Money Date With The Elijah-Alavi Foundation
/Every Friday I recommend having a money date…with a mimosa. Hence the name of my blog, Money & Mimosas. Your money date is your special time to review your finances, reflect on your goals, and celebrate your wins. Feel free to do it alone or with your money buddy. If you’d like a step-by-step guide for your money date, click here to download your free checklist.
In these money date articles, I usually feature small businesses that align with our values, but this week I am doing something a bit different. Instead, I am featuring a non-profit whose mission is to fight for food allergy awareness through education and legislation.
In this article, you’ll meet Ondina Hawthorne-Silvera and Thomas Silvera. Both of them are parents and the founders of The Elijah-Alavi Foundation, which advocates for food allergy safety practices within schools and daycare centers to protect children.
What inspired the creation of your non-profit?
The Elijah-Alavi Foundation was started in memory of my son Elijah-Alavi, who passed away at 3 years old from anaphylaxis while at his daycare center in New York City. Elijah was given food that had been well noted as an allergen. In 2018 we founded The Elijah-Alavi Foundation Non-Profit 501 (c) (3) in Elijah’s memory to empower both parents and teachers and those who don't know, how to prevent any future unnecessary deaths like my son Elijah’s. Everything we do is designed to raise awareness of the severity of food allergies and anaphylaxis as well as Asthma including the importance of education and training.
How have you seen your non-profit positively impact the food allergy community?
Yes, We have seen great strides with our non-profit within the food allergy community but it took us a while to really get noticed. We have done a lot of grass rooting and working 24/7 to create lasting impactful change. For Husband and I, the way this was, was us coming up from our grief deciding that our son Elijah's life would be used to change laws, policies, and practices and running to the “beauty” of local politics, hitting one barrier after another, from working through competing nonprofits to navigating the many political motivations of elected officials to learning how to write laws, about the legislative process, managing our expectations around the critical timetable, working hand in hand with those in the food allergy community, and so on. The only challenge we faced was our grief and almost giving up because it was just too hard, knowing that our son's life was tragic and he did not die in vain.
What are your organization's goals for the year? Our Organization goal this year is to ensure that all infants and children with severe food allergies and asthma have safe spaces to learn and socialize in daycare centers, schools, and organization that work with children. We intend to achieve this mission by providing the training, resources, and counsel for educators and school administration to implement policies that reduce the risk of life-threatening food allergic reactions in children and asthma support and resources providing a more safe environment for infants and children outside the care of their legal guardians. The most imperative aspect of such goals for our foundation is the shared interests in the diverse communities we serve, as every demographic represented among them depends upon us for our commitment to public health and overall well-being. It is from this commitment that we share what we do; we do it with the intention to create change.
Why is it important for people to donate and support non-profits that do well like yours?
It is important for people to donate and support non-profits like The Elijah-Alavi Foundation because about 5.6 million children under the age of 18 have food allergies. 1 out of 13 children, that’s 2 in every classroom. On average, most are allergic to more than one food and many parents are concerned every time they leave their children at school. With our objective and goals are to make sure that there is:
1. Access: for every daycare to be stocked with epinephrine auto-injectors.
2: Education: for every adult that works in childcare spaces to know the signs of anaphylaxis and be able to treat children experiencing it. Improve the educational programming for teachers and parents of children with food allergies and/or asthma.
3: Advocacy & Equity: to make sure that all children in every school in every neighborhood regardless of socioeconomic conditions, culture, or class, are safe when their parents drop them off at school. We have made substantial progress but need sustainable support. The dangerous risks to children with asthma and food allergies are increasing every day. We need to completely overhaul how schools should work together to and provide a safe environment for children and more importantly have a complete plan of action that schools can follow to mitigate risk from exposures.
