AMREF is Africa’s leading health charity, whose vision is lasting health change in Africa. They were founded in 1957 as the Flying Doctors Service of East Africa. They work across Africa, with major programmes in Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania and South Africa, and expanding outreach into West Africa. One of AMREF’s main priorities is Malaria, and the treatment, prevention and education on malaria-related illnesses and deaths.
Snapshot on a project: Afar, Ethiopia
Afar is particularly prone to malaria, yet it only has two clinics to serve a population of 1.3 million people. Many are unaware of how to protect themselves against the disease and commonly available drugs have become less effective as people have grown resistant to them. AMREF works with the health system at all levels to:
- Increase the use of mosquito nets by pregnant women and young children
- Improve the quality of testing being carried out to diagnose malaria
- Develop systems that allow people to treat malaria with effective drugs in the home
- Educate communities about how to control the spread of malaria
Key achievements
- 99,000 mosquito nets have been distributed to pregnant women and young children in 11 districts – 99% of households in the project area have received two nets each
- Communities in these districts have been trained how to use their new mosquito nets and shown how they can help prevent malaria
- AMREF has trained 300 “mother coordinators” to help families protect themselves from malaria in their own homes. The project has expanded to cover new districts, protecting more vulnerable communities from malaria.
Have a look at the below blog post for one women’s story of AMREF helped her.
To find out more about AMREF and the work they do visit their website – www.amrefuk.org.
