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Hi, I'm Gara LaMarche, President of the Atlantic Philanthropies.
I'd like to welcome you to our website and tell you a bit about what we're doing to promote
social justice in the seven countries in which we work.
The Atlantic Philanthropies is in the business of supporting people and organizations around
the world who are making systemic social change.
What kind of change?
Some examples: health care reform and financial reform in the United States, lesbian gay and
bisexual rights in Ireland
women's rights and rural land rights in South Africa
and justice and accountability in Northern Ireland.
Our grantees have much to celebrate
but there's still a lot of work to be done.
We believe the people who need the change the most
are best positioned to lead the way to full access to their political, social and economic rights.
We believe in supporting those who are joining together in advocacy to remove barriers and
create more equitable and just societies.
We believe the people most affected by problems must be the ones involved in solving those
problems.
We see this in our support of the age sector platform's "can't eat can't heat campaign"
and "pensioners parliament,"
through which older adults in Northern Ireland fight to preserve their benefits,
and also our support for "elevate," a community-based initiative in four American communities which
brings together schools, non-profits, philanthropists parents and community members to ensure that
students have the resources they need to succeed in school and in life.
And we believe in laying the groundwork for social justice literally brick by brick
investing in capital projects that enable change
like those that have transformed the University of the Western Cape
in South Africa, an historically disadvantaged institution that is now top-ranked
preparing the country's future leaders.
In keeping with the "giving while living" philosophy of our founder Chuck Feeney we believe that
major problems can be more effectively addressed if invested in today rather than tomorrow.
To that end we're committed to spending Atlantic's entire endowment over the next decade
because change is needed now.
At this moment our grantees are still reeling from the global economic crisis.
We believe that supporting social justice will produce the strong leaders and movements necessary
at this time to fight for those who need change the most.
On behalf of all of us at Atlantic I thank you for your interest in our work
and I encourage you to learn more about the visionary and tenacious organizations and individuals
we're privileged to support.
Please join with us and working for lasting social change. Thank you.