Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. Good morning, members of Parliament. Thank you for inviting us to present to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. My name is Janine Maxwell, and I am here with my husband, Ian Maxwell. We are the co-founders of an NGO called Heart

Foreign Affairs committee  That's a really excellent question. It's a big challenge for us. Ian and I are legal guardians over these children. In fact, we got baby number 91 yesterday, so we have one more than we had on record today. It's a challenge. Many of the people living in Swaziland do not have ide

Foreign Affairs committee  I'll address the question of child protection first, because the issue of children at risk is a major issue around the world. As Ian was explaining, it's really why we moved to Swaziland. The farming is very important, but the farming is a means to an end. We need to be able to f

Foreign Affairs committee  To become the leader, so they can actually come to Parliament in Canada. The DPM's office is working very diligently with us, and it's not easy, but of our 91 babies, we now probably have 88 birth certificates, which is huge.

Foreign Affairs committee  I would say that my message...and I think each of them will be different, because my job on the farm is the children and the women, the children at risk and women at risk. My message to the Government of Canada and to the people of Canada is that there are people suffering and th

Foreign Affairs committee  During the days of colonialism—and most of the countries in Africa were colonized—Swaziland was a protectorate under British law. It had the benefit of not.... There are two sides to it. They weren't colonized totally, but the British were there, and they had a deal with King Sob

Foreign Affairs committee  We don't do microloans. That's not part of our project. All the funds for Project Canaan come from either Heart for Africa Canada or Heart for Africa U.S. We also have a charity in Taiwan. All the donations that come are managed by us and our board there to make sure that the f

Foreign Affairs committee  The king is supreme.

Foreign Affairs committee  He's 45.

Foreign Affairs committee  There's a lot because it's the hub right now, because it has the highest HIV rate. When Uganda was at its peak, that's where the epicentre was, and now Swaziland would be considered the epicentre for HIV and AIDS. So there's a lot of education. If students are in school, they're

Foreign Affairs committee  It was high, but now there's this prevention of mother-to-child transmission program. I know that some of your funding goes to that. What it is doing to that country is a miracle. I applaud all the dollars you give to that. I'll give you an example. I would guess that 60% to 70%

Foreign Affairs committee  Absolutely.

Foreign Affairs committee  It's the last absolute monarchy on the continent, so King Mswati is the absolute ruler. He does have a British parliamentary system, so there's a cabinet that's been appointed and there is a parliament underneath them. It's an African country.

Foreign Affairs committee  He's outlived most of his countrymen, yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  It's not known to the public. When his father passed away.... It's not like in England, where we know who's next in line, or we think we know. It's not known to the public, but within the confines of the royal family and the government, they would know.