One of Canada’s finest foreign assistance achievements is TB Reach, a grassroots health organization dedicated to help tuberculosis sufferers missed by other programs: those who are physically isolated and difficult to treat.
There are an estimated three million of these people worldwide, with each untreated sufferer eventually infecting up to 10 other people.
Canada is the only major funder of TB Reach. Our federal government already does great work fighting this ancient scourge through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, but TB Reach is Canada’s own gift to the world.
Currently, TB Reach is short about $200 million, spread over five years. I sincerely hope that on March 24, World TB Day, Canada pledges to complete funding of TB Reach and help save the lives of those last three million.
Nathaniel Poole
Victoria