Aid for Africa » Blog

Working to Save Africa’s Rich Biodiversity

laramony — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:59:06 +0000

The United Nations has named 2010 International Biodiversity Year, acknowledging the continued loss of plant and animal species around the world from population growth, urbanization, deteriorating habitats, invasive species, and more. Last year, the U.N. reported that 17,000 animal and plant species are at risk of extinction and some 60 percent of our planet’s ecosystems are no longer able to provide the food, clean water, and other benefits that they had in the past. Many of these species and ecosystems are found in Sub Saharan Africa, where millions of families depend on farming and home gardens for food and income. Wildlife and plant species rely on healthy ecosystems that are severely damaged.

Many Aid for Africa members are working to preserve the continent’s biodiversity. Ecoagriculture Partners works with community groups and farmers to manage farmland in ways that benefit biodiversity such as native plants and animals as well as food production. The International Livestock Research Institute is looking for ways to protect drought-tolerant Ankole cattle found in east and central Africa—a species known for rich milk and meat—which is on the brink of extinction. At current rates of decline, the Ankole is expected to disappear in 50 years.

Veterinarians with the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project have been working for more than two decades to care for the endangered mountain gorilla through one of the world’s first programs to care for endangered species in their own habitat. These and other members work with their African partners to build biodiversity conservation into their programs. This work is critically important and needs support. Scientists believe there is still time and opportunity for biodiversity conservation in Africa during
2010–International Biodiversity Year–and beyond.

PBS Turns a Much-Needed Spotlight on Maternal Health Risks in the Wake of the Haiti Earthquake

laramony — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:20:00 +0000

It isn’t surprising that a team from the PBS newsmagazine NOW turned to Ann Starrs, president and cofounder of Family Care International, when it wanted to better understand why women in Haiti have the highest rate of death in childbirth in the Western Hemisphere and what some 63,000 pregnant Haitian women now face in the aftermath of the earthquake. For more than two decades, Aid-for-Africa-member Family Care International has been working in Africa and Latin America to make pregnancy and childbirth safer for women and girls. There are not many nonprofit organizations around the world that place maternal health at the center of their mission. Family Care International was one of the first and remains one of the few.

Having a child in Sub Saharan Africa is risky business. According to UNICEF, 1 in 16 women in the region die during pregnancy or in childbirth. In Haiti, before the earthquake, the rate was 1 in 44 women. In the United States it is 1 in 4,800 women. Family Care International works on the ground with local groups to focus attention on maternal deaths, forge consensus around proven strategies, accelerate action, and save women’s lives. It is encouraging that the PBS Emmy-winning show has chosen to focus on this issue in the context of Haiti’s crisis. We hope that spotlight draws broader attention to this crisis in African countries such as Kenya, Mali and Burkina Faso, as well.

Alternatives to Orphanages Bring Hope to Africa’s Vulnerable Children

laramony — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:22:05 +0000

The United Nations estimates that more than 55 million African children have lost one parent and that almost 15 million of them have lost a parent to AIDS. Orphanages are often seen as a solution for these orphaned and vulnerable children. In a recent article in the New York Times, Celia Dugger suggests an alternative. Most often these children end up living with extended family members, many who are struggling to care for their own children. Pilot efforts underway in Malawi to support families that are caring for orphans have potential. Another approach not mentioned by Dugger shows promise in South Africa. A British and U.S. charity, African Solutions to African Problems, supports local women’s organizations that run community day-care centers for orphaned and vulnerable children. Children arrive at the centers each morning, and local women running the centers ensure that they receive nutritious food, healthcare, schooling, and psychological support. The women receive training in gardening, child care, and management–whatever it takes. The result: healthy and happy children and sustainable community institutions run by local women–a win-win. In some of the poorest rural areas of South Africa today, some 600 women care for 9,000 children in these centers, and the number is growing.

For Aid for Africa Members, Every Day is World AIDS Day

laramony — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:10:26 +0000

Two-thirds of the people in the world living with HIV and AIDS are in Sub Saharan Africa. In its 2009 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, UNAIDS found that more than 22 million people in the region have HIV/AIDS. In 2008, 1.4 million people in the region died of AIDS and almost 2 million became infected with HIV. Compounding the high rates of disease in many areas are inadequate health care systems–poor countries have few health centers, hospitals or health care workers, and so struggle to provide critical care and treatment.

The numbers can be overwhelming, and yet valuable progress is being made in increasing access to HIV and AIDS services. The theme of this, the 21st World AIDS Day, is Universal Access and Human Rights. While most Aid for Africa charities confront the realities of HIV/AIDS everyday as they work with their African partners throughout the continent, we would like to call attention to a few that are even more specifically focused on increasing access to services, providing effective treatment options and preserving human dignity, a vital component of combating the spread of the epidemic.

Health Alliance International works in partnership with ministries of health to build their health systems, including HIV/AIDS testing and treatment projects in Mozambique, where antiretroviral therapy has increased from just 4,000 in 2004 to 80,000 today. African Solutions to African Problems supports community-based programs and women’s networks to help them better deliver life-affirming care for orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Partners in Health has proved that AIDS can be treated in a poverty setting through its effective model of community-based care now being used in Rwanda, Lesotho, and Malawi. African Child Care Association provides HIV/AIDS prevention training to teens in Cameroon. Mothers2mothers is helping some 50,000 women a month prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS throughout Africa. AID Village Clinics helps educate, prevent, and treat the Maasai of western Kenya affected by HIV/AIDS. Firelight Foundation supports and advocates for children orphaned or affected by HIV/AIDS. Children of Uganda cares for AIDS orphans and other disadvantaged children in Uganda with the goal of helping them become healthy and productive members of society. South Africa Partners creates partnerships between organizations in the United States and South Africa for HIV/AIDS support groups. Foundation for Hospices in Sub Saharan Africa supports African organizations that provide home-based hospice and palliative care to those who are dying of HIV/AIDS. World Hope International provides HIV/AIDS prevention and orphan care.

On World AIDS day, we applaud all who are supporting efforts to prevent the spread of HIV and treat and care for those living with HIV and AIDS.

Surviving Drought through Small Businesses

laramony — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:34:28 +0000

According to Reuters some 23 million people are in need of food aid in East Africa because of severe drought. Last month the Ethiopian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development asked the international community for aid to feed 6.2 million people affected by the drought. In Kenya, hundreds of thousands of cattle and goats have died and wildlife is beginning to perish. The effects of the drought are also being felt in Somalia and parts of Tanzania. Drought is not unknown to the region, but experts suggest that droughts are occurring more frequently—every two to three years instead of every ten years, as was the pattern in the past. But drought does not have to mean disaster. The Boma Fund, an Aid for Africa member working in Northern Kenya, an area severely affected by the drought, finds that the small businesses supported by Boma Fund grants are providing a buffer. Boma Director Kathleen Colson reports that although the drought has killed 90 percent of the goats and cows in the region, the owners of the business start ups have been able to buy food at wholesale prices and, for the first time, basic staples such as tea, rice, and ground corn are available in the villages at affordable prices. She also reports that even with the demise of the livestock industry—the main source of income in the local economy—money coming into the area from individuals living on pensions or from those who work in industries unaffected by the drought are helping to sustain the new businesses. Droughts will continue to occur throughout Africa and the world. But survival depends on people having the means to purchase the food they need. Sustaining small businesses in rural areas seems to be one way to do that.

The Nobel Economics Prize and Africa

omnistudio — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:52:56 +0000

Tapping Elinor Ostrom as one of the winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics is exciting for anyone interested in issues of saving forests, wildlife conservation, agricultural development, and environmental protection—all of critical importance in Africa. Aid for Africa members bring to life the ideas and principles Ostrom identified about how people come together to manage their common lands, resources, and futures. This approach doesn’t focus only on the economic theory of getting prices right or market demands, but instead looks at how societies create institutional arrangements that best work for them to manage natural resources. This approach is more apt to include community-based actions on the ground and thus involve understanding of traditional systems, customs, and needs. As communities throughout Sub Saharan Africa work to manage watersheds that provide irrigation for their farms or determine where to graze cattle while protecting wildlife habitat, for instance, they are more likely to create sustainable economic futures when they work toward common goals of all the key players. We see it everyday in our work in Africa. In Uganda and Kenya, Aid for Africa member Ecoagriculture Partners is working with farmers and communities to manage their lands in ways that provide food, protect the natural order, and expand livelihoods. Green Belt Movement International, which was started by Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathi, began as a grassroots tree-planting program in which women were empowered to restore critical forests and watersheds while improving their livelihoods. Forest Trends helps rural communities come together with private and public interests to find ways to manage forests products. And African Rainforest Conservancy is funding work that ensures that communities surrounding coastal and mountain rainforests in Tanzania protect critical habitat while developing eco-friendly businesses.

Strengthening Women’s Healthcare to Stem Rising Preterm Births

omnistudio — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:42:42 +0000

A new study by the March of Dimes with the World Health Organization finds that globally each year almost 13 million babies are born prematurely—one of every ten newborns. Four million of these preterm babies die in their first month of life. And those who do not die face lives of impairment. In Africa, the rate of premature birth is the highest in the world—almost 12 percent. This translates into four million babies. The study suggests that in African and other poor countries, malnutrition, malaria, anemia, and poor prenatal care are the reasons for such high rates, and it calls for more research to fill gaps in the data of this growing global problem. Prenatal care for women in Africa is a major focus of a number of our members, including Family Care International, which works to make pregnancy and childbirth safer in East and West Africa through improved maternal health services, the John Dau Foundation, whose medical clinic in Duk, Sudan, provided the first prenatal care ever to women in the southern Sudan, and Health Alliance International, which is helping the governments of Mozambique and Cote d’Iviore develop primary health care systems that include a focus on pregnant women. The March of Dimes study calls for investing in existing maternal and newborn programs to make them stronger while at the same time seeking new thinking and innovative approaches. Nowhere is the need greater than in Africa.

The Power of Books

omnistudio — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:57:44 +0000

Today’s Diane Rehm radio program featured the amazing story of a 14-year-old boy from Malawi, William Kamkwamba, who taught himself how to build a windmill out of garbage, bringing light to his remote village and transforming the lives of everyone in it. For us, the most notable piece of the story, featured in the new book The Boy Who Harnesed the Wind (William Morrow, 2009) was that William, whose parents could no longer afford the $80 to send him to school, taught himself physics and how to build the windmill through donated science books borrowed from a small library in rural Malawi. What an incredible testament to the power of books. Aid for Africa member Books for Africa has been sending books to Africa for more than 20 years. Lubuto Library Project creates open access libraries for the most vulnerable children of Africa– orphans, street kids, and those affected by AIDS. Isn’t it amazing how books empowered William Kamkwamba and how he was able to change his world? We salute him and all the organizations that bring books and knowledge to children.

Aid for Africa Launches New Web Site

omnistudio — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:27:47 +0000

Today, Aid for Africa announces the launch of its new web site. We hope this site will be a resource for those looking to support the causes – clean water, sustainable agricultural development, and the health of women and children, and others — that are so crucial to Sub Saharan Africa’s growth and prosperity.

Whether it is Access Africa, which provide bicycles to AIDS workers in countries such as Ghana and Senegal, or the Maasai Girls Education Fund, which provides scholarships for the Maasai girls of East Africa, whose alternative is early marriage, our members are on the ground, making a difference through hands-on programs and support.

Aid for Africa is the first organization to bring together independent U.S.-based nonprofits focused exclusively on supporting programs in Africa itself. Their work ranges across health, education, development, arts and culture, conservation, and wildlife protection, all within Africa. This site will connect you with an incredible assortment of organizations and causes. You’ll find Africa Fighting Malaria, a group researching and advocating for effective malaria control practices, along with the Museum for African Art, which is focused on building understanding and appreciation of African art and culture. Yet another, the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, is providing veterinary care for the highly endangered mountain gorillas of east-central Africa. The Cows for Kids program, supported by The Boma Fund, has delivered 900 livestock to needy families, with priority given to widows with young children.

Aid for Africa believes that partnership through a comprehensive approach bringing together nonprofits and their African counterparts to help solve the inter-related challenges facing Africa can be an effective agent of change and development throughout the continent. Aid for Africa serves as a learning hub where these nonprofits can share best practices and as an efficient mechanism for raising funds for their work, allowing members to focus on the delivery of their services and maximizing their effectiveness.

I invite you to join Aid for Africa and our members, such as Partners in Health, Millennium Promise Alliance, PlayPumps, World Hope International, Books for Africa, and our other members in supporting those on the ground in Africa, working to make a difference every day.