Stephen Lewis
Davis Omanyo
Dave Toycen
Dr. James Rusthoven
Dr. Anne Marie Zajdlik
Amboka Wamyeo
Stephen Lewis
Stephen Lewis is Chair of the board of the Stephen Lewis Foundation in Canada. He is a Professor in Global Health, Faculty of Social Sciences at McMaster University, and he is Co-Director of AIDS-Free World in the United States.
Stephen Lewis’ work with the United Nations spanned more than two decades. He was the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa from June 2001 until the end of 2006. From 1995 to 1999, Mr. Lewis was Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF at the organization’s global headquarters in New York. From 1984 through 1988, Stephen Lewis was Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations.
Mr. Lewis was an elected member of the Ontario Legislative Assembly from 1963 to1978. In 1970, he became leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party, during which time he became leader of the Official Opposition.
Mr. Lewis is the author of the best-selling book, Race Against Time. He holds 30 honorary degrees from Canadian universities and is a Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest honour for lifetime achievement. He was awarded the Pearson Peace Medal in 2004 by the United Nations Association in Canada; the award celebrates outstanding achievement in the field of international service and understanding. In 2007, the Kingdom of Lesotho (a small mountainous country in Southern Africa) invested Mr. Lewis as Knight Commander of the Most Dignified Order of Moshoeshoe. The order is named for the founder of Lesotho; the knighthood is the country’s highest honour.
Davis Omanyo (CRWRC, Eastern Africa Team Leader)
Davis Omanyo is the sixth born in a family of 10 children. He was born in a rural village in western Kenya, and grew up in a village called Ganjala. His parents took him to an elementary school in the village, where he attended first through seventh grade. He then joined a missionary boarding high school. Davis’s father was a teacher, and he also worked on the family farm with Davis’s mother. They held onto Christian values that they passed on to all their children.
After high school, Davis trained as a pilot - a career he held until 1982 when he joined college to train as a public health specialist. Davis worked with the ministry of health, Government of Kenya for 5 years before joining the Anglican church of Kenya, diocese of Eldoret, where he worked as a health coordinator until 1994. It was in 1994 that he came to know about CRWRC through its partnership with the Anglican Church of Kenya, Nambale diocese.
Davis started working with CRWRC in 2000 at the home office in Grand Rapids in the area of HIV/AIDS response program, after completing his masters degree in Public Health- international health, from Boston University, USA. After 9 months working in the home office, Davis moved to work in East and southern Africa region as CRWRC-regional HIV/AIDS coordinator, a position he held until June 2004 when he was hired as a Country consultant in Uganda. In 2006, he took over a new role as team leader for East/South Africa.
Davis is married to Beth Wambui Omanyo. They have four daughters: Joan, Marion, Julian and Helen. Three of their daughters (Joan, Marion and Julian) are in boarding high schools in Kenya. Davis and Beth live in Kampala with our last born daughter, Helen, who is in grade 5 this year. Beth wife works as a physiotherapist in one of the mission hospitals in Kampala. Davis and Beth were born during the same month and year but three days apart. They celebrate their birth days together.
Dave Toycen (
World Vision, President and CEO)
As president and chief executive officer of World Vision Canada, Dave Toycen heads the country’s largest humanitarian relief and development agency. In his 21 years as a leader with World Vision Canada—13 as president—donations have increased almost nine fold to over $381 million and the number of children sponsored by Canadians has risen fivefold to more than 480,000.
Toycen has led the agency into significant advocacy and public policy work, with an emphasis on issues that affect children. He has spoken before the World Bank, and has met with heads of state, key global executives and development leaders to discuss the well-being of the world’s children. Toycen’s career with World Vision internationally has spanned more than 35 years. His book, The Power of Generosity (Harper Collins Publishers Ltd, 2004), draws from his experiences and calls readers to become more engaged in the world and to develop a more generous way of life.
A Canadian citizen, Toycen holds degrees in philosophy and divinity and has received three honorary doctorates—from Tyndale University College and Seminary in Toronto, the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California and Wycliffe College in Toronto.
Dr. James Rusthoven (
McMaster MD, MHSC, Medical Oncologist)
Dr. Jim Rusthoven is professor of oncology at McMaster University and is practicing oncology part-time in a community setting. He holds a master’s degree in bioethics from the Joint Centre for Bioethics, University of Toronto and is currently working on a PhD dissertation on the development of a covenantal ethical framework for bioethics. Jim is also chair of the Biotechnology Reference Group of the Canadian Council of Churches one of whose current projects is to develop a teaching curriculum on genetic technologies for church members. He leads a seminar at McMaster University on ethical issues pertaining to human research conducted in developing countries and is particularly interested in relationships between different parties involved in clinical research in such areas.
Jim has previously worked as a clinical researcher with the National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group. In addition, for three years he was a lead clinical researcher within a major pharmaceutical company, helping to develop a new cancer drug while gaining experience regarding the interpersonal relationships and corporate decision-making within the pharmaceutical industry. He continues to lobby pharmaceutical companies to devote more resources for developing and offering affordable therapies in developing world settings.
Dr. Anne Marie Zajdlik (Founder and Director of the
Masai Centre)
Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik is a mom, a family doctor and an HIV physician in Guelph, Ontario. In 2005, she founded and now directs the Masai Centre for Local, Regional and Global Health, in response to the growing numbers of HIV/AIDS patients in the Guelph area. The birth of an HIV negative boy named Masai to two HIV positive parents from Ethiopia in 2003 turned Anne-Marie into an international AIDS activist.
In 2005, Anne-Marie launched the Bracelet of Hope campaign with a goal of raising $1 million in Guelph for the OHAfrica Tšepong Clinic in Lesotho. With the help of over 100 volunteers, that goal was reached in October 2008. Anne-Marie’s dream now is to take the campaign national, across Canada, with the ultimate goal of freeing Lesotho in southern Africa from the death grip of HIV/AIDS.
Anne-Marie graduated from the University of Guelph and McMaster University Medical School. She’s a regional HIV specialist and is a member of the Board of Directors of OHAfrica, the Canadian-based international AIDS service organization that provides leadership support to the Tšepong HIV/AIDS Clinic in Lesotho.
Inspired by Stephen Lewis and supported by her family and many others, she is determined to do what it takes to assist in the global response that is necessary to fight AIDS. Her passion, vision and will have inspired many to join forces with her and other organizations to bring hope and healing to those touched by AIDS.
Says Anne-Marie, “God forbid that we should ever be comfortable while so many exist in such poverty, while 15 million children face the world each day with no parents, no future and no hope, while an entire young generation of men, women and children die of AIDS. More than ever I believe that our very survival as a global society depends on our response. To whom much is given, much is expected.” Anne-Marie has been to Tšepong three times.
Amboka Wamyeo (
World Vision, Canada’s Advocacy and Program Manager)
Amboka Wameyo, advocacy program integration manager, World Vision Canada. Wameyo, a Kenyan who previously managed the agency’s regional advocacy for 25 African countries, can address the need for local advocacy based in high-incidence countries to promote better policies to protect girl children.