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Empowering Global Communities, Improving Lives

Empowering Global Communities, Improving Lives - Q&A with Belinda Stronach

The Belinda Stronach Foundation

A look at the list of endeavours and achievements that Belinda Stronach has accomplished at barely 44 years of age is very inspiring! Her career and leadership at Magna International and her philanthropic undertakings combined with her election to the House of Commons as an MP (2004-08) have made her well known in many arenas not only across the country but around the globe. One of her greatest passions is the Foundation she founded two years ago which is dedicated to advancing human potential and achievement through individual empowerment…

Q: Why did you decide to establish The Belinda Stronach Foundation (TBSF)?

I have been very fortunate in life and I believe strongly in giving back. When the time came for me to take a break from politics, I knew that I still wanted to be engaged and to help make a difference in the lives of people in Canada and around the world. I am an optimist by nature so I believe that, if given the right tools and the opportunity, anyone can change the world. That is the core vision of The Belinda Stronach Foundation - that individual empowerment can help to create social change and that strategic investment in community-based global initiatives can strengthen the capacity of individuals and groups to do exactly that.

Q: You have a deep interest in significantly improving the lives of girls and women.
Will you elaborate?

Being a woman and a mother, how can I not be invested in improving the lives of girls and women? Here in Canada, while we continue to have challenges around the advancement of girls and women, we can see the impact women have had on the development of Canada as a peaceful, stable and just society.

In developing countries, one person in eight is a girl or a young woman between the ages of 10 and 24. These girls and women possess the ability to become fully engaged citizens if given the opportunity. We can start by providing them with education, legal protection, health care and access to training and job skills.      

Q: Your Foundation has a goal to ‘encourage G8 and G20 leaders to elevate the importance of political empowerment and economic freedom for girls and women in developed and developing nations’. How will you approach this?

The Foundation is excited about the commitment we made to the Clinton Global Initiative Summit last year to help galvanize the Canadian public and NGO community to ensure that the issue of girls and women is on the development agenda.

In March, together with 20 other national and international organizations, we launched a global campaign to engage girls, boys, women and men in putting forth concrete solutions to empower girls and reach the Millennium Development Goals.

The campaign will culminate in the first ever G(irls) 20
Summit® that will take place in Toronto. The goal is
to bring together one girl – age 18-20 – from each G20
country to participate in a Summit and workshop that will
address the key issues facing girls and women. We hope
 that G20 leaders will seize this opportunity to hear from these girls and find some time to meet with them face-to-face while they are in Toronto. (For more information, visit www.girlsandwomen.com.) 

Q: Will you tell us more about the Foundation’s work with Canadian aboriginal youth?

Aboriginal youth are the fastest growing population in Canada but many do not have access to the tools they need to realize their full potential and explore opportunities. We have partnered with the One Laptop Per Child Foundation to bring this exciting program to Canadian aboriginal youth between the ages of 6 and 12. Through an interactive platform using a customized laptop, students will engage in literacy, numeracy, science, music and traditional storytelling platforms all designed to keep them interested and motivated. We believe that this program, which has had proven success worldwide, will engage and empower the next generation. We plan on launching a pilot program this September.

Q: Your Foundation has also been instrumental in developing Spread the Net, a campaign focused on preventing the spread of malaria. Why are you interested in erasing malaria as opposed to another infectious disease?

When I travelled to Africa in 2005, I was struck by the reality of malaria. How can an illness that is entirely preventable and treatable still claim the lives of millions of people every year and take the life of an African child every 30 seconds? After visiting some of the Millennium Development villages with Dr. Jeffrey Sachs and Rick Mercer, we realized that there was a simple and effective solution – bed nets.

Sleeping under a $10 insecticide-treated bed net is one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways to prevent the spread the malaria. This is why, along with Rick, we founded Spread the Net, a national grassroots campaign designed to raise funds and awareness for the purchase and distribution of bed nets to children and families in Liberia and Rwanda. We set a founding goal of 500,000 nets and I am proud to say that, thanks to the support of Canadians (quite literally ‘one net at a time’), we have raised enough to deliver 447,500 nets. When you consider that often up to five people in a family can sleep under one net, that’s millions of lives that have been affected.

While this is an amazing accomplishment, more support is still needed. I encourage moms and their families to get involved. It’s a simple campaign and one that has largely been driven by youth – from moms and kids hosting birthday parties to high school and university students holding school fundraisers in support of Spread the Net, youth have made the difference in the success of this campaign.
(To get involved visit www.spreadthenet.org.)

Q: What is your greatest obstacle to success at TBSF and how will you overcome it?

As with most foundations and non-profit organizations that rely on the support of individuals and businesses, the biggest challenge typically is fundraising. My Foundation is not immune to the economic realities of today but we believe that by following a model of partnership we can amplify our efforts and make a big impact with innovative solutions.

Q: What are your successes to date at TBSF?

I am very proud of all that we have accomplished in just two years. The Foundation has established partnerships with The Tony Blair Faith Foundation, The Clinton Global Initiative, ONE, The Canadian Club of Toronto, Malaria No More and several other domestic and international organizations.

In 2008, we held a fundraiser called Golf Rocks Fore Malaria. It enabled us to raise more than $600,000 in one night to support Malaria No More, Spread the Net and Malaria No More Canada.

Most recently, we coordinated the collection and distribution of over 600,000 lbs. of water, food and essential supplies for the people of Haiti to support earthquake relief efforts. We hope we have made a small but meaningful contribution to the lives of those who need it most.

Q: With your political background, would you recommend that Mompreneurs get involved
with politics?

I would like to see more women of all backgrounds and professions getting involved in politics. When I first ran for public office, I believed then — and still believe today — that there is a nobility to public service. We need to work much harder to elect more women to Parliament and other levels of elected office, not merely to fight for the issues that matter most to us but to bring a woman's perspective to the issues that matter more broadly to our nation. Consider this: while women represent 52% of the Canadian population, only 22% of federal Members of Parliament are women; this ranks Canada 46th out of 189 countries in this indicator
behind Rwanda, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Q: Who inspires you and why?

Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, the President of Liberia. I had the honour of meeting her a few years ago when I served in Cabinet. She took over a war-torn country where hundreds of thousands of people had been killed and left homeless; the economy was in ruins and government corruption was rampant. In a short period, this remarkable woman reformed the government, revitalized the economy, balanced the budget and restored basic human rights. She remains a force for positive change and renewal to this day.

Q: How do you balance your time and energy between the Foundation, your responsibilities
at Magna, and your family?

Striking a balance is one of the most difficult things in life. You have to figure out where your energy and efforts are best placed and then you have to focus on those critical areas where you can really make a difference. As for my family – my two children are the most important sources of strength and inspiration for me. They help keep me grounded.

My motto has always been: “No regrets.”  I can absorb a lot of public criticism if I know in my heart that I’m doing the right thing and doing it for the right reasons. When I get much older, I want to be able to look in the mirror and truthfully say that I am proud of what I did. 

To learn more about The Belinda Stronach Foundation,
to get involved or to make a donation, visit www.tbsf.ca
or call 416-531-1919.

What Belinda Stronach is reading right now…

The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage written by her friend, Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Martin is considered one the country’s best strategic minds and was rated by BusinessWeek as one of the top seven “innovation gurus” in business today. 

 

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