Mr. Speaker, this past weekend I had the honour of speaking at an HIV-AIDS education fundraiser. This fundraiser was organized by Aiding Youth for Life. It is a non-profit grassroots organization aimed at addressing the problems of HIV-AIDS among youth worldwide.
This organization was founded and operated by a group of youth who were motivated to help in the fight against HIV-AIDS while empowering other students to become part of the solution as opposed to part of the problem.
AYL's international student union consists of seven youth run chapters that are comprised of secondary and post-secondary schools in East Africa and North America, representing over 700 individual members. Every summer AYL sends a team of North American university students on a two month internship to East Africa to contribute to their HIV-AIDS awareness campaigns.
I want to recognize the founders of this organization, Ali Kanji and Jessica Shaikh, for their outstanding humanitarian work. They make us very proud. I have no doubt that they will provide strong Canadian leadership at the international level.