Although most non-government organisations (NGOs) that operate in Africa often trace their roots beyond the continent’s shores, there are a number of indigenous humanitarian groups that were born and nurtured internally.
One of those NGOs is Amref Health Africa, which has been described as a “truly African organisation” It was founded in 1957 and is headquartered in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
The organisation, whose vision is to bring lasting health change in Africa, took a while to start its operations in Uganda, taking about 30 years before setting foot inside Kenya’s next door neighbour. Nevertheless, Uganda was the first country in which Amref shared its expertise on planning and managing health services at a national level with a nation’s health ministry.
“We began partnering with communities to improve health in Uganda in the mid-1980s, and set up an office in Kampala in 1987,” says the organisation in a formal statement on its website.
Besides Kenya and Uganda, Amref currently also has operations in Ethiopia, South Africa, South Sudan and Tanzania.
In Uganda, Amref has partnered over the years with three of the country’s leading ministries to improve access to health services across the country. These are the ministries of health, water, and education and sports. The organisation has also collaborated with some corporate and non-profit organisations.
“Amref Health Africa’s seminal [ground-breaking] projects in Uganda were related to providing health services and education to communities and local institutions acutely affected by the detrimental effects of on-going civil and political unrest,” notes the organisation’s statement.
Today, Amref has 12 projects across 47 districts of Uganda’s 127 districts, whose aim is to make pregnancy safe and expand reproductive health, reduce morbidity and mortality among children, as well as scale up responses to HIV, TB and malaria responses.
Other objectives of Amref projects in Uganda are to prevent and control diseases related to poor water, sanitation and hygiene, increase access by disadvantaged communities to quality medical, surgical and diagnostic services, and develop a strong research and innovation portfolio to contribute to health improvements.
