Laura Restrepo, who has lived in Atlanta, Georgia for most of her life, founded The Lynx Project after traveling to her birth country of Nigeria and feeling heartbroken by the many, many children she saw on the streets who were clearly sick and seemingly abandoned.

While growing up in Nigeria, Laura’s parents ran the main hospital in their community. She recalls seeing them constantly giving and saving the lives of the less fortunate. She created The Lynx Project as an ode to the spirit of her parents, with the goal of continuing their legacy of providing medical assistance to those in need.

“I focus on children primarily because they are the future of a community. They are where hope and change lies. Many of them are left abandoned due to diseases that either they have or their parents have died from. They didn’t create their situations, so they shouldn’t be left to suffer. But, unfortunately, they are often the ones who suffer the most”, she says.

Laura has also seen the crippling effects of stigma related to ignorance around life threatening diseases such as HIV/AIDS. “People don’t want to talk about it. They act like it doesn’t exist. In the meantime it continues to be a growing problem. Without proper education these illnesses will only become larger issues and take more lives.”

She formalized The Lynx Project after personally financing health care for several children she had encountered while visiting Nigeria.

“After seeing the depth of the issues, I knew I wanted to dedicate the rest of my life to doing this, and I wanted to make an even greater impact in these communities than I was able to on my own.”

Since the organization’s inception in 2007, Laura teamed up with hospitals in Nigeria, to provide free medical care to impoverished children throughout the community. She has also begun production on a free medical clinical that will solely treat these children and their families, while providing necessary health education.