MONTREAL, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Naomi Bronstein, a Canadian woman who devoted much of her life to helping orphans and sick children in poor countries, has died in Guatemala.
Bronstein, 65, died in her sleep of heart failure on Dec. 23, The (Montreal) Gazette reported. In the last years of her life, she ran a mobile medical clinic based in an old school bus.
Bronstein's work with children began in the late 1960s when she co-founded Families For Children, which arranged adoptions of Vietnamese and Cambodian children and established Canada House, an orphanage in Cambodia. She was involved in Operation Babylift, which evacuated more than 3,000 children from Vietnam in the last days before Saigon fell.
Bronstein adopted seven children, giving her a family of 12.
"She believed that every child had a right to life and dedicated her life to making this goal a reality for as many children as she possibly could," Heidi Bronstein, one of her daughters, told The Gazette Wednesday. "She is living proof that one person can make a difference".
Bronstein received the Order of Canada and other awards for her work. UPI
