Happy International Woman’s Day! Today we recognize our Co-Founder Dina Hawthorne. As an Afro Latina, Dina was born and raised in Brooklyn NY, Dina has her degree in special education and is soon to pursue her doctorate. Through all this, she had faced one of the hardest things in life no parent would ever want to face and that’s the loss of her son, Elijah-Alavi.
Since 2017, our family has been committed to ensuring that no other family experiences the heartbreak and pain that began for us on November 3rd of that year and continues daily.
Childhood food allergies can be severe. They are to be taken seriously. Because if not, children can die. My boy Elijah, who was just 3 years old, needed the adults in his daycare setting to take his food allergies seriously. They didn't. He died.
Because of the circumstances of her son Elijah’s, death, Elijah’s, short-lived life has ignited a fire in their family to ensure that every state in this country protects children with severe food allergies. Elijah's Law does just that. In 2019, it was signed into law in New York creating a historical piece of legislation, in 2021 in Illinois, and just recently passed in Virginia. Elijah's Law is making its way through the legislative chambers currently in California and Pennsylvania with others soon to follow.
Now, with the partnership between the Elijah-Alavi Foundation, the Asthma and Allergies Foundation of America, and Kids with Food Allergies https://www.aafa.org, we have developed an Elijah's Law Toolkit, which makes it easy for individuals and lawmakers to pass Elijah's Law in their state. It shows you exactly what we've been doing and how to get it done.
Our partnership with the New York State Office of Children and Family Service makes it
possible for lawmakers in other states to repurpose the food allergy training and guidelines established by New York.
Our partnership with Belay http://training.webelay.com allows daycare centers, after-school programs, and schools everywhere to certify their teachers, administrators, and staff now.
If lawmakers introduce and use this Toolkit, if individuals call their representatives to introduce Elijah's Law, and adults who work with children begin to take food allergies seriously, learn to spot the signs, and treat the symptoms of severe anaphylaxis, we can all ensure that my son's impact lives on. That his life continues to echo and so many families will feel safer when dropping their kids off at their childcare centers.
"A change is a challenge, and a
challenge is needed for change,
says Dina Hawthorne-Silvera,
Elijah's mother and co-founder of
the Elijah-Alavi Foundation.'
"An
action today can be the answer to
the challenge needed for the
change necessary to save a child's
life. We thank all of our
partnersfor support and diligence
in ensuring the safety of all
children.
Happy International Woman's Day to all the women out there being the change you want the world to se
Comments