Welcome Letter from CEO

The health crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the greatest human tragedies of our time. This crisis has evoked a valuable debate on how best to provide healthcare to those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.

At the Lazarus Foundation, we have chosen to envision a world with no gaps in access to healthcare, only bridges.

The role we call you to take on is one of partnership. Everyone has a role to play and no role is too small or insignificant. We are all accountable, individually and collectively to mitigate the devastating effects of a plague that has eaten into every fabric of African society.

Sadly, by the time you read through this letter, four more people in Sub-Saharan Africa would have lost their lives to AIDS.

Bono, the lead singer of the Band U2, so passionately declared, “We cannot watch the African continent burst into flames, while we stand from the side lines with watering cans in our hands”. What would compel you into action? Each one of us has the talents and or resources to make a difference.

Every time you support the Lazarus Foundation with money, time, and or good will, you light a candle of hope. A candle of hope brings light into the seemingly bleak situation in Africa. Hope means that the provision of one pill would save a newborn baby from becoming HIV infected, even if the mother is dying from AIDS. Hope means that even the “dying” mother may lead a productive positive life because she has access to Anti retroviral medication. Hope means that a father’s constitutional Right to work, is protected even though he is HIV positive. For those dying, from the opportunistic infections brought upon by a failing immune system, hope means a deathbed with accorded dignity and respect. For the millions of orphans, who have emerged from this tragedy, hope means care, food, shelter, education, and much more.

Hope may come in different packages and languages, but the message is the same; keep the candles burning, KEEP HOPE ALIVE.

Renua Scott-Emuakpor
CEO, The Lazarus Foundation