The Laura Louie Hope Foundation, a Canadian not-for-profit organization, has been created to provide cost-effective healthcare and to improve the quality of life of impoverished adults and children in developing countries through community-based grassroots projects.  Programs are focused on people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Laura Louie, ND, Teaching Clinical Acupuncture Skills to Thai Nurses at Mae On Hospital

The Foundation works with local doctors and healthcare practitioners to provide a holistic program of treatment, education and lifestyle enhancement.  Practitioners from many arenas form part of a collaborative healthcare team utilizing allopathic (conventional) medicine and complementary therapies from long-standing and established systems of healing such as traditional Chinese medicine.  At present, the foundation’s activities are concentrated on providing training in basic acupuncture to healthcare workers as well as providing acupuncture treatments for people living with HIV/AIDS.  Educational programs in the treatment and prevention of disease, capacity building projects and research studies to assess the effectiveness of various forms of treatment are also important parts of the Foundation’s mandate. 

The Foundation encourages partnerships with other organizations with similar objectives to enhance the health of those living in resource poor areas by providing medical care and conducting programs in nutrition as well as prevention, stigma reduction and gender equality.   The Foundation endeavours to develop creative gardening and income generation projects.  It aims to build sustainable ventures which can be run by healthcare workers and members of the local community.

Currently, the foundation has set up a project in Chiang Mai, Thailand and is in the process of starting another project in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.  See project pages for more details.