Happy Heavenly Birthday to my beautiful boy,Elijah-Alavi.
Many people who follow us on here know about what happened on November 3, 2017. For those who don't, in short, my baby boy Elijah, was given a grilled-cheese sandwich at his daycare despite them knowing he had a severe allergy to dairy. Elijah went into anaphylactic shock and died. He was three. He would have turned 9 today. Instead of celebrating our baby boy's birthday with him today, Dina, Sebastin and I are working to continue to ensure Elijah's impact continues to help children everywhere.
Since his passing we: -Passed Elijah's Law in New York -Passed Elijah's Law in Illinois -Passed Elijah's Law in Virginia -Passed Elijah's Law in California (re introducing it this year 2023) and soon severe more states to come for 2023. -Partnered with Auvi-Q to get 20,000 epinephrine auto-injectors donated to childcare centers across NYS -Partnered with the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) to develop food allergy training, which more than 20,000 childcare centers are required to complete which they have also allocated 19 million dollar in Auvi-Q auto injector initiative. -Partnered with Belay to develop the first in-person and virtual international food allergy readiness training and certification -Built a network of food allergy youth ambassador with the Elijah's Echo Ambassador's program -worked with amazing advocates like you, family and friends to help with our mission and vision. -Built a network of the nations leading food allergy partners/sponsors like YumEarth, Enjoy Life Foods Allergy Force-the food allergy app Spokin Inc. Equal Eats Allergy Insider Alerje Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) Allergy & Asthma Network Partake Foods Food Equality Initiative, Inc. Rho Epsilon Sigma NYC and so many more amazing partners/sponsors. -Received numerous awards All in the name of our boy.
These past years have not been easy. We would much rather be home, singing happy birthday to Elijah with loved ones around, we made a commitment to keeping his legacy alive. Each day we continue to stand in our commitment, we are reminded about Nov 3, 2017 about the negligence and disregard toward our boy's severe health condition--but still we move forward. We move forward because of your kind words and messages of support. We do so because our boy's life mattered, your children's lives matter. We do this because we never want what happened to our boy to happen to anyone else's child and that's only made possible because of your continued generosity when contributing to the Elijah-Alavi Foundation.
We thank you. We appreciate you and we ask that you keep Elijah's Echo going strong. Be #elijahsecho