Read AMREF's latest publications here
What we do
What we do
AMREF tackles diseases such as malaria, TB, and HIV/AIDS, working together with local communities to make sure our programmes are relevant and sustainable. We ensure pregnant women, new mothers, and young children have the health care and education they need to survive and thrive. We make sure families have access to clean water and know how to protect themselves from preventable diseases like diarrhoea and malaria.
There is a critical shortage of health workers in Africa. in Southern Sudan for example, there are only 50 doctors and 20 midwives for a population of 10 million. AMREF trains thousands of health workers from across Africa every year. Whether a doctor performing surgery in an urban hospital or a village health team educating neighbours about malaria in a remote village, we make sure they have the skills and tools they need to make a difference.
AMREF works to bring vulnerable communities and the formal health care system closer together. On the one hand, we give communities the tools they need to manage their own health. On the other, we work with governments to make sure they deliver health care more effectively.
We set out to influence those in power so that health policies, practices and financing better serve the needs of the poor.
Our Flying Doctor Emergency Service provides medical outreach and air rescue services to Africa’s remotest communities. Our pilots and doctors deliver emergency care, specialist surgical services.
Projects
As Africa’s leading health development organisation our vision is lasting health change in Africa. Our projects range from providing communities with safe, sustainable water supply and sanitation facilties, to training local midwives to ensure that remote communities have access to maternal health care. These projects are all built around AMREF's strategic priorities, developed by AMREF to maximise our impact and structure our vital health work.
Strategic Priorities
AMREF's work is structured around seven strategic priorities. The first six: Maternal Health, Child Health, Fighting Disease, Improving water and sanitation, Training Health Workers, Flying Doctors and Outreach surgery, form the basis of all our project work on the ground, ensuring that all our projects work towards specific, achieveable and meaningful goals. The seventh, Creating a unified, global AMREF, helps us maximise our international team, expertise and reach to ensure that AMREF's work is most effective.
Our work has always been based on creating long-term sustainable health change, and we believe the power to create this change lies within African communities. Our work ensures that communities have the knowledge, skills and means to maintain their good health and break the cycle of poor health and poverty.
We reach, respect and become part of communities and help them make change from within. We do this by:
- Supporting communities others cannot or do not reach
- Creating conditions for health, catalysing the hidden but real energies within communities
- Championing women who are at the heart of their family's and community's health