18th May, 2011
Our work in 2010: Ensuring African health is in African hands
As an African organisation, we know that change in African communities can only be real and lasting when it comes from within.
By working closely with people on the ground, by using local knowledge and by understanding what will work, we can unlock people’s potential to make their communities healthier and enable them to lift themselves out of the cycle of poverty.
AMREF believes that Africa’s health lies in Africa’s hands.
AMREF's 2010 Mini Annual Review is available for download here [PDF]. It's our way of summing up what a difference all our supporters have made to African communities over the past year.
With the education, training and treatment AMREF provides, thousands of African people are now able to take control of their lives and secure better health for themselves, their families and their communities.
Webitu Metu is just one of the many people who has been able to make a difference in her community thanks to AMREF. She is a Health Extension Worker in the South Omo region of Ethiopia. People had always come to her for treatment when they were unwell, but previously she did not have the facilities to look after them properly.
AMREF consulted with the community, and identified that they needed a health centre equipped with the right resources and supplies. AMREF was able to build this, and gave Webitu a year’s training so that she had the knowledge to treat people in need, and educate the community about staying healthy.
“I had no proper equipment, no medicine or supplies. I had to examine pregnant women on the floor, right next to the pots and pans of the cooking area. It wasn’t very hygienic to say the least,” she says.
Now she has the tools she needs to help improve the health and well-being of her community. Webitu’s skills and the health centre will benefit her community for many years to come.
“The community leaders actively encourage the community to seek help and now I have a line of people, mostly women, requiring checkups, medicine or vaccinations on a daily basis.”
By supporting AMREF, you are supporting better health care in Africa for people today and for future generations.
Please sign up today to a regular gift on our donation page. This would mean we could train more health workers and empower more communities to improve their lives through better health. A regular gift, starting now, is an investment in Africa’s health, and Africa’s future.
A gift of just £10 per month could supply two more families with mosquito nets every month, protecting them against the killer disease malaria.
Webitu told us, “When I come to the health centre each morning it fills me with happiness that I am able to support so many people now.” By giving a gift to AMREF you can give the most important gift of all: better health for families and communities.