Peter Dalglish was born in London, Ontario on May 20, 1957 and was educated at Upper Canada College, Stanford University, and Dalhousie University. He was called to the Bar in 1985.
In 1985 Peter Dalglish, John Godfrey and Arthur Andrew organized a Christmas airlift of food and medical supplies to Ethiopia. This led to the Maritime provinces of Canada "adopting" a community in the Ogaden Desert of Ethiopia, and providing over $400,000 for education, health and medical programmes in the region.
Between August 1985 and August 1987 Peter Dalglish worked in Sudan as a field worker for the United Nations on the desert border between Chad and Sudan, and served as coordinator of the UNICEF Sudan emergency unit. After catching a young thief breaking into his truck, Peter Dalglish organized Sudan's first technical training school for street children, supported by Bob Geldof of Band Aid. Car thieves and house breakers were trained to become apprentice mechanics, welders and electricians; the graduates were hired by local businesses. In October 1986 Peter Dalglish began a guaranteed same-day courier service run by street children. The kids deliver mail and newspapers to offices that they once broke into; along the way they learn the importance of discipline and hard work.
In September 1987 Peter Dalglish returned to Canada to found Street Kids International with the aim of beginning similar projects for street children in other countries. Street Kids International, which still operates out of a donated office in downtown Toronto, has grown to become one of the leading organizations in the world working with street children. Projects have been developed in cooperation with local partners in South Sudan, Zambia, Tanzania, South Africa, India and the Dominican Republic.
Between 1988 and 1990 Street Kids International developed Karate Kids, an animated film about AIDS for street children. The cartoon was produced in cooperation with the National Film Board of Canada and the World Health Organization, and is at present in distribution in 20 languages and in over 100 countries. In recognition of the success of the programme, in 1993 Street Kids International was chosen as the first Canadian recipient of the Peter F. Drucker Award for Non-Profit Innovation. A second cartoon, funded primarily by Health Canada, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation of Princeton, New Jersey and European donors, is now in production in Toronto. It focuses on the issue of substance abuse by poor girls and boys around the world.
In 1987 Peter Dalglish received the Vanier Award, and in 1989 was chosen by Junior Chamber International as one of the 10 outstanding young people of the world.
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