“Before this Primary Health Care Unit was constructed, people had to go for health services to the Juba Teaching Hospital, which is very far from here. Everyone, especially mothers, is very happy now because AMREF has helped to bring these services nearer. We received long-lasting mosquito nets so our children no longer suffer frequently from malaria. We were also taught about prevention of HIV/AIDS and malaria.

While the international target on Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7 is to halve the number of people who do not have access to safe drinking water before the 2015, MDGs 4 and 5 focus on reducing child mortality and improving maternal health. At community level, the three seemingly distinctive goals are intricately roped together.

On the evening of March 6, the control room of the AMREF Flying Doctors received a call from the superintendent of the Mandera District Hospital in northern Kenya asking for help in evacuating three people who had been injured in separate incidents of insecurity. The patients were in serious condition and required specialised treatment in Nairobi.

In South Sudan, 2 out of every 100 women die due to complications arising during the process of giving birth. This is compounded by the fact that South Sudan suffers from a severe shortage of fully trained nurses and midwives. In 1998, AMREF opened the National Health Training Institute (NHTI) in Maridi, South Sudan, at the height of the civil war to help South Sudan build its health workforce, and has supported the school ever since. It began by training Clinical Officers, who have become the ‘doctors’ in the communities where they work.

World AIDS Day, marked each year on December 1, brings the world together to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and demonstrate international solidarity in the face of the pandemic.

The British Ambassador to Ethiopia H E Mr Greg Dorey recently paid a visit to Kechene area in Gullele Sub-City of Addis Ababa where the Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) Project is being implemented. H E Mr Dorey, who is also the Permanent Representative to the African Union emphasised on the importance of availability of potable water as an important component of health development for communities especially women and children.

AMREF will participate in the 19th edition of the International AIDS Conference, which runs from July 22-29, 2012 at the Walter E Washington Convention Centre in Washington DC, USA. Click here to view AMREF events at the conference.

World Malaria Day: 25 April 2012

During the last decade, national and international efforts to combat malaria have been stepped up through innovative funding that has enabled the development of new tools and improved access to malaria prevention and control measures. Since 2000, the incidence of malaria globally has reduced by 17 per cent, and malaria mortality rates have fallen by 26 per cent. These rates are less than the internationally agreed targets of 50 per cent reduction by 2010 but nonetheless represent a major achievement.

AMREF has announced, with deep shock and sorrow, the death of Dr Alemayehu Seifu, AMREF Country Director for South Sudan.

Dr Alemayehu, 46, was shot dead by unknown assassins on the evening of Saturday, January 14, at the gate of his house in Malakia area, on the outskirts of the capital city, Juba. The killers made off with his car and other personal belongings. The government of South Sudan immediately launched investigations into the incident. The vehicle Dr Seifu was driving was found on the Yambio-Juba road on Sunday afternoon with one occupant, who was arrested by police.