Partners In Health Canada 🇨🇦

18 Mar 2025

This is not a time to mince words, and it's not a time for inaction. Health care access should not be controversial, nor should it be a political pawn. #foreignaidfreeze Stay informed. Spread the word. Donate. Pihcanada.org/crisis

16h

Some friendships change your life. Others help change the world. ❤️ In 1983, Paul Farmer met Ophelia Dahl in Haiti. Together with friends and Haitian colleagues, they helped build Partners In Health around one belief: health care is a human right. Happy birthday, Paul! 🎂

LAST CHANCE! Staying Power, our 15th anniversary celebration is tonight! Join Ophelia Dahl, Isata Dumbuya, and Dr. Wesler Lambert for a conversation on global health equity. Grab tickets here: https://bit.ly/47v3Byn

We mourn Edmonton philanthropist Irving Kipnes. For more than a decade, Irv and his late wife Dianne supported PIH's oncology and maternal health work in Rwanda, reaching thousands of lives. May Irv's memory be a blessing.

Foreign aid fell by almost a quarter last year, the biggest fall on record. 🧵

Health care is a human right, and while access to it shouldn’t be determined by budget priorities, that’s the reality we live in.

pihcanada.orgPIH Partners In Health CanadaYour Donation Will Save Lives

Follow us for more on global health, and see how PIH Canada is working toward health care for everyone, everywhere. Orange heart Learn more about PIH Canada's work: pihcanada.org

Foreign aid fell by almost a quarter last year, the biggest fall on record. 🧵

That money kept clinics open, vaccines in fridges, and treatment on shelves in countries with no backup funding waiting in the wings.

Fortunately, few countries have raised their aid but there’s room for others to do better (cough Canada cough)

Foreign aid fell by almost a quarter last year, the biggest fall on record. 🧵

Feel however you want about foreign aid, but cutting it overnight leaves health systems with no time to find other funding, leaving people without access to life-saving treatment.

Isata Dumbuya from Partners In Health Sierra Leone is in Canada 🇨🇦 One stop down, three more to go! 🏃🏽‍♀️ Isata is PIH Sierra Leone’s Director of Nursing and Midwifery, and TIME named her one of its 2026 Women of the Year for her work in maternal health. Here’s where to find her 👉

📍Thurs, Oct 22 in Toronto, 6:30-9 PM Celebrate our 15th Anniversary “Staying Power” celebration with Isata, Ophelia, and Dr. Wesler Lambert of Zanmi Lasante. Together for one big night at Soho House in Toronto! Register here: www.eventbrite.ca/e/partners-i...

Which of the remaining stops are you joining? Registration and tickets to our 15th Anniversary event at Trinity College linked here: www.trinity.utoronto.ca/event/doing-...

📍 Tues, Oct 20 in Ottawa, 7 PM An Evening with Isata at Elmwood School, in conversation with CBC Radio producer, Emma Godmere. All are welcome!

📍Thurs, Oct 22 in Toronto, 3-5 PM Doing Hard Things with Friends: a fireside chat at @trinitycollegeuoft.bsky.social with Isata, PIH Co-founder Ophelia Dahl, and Dr. Alain Casseus, the Infectious Diseases Division Chief at Zanmi Lasante (PIH in Haiti), moderated by Dr. Vanessa Redditt.

📍 Oct 17 in Montreal, 8:45–10:15 AM ✅ Isata joined the Plenary 2 morning panel at the Canadian Conference on Global Health, talking about grounding community voices in health equity.

Two years ago, Peter J. Wallace came to a hospital in rural Liberia looking for help with alcohol use. Today, at 23, he helps lead the peer support group that supported his recovery 🧵

The model is spreading. After a learning exchange this year, PIH Sierra Leone is adapting it for Kono District and Freetown.

pihcanada.orgHow Peer Support is Changing Substance Use Recovery in LiberiaAfter overcoming substance use challenges, Peter Wallace returned to school and became a peer educator, helping young people in rural Liberia find support, recovery, and hope for the future.

In Peter's words: "I want to make a difference and bring positive change to my family." Read his full story: pihcanada.org/news/how-pee...

Two years ago, Peter J. Wallace came to a hospital in rural Liberia looking for help with alcohol use. Today, at 23, he helps lead the peer support group that supported his recovery 🧵

He went back to school in 2025 and became a peer educator. Now he helps lead sessions, talks about substance use in schools and connects others to care.

Nurse Willis Archie Yansine built the program by visiting communities and earning their trust. Today, young people bring their friends to the group themselves.

Two years ago, Peter J. Wallace came to a hospital in rural Liberia looking for help with alcohol use. Today, at 23, he helps lead the peer support group that supported his recovery 🧵

Liberia has about 10 psychiatrists, and Dr. Helen Tedros Haile is one of them. She treated Peter and connected him to a weekly peer group. Within a month, his symptoms had improved dramatically.

Health is a human right. But who is responsible for making that right a reality? “The people responsible for delivering on that right are not NGOs.” PIH Canada's National Director, @mbrender.bsky.social, gets to the heart of a question we need to grapple with. 🧵

Mark shared these reflections at a panel on Canadian philanthropy with CAF Canada and the Pathy Family Foundation, alongside buildOn and Ancestors of Tomorrow. For those of you in the trenches of this work, how do you navigate this tension?

cafcanada.caFostering Global Giving: How Canadian Philanthropy Can Meet the Moment - CAF CanadaAt a time when global needs are growing more complex, Canadian philanthropy has new opportunities to support locally led solutions. CAF Canada and Pathy Family Foundation recently facilitated a practical, inspiring conversation about giving across borders with confidence and impact.

Watch the full conversation: www.cafcanada.ca/webinar/fost...

“It’s governments. It’s their obligation.” Just as we expect governments to provide the essentials here in Canada, governments where we work have that obligation as well. The right to health shouldn't depend on charitable goodwill.

@resultscanada.bsky.social

So where do organizations like ours fit? “Our job is to accompany those governments. So that over time, they can take this work on themselves.” At PIH, accompaniment means working alongside governments to strengthen public health systems.

Partners In Health Canada 🇨🇦 reposted

Results Canada

Replying to @resultscanada.bsky.social

Our panel featured Mark Brender from @pihcanada.org, Jeanne from @theslf.org Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign and Maria Guardado, a former Results Fellow. They gave our attendees hard-won wisdom gleaned from years of experience in advocacy.

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Results Canada

@resultscanada.bsky.social

This is what it looks like to get Results! Last weekend, we drove down to Toronto to connect with our volunteer advocates.

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Cooperation Canada

@cooperationcanada.bsky.social

Join Cooperation Canada for an interactive webinar for the launch of the 2026 Canadian Aid Trends Report, an essential resource for understanding the priorities, trends, and evolving landscape of Canada's international assistance. Register now: cooperationca.glueup.com/event/2026-a...

cooperationca.glueup.com2026 Aid Trends Report Launch | Lancement du rapport Tendances de l’aide 2026 | Cooperation CanadaJoin Cooperation Canada for the launch of the 202 Canadian Aid Trends Report, an essential resource for understanding the priorities, trends & evolving landscape of Canada's international assistance.

Last week, Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto received an anonymous donation of $100M as part of a $2.5B campaign for cancer care. It’s incredible generosity, and PMH does wonderful, lifesaving work.

So many of the challenges the world faces are rooted in inequality: of resources, income, and access to health care. The ambition we have for cancer care in wealthy countries should be the ambition we have for patients everywhere.

In this time of manufactured scarcity for those who have the least, we need to keep proving it is possible to deliver on that ambition by working for a better distribution of global resources. And we will never build a world free of cancer, or free of any other disease, until we address this.

That’s domestic government spending only. In other words, what each country funds from its own resources— not counting foreign aid— for a full year. On EVERYTHING related to health.

In many countries, even basic cancer care remains out of reach. For them, the systems to deliver this type of care don’t yet exist.

data.worldbank.orgWorld Bank Open DataFree and open access to global development data

At the same time, there’s a global context: that single $100M gift is more than what many low-income countries spent on health from their own budgets in all of 2023. Source: data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH...

@resultscanada.bsky.social

Today is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. PIH Canada honours residential school survivors, their families, and their communities. Listen, learn, honour, and support today and every day after. 🧡

Partners In Health Canada 🇨🇦 reposted

Results Canada

BREAKING: new polling shows that the majority of Canadians want to see Canada step up for the world's children. But we can't do that if we keep cutting our aid budget. Tell your MP that Canada must STOP THE CUTS in Budget 2026.

pihcanada.orgWebinar: Standing Up For Global HealthAs part of International Women’s Day, we invite you to a conversation on the intersection of adolescent health and trans health in global health equity. Around the world, young people—especially those...

21 Sept

Global health funding cuts put patient care at risk. Hear from PIH leaders in Haiti and Malawi and PIH’s advocacy team on how cuts affect care and the fight for sustained funding. Sept. 24 | 12 pm ET / 9 am PT | Zoom Register: pihcanada.org/webinar-stan...

18 Sept

Budget 2025 cut $2.7B from Canada’s international assistance. Budget 2026 can reverse that. This week, we’re with six other Canadian organizations calling MPs with one message: no more cuts to international aid. Call your MP today: pihcanada.org/nomorecuts

11 Sept

Paul Farmer had zero patience for certain words: budget, strategic plan, tuition fees. These were polite ways of saying no, and he’d rather work towards finding ways to say YES. This is still the standard at PIH today. What word would you add?

1 Sept

What does it take to deliver health care? Staff, stuff, space, systems, and social support. All five sound simple, but remove one, and the entire health system weakens. Learn more: https://pihcanada.org/news/pihs-five-ss-essential-elements-strong-health-systems

pihcanada.orgTuberculosis Infected Her Spine. Her Hope for Her Future Remains.Regina Chingwalu, a young women living in Malawi, lost the use of her limbs from extrapulmonary tuberculosis (TB). Then, PIH stepped in.

27 Aug

Regina was 14 when tuberculosis reached her spine. TB is curable, but it led her to losing her ability to walk. Today, she’s back in school and aiming to become a teacher. Her story: https://pihcanada.org/news/tuberculosis-infected-her-spine-her-hope-her-future-remains

14 Aug

What does it take to end TB in hard-to-reach places? Community-based care that meets people where they are. In 2023: 9 countries, 36K+ tests, 13K people treated and an 84% success rate. Learn more: https://pihcanada.org/news/i-want-get-well-tb-treatment-journey-indigenous-woman-peru 🔗

eventbrite.comFostering global giving: How Canadian philanthropy can meet the momentJoin CAF Canada and the Pathy Family Foundation for an inspiring conversation on navigating cross-border giving with confidence.

5 Aug

How can we meet urgent global needs while supporting locally led solutions? On Aug. 12, Mark Brender joins CAF Canada for a conversation on responsible giving: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fostering-global-giving-how-canadian-philanthropy-can-meet-the-moment-tickets-1994959662052?aff=oddtdtcreator

6 July

Before TB stole his breath, Elvis played the saxophone. Through a clinical trial in Peru he received shorter treatment for one of the most resistant forms of TB, and the support to make recovery possible: https://pihcanada.org/news/elvis-and-drug-resistant-tuberculosis-clinical-study-saved-his-life

pihcanada.orgThe Fight Against Tuberculosis on Guimaras Island

5 July

"TB is curable, but..." that's most sentences about TB. On Guimaras Island, PIH, the Government of the Philippines, John Green, and local partners are working to prove that TB elimination is possible when care reaches everyone. https://pihcanada.org/news/fight-against-tuberculosis-guimaras-island

4 July

Hundreds of new people have joined us here recently — welcome 💙 We’re Partners In Health Canada: part of a global movement for health equity, working alongside communities to build care that lasts. Here’s a glimpse of what we’ve done together: https://pihcanada.org/about-us/our-approach/our-impact

3 July

Thank you to everyone who gave, interacted, shared. Because of your generosity, we’ve met our goal! Your support is helping strengthen the systems that make safe care possible for more moms and babies. Stay up to date on progress: https://pihcanada.org/#block-pih-local-signupforournewsletter

27 June

Did you know traditional birth attendants were once banned from delivering babies in Sierra Leone? In Kono, PIH chose to partner with them instead. Until June 30, every gift is doubled: https://pihcanada.org/campaigns/safe-birth?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=end_of_fiscal_year