Programme Officer (EU) Advert

The closing date for the receipt of applications is Sunday 19^th September 2010 at 17:00hrs.

Interviews will take place on the week of the 27^th September 2010. 

If you are interested in this post please view the Job Description and complete the Application Form and send it to jobs@amrefuk.org. 

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.  No CV's please.

All applicants must be eligible to work in the UK.

Over 170 people turned out at the Assembly @ George Street to watch AMREF's Stand Up For African Mothers: A Comedy Gala.

The show, compered by Susan Calman, featured performances from some of the best names in UK comedy including Jack Whitehall, Frank MacAulay, Robin Ince, Sarah Millican, John Hegley and Josh Howie. More photos from the event will follow shortly.

But AMREF's presence at this year's Fringe did not end there; the world-famous Baxterbear and his team were out on the city's streets on Monday and Tuesday to raise awareness of the show and our 'Stand Up For African Mothers' campaign. Baxterbear and his team will also be on the streets collecting for AMREF again before the end of the festival so, if you are in Edinburgh this month, please go over and say hello!

AMREF would like to thank everyone who was involved in the show including the whole team at Assembly Festival, all of the performers, Baxterbear and his PA Daisy Tate for all of their support and for standing up for African mothers.

And a special thank you goes to our former colleague Alan Gosschalk for all of his time, effort and involvement in the event.

Baxterbear is a loyal supporter of AMREF; he has visited projects across Africa and even flown with our lifesaving Flying Doctors Service. Now he is going even further by joining us at this year's Fringe!

You will be able to see Baxterbear and his team on the streets of Edinburgh on Monday and Tuesday afternoon, so why not stop and say hello!

And don't forget, there are still tickets available for our show through Assembly Festival so make sure you book your tickets today. Our line up includes Jack Whitehall, John Hegley, Josh Howie, Fred MacAulay, Robin Ince and Sarah Millican and will be hosted by Susan Calman. Tickets are just £15-an absolute bargain to see some of the best names in UK comedy.

Not only that but tickets to see Jack Whitehall and Sarah Millican's individual shows have completely sold out, so if you want to catch them at this year's Fringe, this is your only chance! 

Grace Mukasa

Chief Executive

Grace joined AMREF UK from VSO, where she was Head of Programmes for Africa, and had previously worked as Country Director for VSO in Zambia, Director for Programme Development for Save the Children Norway in Uganda; Programme Manager for Plan International in Uganda and Executive Director of ACFODE, a leading national women’s organisation that promotes women rights and gender policy in Uganda. 

She also worked with government as a teacher in both Kenya and Uganda and as a Regional Programme Manager for Uganda Bureau of Statistics on the World Bank/UNDP/ Govt. of Uganda Surveys to monitor the Social Dimensions of Structural Adjustment through the Integrated Household and Community Surveys and Demographic and Health Surveys.  

Grace is Ugandan and has an MA in Gender & Development from the Institute of Development Studies and a Post Graduate Diploma in Planning & Management.  She joined AMREF UK in January 2008.

Senait Fassil

 Director of Finance and Administration 

A qualified Chartered Certified Accountant with an MBA from Oxford Brookes University, Senait comes with extensive experience in charity accounting and financial managment both at country office and head office level.  

Senait started her career in her native country Eritrea with LWF then moved to CARE International where she worked both in country office (Eritrea and DRC) and head office (Atlanta).  Prior to joining Amref she worked with IRC-UK and NEF in similar positions. Senait joined AMREF UK in April 2008.

Shivonne Graham

Director of Fundraising and Communications

Shivonne joined AMREF UK as Director of Fundraising and Communications in April 2010. A career fundraiser, she has led teams to success at Shelter, Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres and Comic Relief – leading the National Fundraising Team to deliver the most successful Red Nose Day Campaign to date in March 2009. Most recently, Shivonne led the inaugural ‘Have a Heart’ Appeal on Heart radio.

Having graduated in Development Studies from the University of Sussex and visited Ethiopia with Comic Relief, Shivonne is passionate about Africa and leading AMREF UK’s fundraising and communications teams in an exciting period of growth and innovation. Outside work, she can often be found running around the parks of southwest London with her terrier George training for their next challenge.  

Jen Stobart

Acting Director of Programmes and Advocacy

Jen has eight years' experience spanning the corporate and international development sector. Currently, as AMREF UK’s Acting Director of Programmes and Advocacy, Jen oversees a portfolio of projects on health system strengthening in East and Southern Africa, with emphasis on grant management, monitoring and evaluation and generation of evidence.Jen’s previous role as AMREF’s Corporate Partnership Manager also enabled a strong appreciation of partnership development and management between the corporate and development sectors.

Prior to joining AMREF, Jen worked for Accenture, where she developed a strong project management skillset. Jen has an MSc in Occupational Psychology from Nottingham University. She joined AMREF in 2007.

Victoria Rugg

Communications Manager

Victoria has specialised in the field of communications for charities for the past ten years. Before joining AMREF, she managed communications for CAYSH, a charity offering support and advice to young vulnerable people in south London, re-branding the organisation and developing a range of communication materials. 

Prior to this, she was based in Brussels, Belgium, working for a number of health-related charities, including running the communications team for the International Planned Parenthood Federation's European Regional Office, the largest global advocate for sexual and reproductive health and rights.  She joined AMREF UK in February 2010.  

Please contact Victoria for any communications/press-related enquiries on (+44) 0207 269 6867 or v.rugg@amrefuk.org

After last week's announcement that Fred MacAulay will be joining us at the Comedy Gala, AMREF is delighted to confirm that Scottish comedian and presenter Susan Calman will be compering our Stand Up For African Mothers show! 

Susan has enjoyed a very successful radio and TV career; she is a regular host on BBC Radio Scotland and was part of the Scottish BAFTA award winning show 'Blowout'. Her new stand up show 'Constantly Seeking Susan' has been named by The Observer as one of the top 10 shows to see at this year's Fringe.

Susan will be joining a stellar line up featuring some of the UK's top comedy talent including Sarah Millican, Fred MacAulay, Robin Ince, Josh Howie, Jack Whitehall and John Hegley. AMREF is delighted that Susan will be joining us and we cannot wait to see her perform.

Tickets are strictly limited so make sure you do not miss any of the action by booking your tickets in advance for £15 through Assembly Festival. And remember, keep following our Facebook and Twitter pages for more updates on what is shaping up to be a fantastic evening!

Supported by the Department for International Development, the Coffey International Award recognises companies who have shown innovation, creativity and a sustained commitment to one or more of the UN Millennium Development Goals.

AMREF Chief Executive Grace Mukasa with AMREF Patron and Business in the Community President HRH The Prince of Wales, and representatives from the project partners Barclays and The Guardian.

Together with Barclays and The Guardian, AMREF UK and AMREF Uganda launched the project in 2007 to improve education, health, livelihoods, and sanitation in the village of Katine, a 25,000-strong community in north-eastern Uganda which has suffered civil war, drought and extreme poverty.

Charles Duff, Chairman of the International Award judging panel believed Katine showcased a strong partnership to effectively addressing the MDGs, lessons learnt which could be rolled out to other parts of Africa:

"It is easy to see that the work through this partnership has great potential for being scaled up and is replicable in other communities in Africa and beyond. Bringing together inclusive financial products and the power of the media with the expertise of an NGO is something very exciting."

Grace Mukasa, Chief Executive of AMREF UK said: ''By engaging the community from the start, we have ensured sustainability has been built into every level. It's an approach we hope will ensure continued progress towards the MDGs long into the future''.

Find out more about the award.

G8 member countries will commit $5 billion USD towards maternal and child health over the next five years. Though this is welcomed by AMREF, it is well below expectations.

In order to achieve real progress, previous commitments must be delivered and the total spend must be appropriately directed. G8 partner countries need to direct these funds to basic, frontline health services in sub-Saharan Africa in order to significantly improve the survival of women and children. AMREF’s experience demonstrates that a community-based approach is the most successful strategy for reducing deaths of mothers and children and is essential to achieving all health Millennium Development Goals. Further, African governments need to be supported and held accountable for their part in the delivery of health interventions in the communities.

“We know that having access to frontline health facilities in Africa that are adequately staffed with trained health workers result in dramatic and immediate improvements in the health of mothers and children,” according to Dr John Nduba, AMREF’s Director of Reproductive and Child Health. “Only healthy communities can begin to address issues of poverty and economic development.” 

Specifically, AMREF recommends integrating NGOs and ministries of health in the design and delivery of primary health care services. To be effective, strategies must include the following:

• Address the crisis in shortages of health workers with training and support for the right mix of community health workers (midwives, nurses, health extension workers) who are paid a living wage and integrated into the formal national health systems
• Invest and maintain basic health facilities (health centres, dispensaries and clinics) with essential medical and pharmaceutical supplies
• Remove all direct and indirect user fees for women and children
• Ensure communities are full participants in the management of their health services

AMREF’s extensive and lengthy work in health development demonstrates that to achieve successful outcomes, health services must be organised and developed around communities as key participants. This must include the training of community members to act as bridges and facilitators with the formal health service. This approach results in acceptance and strong community engagement in better health for all. 

 “We must remember that Africa has 13 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the global disease burden but only 1.3 percent of the world’s health workforce,” said Dr Nduba, “AMREF’s experience in strengthening health development in Africa demonstrates that  increasing investments in maternal and child health can achieve dramatic results.” 

Read more about AMREF’s Stand up for African Mothers campaign 

Women are more vulnerable to ill health in Africa. Low income and social status, lack of education and traditional gender roles and responsibilities are key contributing factors.

For example, three quarters of the population living with HIV in Africa between the ages of 15-24 are women.

Women are more vulnerable to HIV because of biological reasons, but the key factors behind this disparity are social and economic. Financial circumstances can force women into selling themselves for sex and too many of those who are in relationships or married are often not in a position to demand faithfulness or safe sex.

Maternal death rates in Africa are particularly high because of the lack of skilled midwives, obstructed labour, unsafe abortions, anaemia and malaria. 1 in 16 women dies as a result of pregnancy or childbirth compared to just 1 in 4,000 in industrialised countries.

Pregnant women in Africa are particularly vulnerable to malaria. Their immunity is low, and they often do not have the knowledge or the means to be able to prevent it.

Obstructed labour is a particular problem for young women giving birth whose bodies are not sufficiently developed. Some African countries have the highest adolescent pregnancy rates in the world.

Violence against women is also a key concern in Africa, especially in South Africa, which has the highest incidence of violence against women in the world among countries not at war.

Projects and stories

• Jijenge reproductive rights project, Tanzania
• Kawempe commercial sex workers, Uganda
• Training midwives, Southern Sudan
• Violence against women, South Africa

Many generous trusts and foundations donate to our general funds. This essential support allows us the freedom to develop and grow our projects, as well as strengthen and invest in our work for the future. At the same time we have partnerships with trusts and foundations who decide to fund specific projects, often co-funding with the European Commission (EC) and other donors. This investment in larger projects enables us to harness more funding from the EC.

What has this support achieved?

This vital support over the past year has enabled AMREF to develop a maternal, newborn and child health programme helping over 40,000 mothers and 35,000 children in Africa's largest slum, Kibera; empower 70,000 remote pastoralists in South Omo to gain access to essential and lifesaving health care; and prevent, diagnose and treat malaria in over 200,000 people in the Mtwara district of Tanzania.

How you can help

AMREF is very keen to build new relationships with trusts and foundations that are interested in our work and share our vision of 'better health for Africa.'

Whatever the size of your donation you will be helping AMREF to save lives across Africa. We are committed to providing high quality information to trusts and foundations including detailed proposals to fit with your current grant making, and regular and detailed reports on how your grant has been spent and what the impact has been on communities in Africa.

If you are a trustee or have links with a charitable trust, please do get in touch by emailing j.woodger@amrefuk.org or calling 0207 269 5525.

To see examples of our partnerships, click here

AMREF works with a wide range of Trusts and Foundations who generously fund our work. Below are examples of trusts currently supporting our work:

The Headley Trust

The Headley Trust, one of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts, has supported AMREF since 2004, supporting our work preventing and treating trachoma. The trust is currently supporting a three year project, started in 2010, in the remote district of Oromia in Ethiopia. 

The Dulverton Trust

The Dulverton Trust has been supporting our programme work for many years. The trust is currently funding the education of school children in Turkana on the importance of water and sanitation in preventing the spread of disease.

Stavros Niarchos Foundation

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation is an international philanthropic organisation making grants in the areas of arts and culture, education, health and medicine, and social welfare. While prominent in its support of Greek-related initiatives, the Foundation’s activities are worldwide in scope. The Foundation funds AMREF’s Maternal, Newborn and Child Health project in Nairobi, Kenya. The project provides over 40,000 mothers and 35,000 children in Africa’s largest slum, Kibera, with good quality health care, treatment and education.

Rowan Charitable Trust

The Rowan Charitable Trust first funded AMREF in 1992 and the trust is currently co-funding a malaria prevention and treatment project in the Mtwara region of Tanzania. The project is helping over 200,000 people by improving the health system in the region to prevent, treat and control malaria.

Wolfson College AMREF Group

Wolfson College is an Oxford University College which has supported AMREF for 30 years. Students raise money for AMREF’s projects from events held throughout the year and through contributions from their college fees. Each year, Wolfson College supports one health professional to take part in the year-long Diploma in Community Health course and also supports an additional AMREF project. This year, Wolfson College is supporting an integrated health project in Soroti, Uganda.

Somerset Local Benevolent Fund

Somerset Local Benevolent Fund has supported AMREF’s Clinical Officer training school in South Sudan for two years.

Big Lottery Fund

The Big Lottery Fund has supported AMREF since 1998 to implement projects across Kenya and Tanzania. It is currently funding AMREF’s nomadic health care project in Turkana, Kenya.

Direct Relief International

Direct Relief International provides medical assistance to improve the quality of life for people affected by poverty, disaster and civil unrest. It has provided medical equipment and drugs to many AMREF project sites as well as funding to support the training of health workers.

Gerald Palmer Eling Trust

The Gerald Palmer Eling Trust is a long term supporter of AMREF. The trust has funded our core work over many years and their support has been essential in AMREF UK's growth and in the development of our programme work.

Are you interested in supporting AMREF through a charitable trust or foundation? Please click here to find out how.

AMREF welcomed over 200 guests to the Natural History Museum in London for a successful 'Vibrant Africa' Gala on Thursday 13 May. Guests were entertained by kora player Seckou Keita, the Drum Cafe’s exciting rhythms and an impromptu singing turn from Channel 4 News' Jon Snow. A range of great prizes were on offer, such as a holiday in Marrakech, an Anya Hindmarch handbag and their own celebrity-style photoshoot, with all the money raised going towards AMREF's vital work supporting African communities.

See all the photos from the night on our gallery.

Lend your Facebook status to help raise awareness of issues in Africa

We all know that Africa is one of the world’s poorest and most under-developed continents, but the real stories of daily life remain unknown to many of us. 

Which is why AMREF UK, together with the creative agency BBH, has launched a Facebook application called Status of Africa, which allows users to lend their Facebook status updates to a group of seven different African people for five days. The aim of the application is to raise awareness of the daily life of African people in some of the most marginalised and vulnerable communities in Africa, and of the lives AMREF is working to improve. 

When people sign up to the application, Sister Josephine, Amos, John, Pius, Mesulu, Ruth and Asrat take over and tell their contacts what they’re up to – the highs and lows of their daily life. Each story is based on a true account of a particular person’s life, whether they are a nurse, doctor, street kid or community elder. There are 20 status updates per character, enough for two weeks' news from each person. 

Grace Mukasa, CEO at AMREF UK, said, ‘This campaign gives a voice to real people in Africa who are never usually heard, and highlights how AMREF is working with them to improve their lives’.

Whilst Facebook statuses have previously been used for the dissemination of statement or fact, this campaign is an innovative, ‘human’ use of the viral Facebook medium. People can also lend their Facebook profile photo and Twitter account, spreading the word of Africa across their groups of friends and contacts. 

Rosie Arnold, Deputy Executive Creative Director at BBH said, ‘By dedicating your Facebook status to a real African person it is a virtual window into their lives, and I hope the contrast of their struggle for water and food with our exchanges about parties and plans to meet for a drink will provoke and compel people to join in.”

Help spread the word and the cause at: http://apps.facebook.com/statusofafrica

The 2011 Virgin London Marathon

The public ballot has now closed. If you have missed out, we have Gold Bonds available to give you the chance to take part:

AMREF Gold Bonds

In 2011, AMREF will once again have a limited amount of Gold Bond places for the Virgin London Marathon. To apply for one of these, please fill in the online application form or contact events@amrefuk.org or more information.

Even if you are entering the ballot as well, please apply for an AMREF Gold Bond and, should you be unsuccessful, you will then be considered for one of these. Even if you get a place through this, you can still run for AMREF.

Support from AMREF

Everyone who runs the Virgin London Marathon for AMREF will receive support from our dedicated fundraising team. We will send you a fundraising pack to kick start your efforts, and provide you with a personalised running vest for the big day. Below is a selection of training plans to help you along the way:

Training plans

Check out our 24 week training plans and get yourself in shape for race day.  Click below on the training plan you would like to follow.

Beginners

Intermediate runners

Advanced runners

Entries for the 2011 race will open on Monday 26th April through the official London Marathon website.

For more information please e-mail events@amrefuk.org or call 0207 269 5520.

Sue Woodford Hollick is a businesswoman and consultant with wide-ranging involvement in broadcasting and the arts. She is a former producer/director of "World in Action" for Granada Television and founding Commissioning Editor of multicultural programmes at Channel 4 television. She has been Chair of Arts Council England, London since September 2000 and is currently a member of the Tate Modern Advisory Council. She is founder and Co-Director of Bringing Up Baby, a childcare company. She has recently taken over the Chair of the U.K. board of AMREF, Africa’s largest NGO and leading health development charity.Sue Woodford-Hollick is married to the Labour peer and founder of Channel 5, Clive Hollick. She has three daughters, one granddaughter and a grandson. Her passions include television, the arts, cinema, tennis and golf.

Gautam Dalal (Treasurer)

Gautam Dalal grew up in Tanzania and is a senior advisor with KPMG’s London office. From 2000 to 2003 he was Chairman and Chief Executive of the firm’s practice in India, which he had helped to establish.  He is a trustee of The National Gallery.  He has been on the board of the UK India Business Council, the Asian Business Association committee of the London Chamber of Commerce and a Treasurer of Panos London.

Paul Davey

Paul Davey is a graduate of Leeds University where he studied Management Studies and Modern Languages. He has worked for more than 20 years in a range of marketing and communications roles. He worked for a leading blue chip plc for 15 years on a number of different brands ranging from global leaders to smaller challenger brands with responsibility at board level for all marketing and communications programmes. Since 2002 Paul has been a partner at Modern Marketing Solutions and is also managing director of airplay media ltd. MMS is a marketing consultancy and airplay media ltd is a brand communications agency, both working to support a range of clients on issues ranging from marketing strategy and business planning through to brand development work and communications strategies.

Matthew Edwards 

Matthew has worked at Accenture for 22 years helping financial services clients with the shaping, planning and delivery of large change and IT programmes. He is currently leading a major programme for a large UK bank and is also the senior executive responsible for Quality & Risk across the UK & Ireland Financial Services business of Accenture. He is responsible within Accenture for its corporate citizenship work with AMREF, including the e-learning programme for Kenyan nurses. He spent part of his childhood in Kenya and returned as a teacher for a year in the 1980s.

Liam Fisher Jones

Liam is a director of the international consulting firm, Iain More Associates. He has been a development professional for 18 years, starting his career with the London School of Economics (LSE) before spending 10 years as Head of Campaign and then as Director of Development at the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).  During this time he led the RSC’s first international capital campaign, with over £100m secured towards the Company’s transformation project in Stratford-upon-Avon. Whilst at the LSE, Liam developed research and scholarship initiatives across East Asia, North America and on behalf of the European Institute. His current clients include many of the UK’s leading arts, education and cultural organisations. He has a degree in International Relations and Political Science.

Ian Gill (Chair of the Governance Committee)

Ian Gill currently runs his own human resources consultancy business and clients include an African agribusiness fund and an emerging markets Private Equity firm. He retired at the end of 2005 from Actis Capital LLP, where he was the human resources director. Following 12 years working overseas in tropical agricultural management, Ian returned to the UK to a role in the Commonwealth Development Corporation’s human resources department. Ian was a non-executive director of Employment Conditions Abroad International from 1997 to 2002 and a trustee of Farnham Castle from 2001 to 2006. He is a trustee of the CDC pension scheme.

Mark Goldring CBE

Mark has been Chief Executive of VSO since 1999.  VSO is an international development agency that uses volunteering to tackle poverty and disadvantage around the world. Prior to this role, Mark held a number of posts, including that of VSO’s Overseas Director, Oxfam’s Country Representative in Bangladesh, where he also worked for UNDP, and Social Development Adviser for DFID in the Pacific. Mark started off his career as a VSO volunteer teacher in Sarawak in 1979. Mark read law at Oxford and has a Masters degree in Social Policy and Planning in Developing Countries from LSE.  Mark was awarded a CBE in January 2008 on the eve of VSO’s 50th Anniversary celebrations.

Murray Grant (Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee)

Murray is one of Actis’s founding partners with an investment focus on Africa.  In addition to managing a small team in London, Murray is currently responsible for Actis’s private equity interests in East Africa and the Maghreb countries.  In his earlier years with Actis he played a lead role in re-establishing the business in Nigeria and then rebuilding the team in Egypt. Murray joined CDC Capital Partners in 2001, prior to the spin out of Actis in 2004.  This followed a 13 year investment career with 3i Group plc in the UK.   Murray joined 3i from London Business School.  Prior to LBS, Murray spent four years as a consultant in the construction industry working on large infrastructure projects in Africa, Australia and Papua New Guinea. These projects were broadly split between the mining and power sectors.

Murray is a Director of Mineral Deposits Ltd (Senegal), Sinai Marble (Egypt) and Candax (Tunisia).  He previously served on the boards of Starcomms (Nigeria), Capital Alliance (Nigeria), Rashidi El Mizan (Egypt), Persianas Holdings (Nigeria) and  Flamingo Holdings (Kenya) – all successfully exited.  Outside of Actis he is a board member of the East Africa Association and AMREF UK Ltd.

Murray has an MBA from London Business School and a BSc (Hons) in engineering from Edinburgh University. 

Inosi Nyatta

Inosi is an Associate at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, where she has worked since September 2001. She specialises in Corporate Finance and Project Finance Law. She has undertaken pro bono work including advising a U.S. not-for-profit organisation, running a sports academy in Senegal, on improving its governance and organisational arrangements and participating in the Sullivan & Cromwell clinic involving the preparation of wills, health care proxies and child custody documentation for patients with AIDS/HIV. Inosi has been a Member of the African Affairs Committee, with the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, before moving to the UK in 2006. Prior to working in the United States she lived in Kenya, where she studied for her LLB and worked as a Legal intern.

The project is based in one of Africa’s largest slums, Kibera. It is home to almost one million people tightly packed into an area no bigger than two square kilometres. Residents of the slum do not have access to running water, sanitation, lighting, refuse collection or health facilities. There is extreme poverty and overcrowding, leaving women and children most vulnerable to disease and illness.

The project will provide over 40,000 mothers and 35,000 children in Kibera with good quality health care, treatment and education. We are training community health workers, nurses and midwives to ensure high quality health care for women and children. Given the large number of unregulated private health providers in Nairobi’s slums, the project supports training of these service providers to ensure quality care is accessible and ensured for mothers and children. The project will also partner with community based organisations, including mother’s groups and youth groups, to collectively promote improved services for mothers and children in Kibera.   

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation is an international philanthropic organization, making grants in the areas of arts and culture, education, health and medicine, and social welfare. While prominent in its support of Greek-related initiatives, the Foundation’s activities are worldwide in scope. Since the beginning of its grantmaking efforts in 1996, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation has provided total grant commitments of Euro €861,000,000 through more than 1,800 grants to nonprofit organizations, in 90 nations across the world.  

Twelve AMREF UK runners took on the challenge of the Virgin London Marathon on Sunday 25th April, and look set to have raised over £25,000 to support our life-saving work across Africa. 

For more information please get in touch with AMREF's events team by emailing events@amrefuk.org or calling 020 7269 5520.

The theme for this event is modern, vibrant Africa and all money raised on the night will go towards AMREF's lifesaving maternal health work. 

The statistics are alarming - in Africa, 1 mother in 16 dies in childbirth, whilst in Europe it is 1 mother in 30,000. This is the biggest health inequality in the world today. AMREF's pledge is to ensure that no mother dies from a preventable cause; that every mother has access to affordable health care for herself and her baby.

Our fantastic Committee of volunteers have put together an exciting event complete with celebrity support from Jon Snow and John Culshaw. There will be both a silent and live auction with the chance to bid for some extraordinary lots, as well as uplifting entertainment from world-renowned musician, Seckou Keita.

To find out about attendance or to see the full auction lots on offer, please email events@amrefuk.org or call Julia on 0207 269 5528

Get more involved with the AMREF team by joining a supporter group

Community participation is a vital part of AMREF's projects and UK communities can also play an important role in helping to fundraise to support our projects.

AMREF is delighted to be working with a dynamic Supporter Group. The group is made up of enthusiastic professionals living in London who are keen to get more closely involved with AMREF's work.

The main aims of the supporter group are to raise AMREF's profile in the UK and to fundraise. The group has set themselves an ambitious fundraising target and over the past few years it has raised thousands of pounds to support our life saving work.

If you would like to get more involved in the great work of this group, then contact our events team for more information by emailing event@amrefuk.org or ringing 0207 269 5520. 

Don't live in London?

Then why not set up a Supporter Group in your own community, and continue to raise our profile around the country. Setting up a group is a great way to share skills, learn more about AMREF, have some fun and help some of Africa's poorest communities access the healthcare they so desperately need. Our fundraising team would be delighted to help you with this, so please get in contact.

For more information please get in touch with AMREF's events team by emailing events@amrefuk.org or calling 020 7269 5520.

Buy Once Give Twice; Philanthropic recycling for the 21st century

AMREF is very pleased to announce our association with this fantastic new initiative.  Buy Once Give Twice aims to recycle 'wasted' lots which go unredeemed after charity auctions. By selling lots a second time through Buy Once Give Twice, the charity can now benefit twice. So, buyers buy once and the charity benefits twice.

That's not all. Kind donors often give an item to a charity which the charity can’t use because it's not staging an event, or the item might not be directly suitable for their supporters. Handled as a lot on this site, it can raise serious funds, because we reach the right people with the right items, at the right time, and at the right price.

Click here to see find browse the items on offer and support AMREF.

AMREF and Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) held a breakfast forum on 9th April 2010 at the Royal College of Nursing, London which focused on the critical shortage of trained health workers in developing countries.

Speakers included NGO and government experts, who each highlighted how they were responding to this issue. All urged for increased investment in health, and strengthened links between government and NGOs in scaling up the health care systems.  The event was extremely well attended and provoked lively debate.

The four year drought, caused by climate change and historic marginalisation by governments has ravished the lives of the Turkana tribe, who have been nomadic pastoralists for hundreds of years.  Last year's winner of the Guardian Development Journalist project, Nash Colundalur witnessed first hand the problems faced, and the efforts of AMREF in providing fresh water for vulnerable communities.

''When I was there last September, facilitated by AMREF and reporting for the Guardian newspaper, I met Ekono, the spiritual leader for the district. He said “My people are dying, the water is there, it just needs to be harnessed”. He said he would mobilize his community to donate half the money required for a borehole and he looked at me closely before saying “Can you bring the other half?", Nash said.

Climate change has been greatly exacerbated by man’s insensitive hunger for power. People living in extreme geographical terrains feel the wrath of this change the most, though they probably contribute the least to it.  

To raise funds for a borehole for Ekono and his community, Nash is going to walk the same distance that the tribe walks, about 25 Km, albeit from London to Oxshott in Surrey  on International Water Day, the 22^nd of March. AMREF is extremely grateful to Nash for raising awareness of these issues affecting vulnerable communities, and fully supports his efforts.

You can donate to his initiative, and to AMREF, by visiting his Just Giving page