A youth-led organization in Ottawa is spearheading an initiative to get much-needed medical supplies to remote Indigenous communities across Canada.

Daniel Bersyniow founded the Star of Life Project in 2019, in affiliation with the United Nations Association in Canada, during his last year of high school at Sir Robert Borden. 

As per the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Bersyniow’s foundation was started with the goal of bringing health care to youth, both within Canada and abroad.

In 2021, the foundation started an initiative to provide COVID-19 personal protective equipment to communities where healthcare access is limited. 

Now a first year health sciences major at the University of Ottawa, 18-year-old Bersyniow aims to keep the project alive as communities continue to struggle in the wake of the pandemic.

In an interview with CHUO on Wednesday, Bersyniow explains how the initiative began, what it has turned into, and where it’s headed.

"A lot of the communities that we're sending this equipment to are fly in only, so there are no roads, there's no rivers you can take a boat up to, you can only get there by plane," says Bersyniow. "We really wanted to make sure that they had the equipment needed in case of an emergency."

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