuberculosis Day coming up on March 24th, it is more important than ever to raise awareness and advocate to stop TB!
Canada’s role
Canada has an enormous role to play to meet this moment and has both the diplomatic power and influence needed to mobilize other countries and institutions to come together and reject the notion that turning inward is the answer.
While Canada invests only a small amount of its wealth – less than 0.5% of the Gross National Income – in the fight to end global poverty, these contributions build momentum and leverage billions of dollars of investments from global partners. It is through our robust and growing International Assistance Envelope that Canada steps us as a global leader and influences others to invest.
With a new Prime Minister and a federal election on the horizon, this is the time to make sure the current and future government know that people in Canada care about the world.
Canada has several opportunities to make an enormous difference right now that will translate directly to impact through investment in critical lifesaving mechanisms and initiatives:
Investing in Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance will ensure the immunization of over 500 million children, and to support the elimination of cervical cancer through vaccinations against the human papillomavirus (HPV).
Addressing the world’s urgent hunger and nutrition crisis by announcing commitments at March’s Nutrition for Growth Summit in Paris will provide nourishing food to millions around the world.
Stepping up as the G7 President to make enormous strides toward solving the global education crisis by leading an initiative at the June’s G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta to ensure that all children living in emergencies have access to quality education.
The challenges on the horizon might feel daunting and a little overwhelming, but we must find compassion and care in community to take action to ensure Canada stands up in 2025 because #TogetherWeLead.
The ask: We call on the government of Canada to sustain and increase the International Assistance Envelope in 2025 to solidify global leadership and address the ongoing global gaps in immunization, nutrition, and education worldwide to ensure a more stable, equitable, and prosperous world.
latest campaign news
#FeedOurFuture:
During International Development Week, the Minister of International Development Ahmed Hussen announced $360.6 million for Nutrition International (NI), a high-impact investment that will help put an end to the malnutrition crisis! This funding supports NI’s bold plan to improve millions of people’s lives. With an average return of $28 for every $1 invested, nutrition interventions offer some of the highest returns in global development. And with good nutrition, we know that children can better access education, and healthcare costs will decrease for both countries and individuals. Thank you to all our volunteers who have been advocating for investments in nutrition! This is a solid down payment on the $750 million we need for the Nutrition For Growth Summit.
[BBC] "The freezing of US humanitarian assistance has forced the closure of almost 80% of the emergency food kitchens set up to help people left destitute by Sudan's civil war, the BBC has learned.
Aid volunteers said the impact of President Donald Trump's executive order halting contributions from the US government's development organisation (USAID) for 90 days meant more than 1,100 communal kitchens had shut.
It is estimated that nearly two million people struggling to survive have been affected."
