From The President's Office
President and CEO
Robert L. Mallett
A year ago I became the fourth President of Africare. It has been a rewarding and growth-filled adventure.  Africare's work is important and purposeful, and for 46 years its work has been on the cutting edge of development in Africa, making it one of the most experienced international development organizations in the world.  

Across all of our geographies and at headquarters, the people of Africare come to work committed to our mission and focused on preserving Africare's legacy of exceptional programming.  We are also testing and applying new strategies for organizational renewal and growth.  
 
While absent in the last few years, this newsletter will be but one of the ways we communicate with our supporters and friends.  The projects you will read about in this newsletter represent an affirmation of Africare's history, and they point the way forward. We never forget that Africare is grounded in grass-roots development.   

"It is an exciting time to be at Africare"

Our ever-growing marketplace challenges demand that we modernize our approach to the work we do, seek new strategies to solve problems, and find new partners to work with us.  You will learn about some of those areas by reading our newsletter.
 
Many of you are continuous and long-time supporters and we are very grateful for your investment.  Some of you once supported us, and we invite you to renew your interest in our work.  Many of you have taken a passing interest in the work we do and now we ask for your support in more tangible ways.
 
We can only achieve results with your help. My hope is that you will join us on this journey.


NEWS FROM AFRICARE
Photo by Aliza Hasham
Teaching Good Nutrition 
Practices Through Drama
in Morogoro  

Members of the Furaha Theater Group perform a short skit about the importance of nutrition to villagers. The skit portrayed a man being overcome by a spirit, causing him to act abnormally by practicing negative nutrition practices. The second man attempts to bring the other man back to his senses by telling him various nutrition behaviors he should practice, which are taught in Africare's nutrition project in Mwanzo Bora. He convinces him to join a peer support group to learn more about the importance of nutrition. Theater groups like this perform during Mwanzo Bora Demonstration Days. 

Bishop Walker Dinner to be Held in Fall, 2017
We are planning to hold the next Bishop Walker Dinner in the Fall of 2017, exact date to be announced soon.If you are interested in the event, or would like to make an end of year contribution to Africare, please contact Earlene Barnes at [email protected].

You may also send a contribution to: Africare House, 440 R Street NW Washington, DC 20001, Attention: Development.

We also encourage online contributions through our website at https://www.africare.org/ or call us at 202-462-3614.

Thank you for your support of Africare's programs!
The Infectious Diseases Institute:  
Strengthening Africa's Health System

Photos from the IDI Clinic at Mulago Hospital

Through the merger with Accordia Global Health Foundation, Africare is partnering with African Centers of Excellence like the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) to strengthen Africa's health system and emergency preparedness and response to improve the health and well-being of the people we serve in Africa. IDI's mission is to strengthen health systems in Africa, with a strong emphasis on infectious diseases, through research and capacity development. 

Since its inception, the Infectious Diseases Institute has:
  • Ensured unrivaled quality of care to hundreds of thousands of HIV-positive patients in Uganda, and provided proactive and preventive health services
  • Worked with medical and nursing schools, to train tens of thousands of healthcare professionals across 28 African countries - who in turn have trained thousands more - to ensure a stronger health workforce for the continent
  • Conducted world class clinical and operational research, and exported both scientific and practical solutions to combat HIV and other diseases throughout Africa - an invaluable resource to the region's health ministries
  • Provide hundreds of talented professionals with legitimate career paths, and the incentive to remain in Africa and contribute to the integrity of their profession and the health of their people
  • Demonstrated to the world what is possible when smart and serious investments are made in Africa.
"African-owned and African-led, the IDI is now a preeminent center for infectious disease research, training, and treatment. The IDI model has proven extraordinarily productive, with far-reaching applications for similar disease fighting efforts elsewhere in Africa."
 
-Institute of Medicine, Report on U.S. Commitment to Global Health, May 2009 
  The disease fighting efforts include a collaboration to prevent and manage especially dangerous pathogens (EDPs) with the United States Army Medical Research Institute for infectious diseases (USAMRIID) and the Ministries of Health of Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. 

For the past three years, IDI has worked to strengthen the ability of public health systems in East Africa to prevent and manage illnesses caused by pathogens of security concern. To increase East Africa's preparedness, IDI has conducted service provider training in EDPs such as Ebola, for clinicians in Uganda and Kenya and to ensure the integration of this new knowledge and skills, IDI has conducted post-training follow-up of alumni through onsite and distance learning methods.
 
As of June 2016, a total of 378 clinicians (178 Ugandans, 179 Kenyans and 21 Tanzanians) had been trained; 134 (52 Kenyans and 82 Ugandans) have been followed up, and have displayed evidence of improved preparedness for the detection and management of especially dangerous pathogens.  

The goal of the intervention is to decrease the delay in clinical diagnosis, management and reporting of EDPs, while employing infection control methods that keep frontline healthcare workers safe, thereby reducing morbidity and mortality in an outbreak. The program has had a significant practical impact already: six alumni clinicians and epidemiologists served on the frontlines during the massive 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa; and three have become part of the WHO West African regional team of experts assigned to spearhead the rebuilding of the health care system after this devastating outbreak. 

In Uganda, graduates of the EDP course have also ardently applied their newly acquired knowledge and skills to detect and manage outbreaks of plague in the Koboko district (October 2015) and yellow fever in Kabale district (March 2016).
 
"IDI's work with EDP's is only one example of the tremendous impact IDI is having on the region.  IDI conducts original and translational research, saves lives through the provision of high quality clinical and laboratory services, and strengthens the health workforce through ground-breaking training and medical education. Through supporting locally owned centers of excellence like IDI, Africare is helping transform healthcare systems throughout the African continent," commented Robert L. Mallett, Africare President and CEO.  


MEET AFRICARE'S LEADERS 
A quarterly column about our people 
By Sharifa Kalokola
 Hubert Humphrey 2016-17 Fellow 
Communications Department
 
A voice for Nigerian women:
Dr. Orode Doherty

 
Dr. Orode Doherty, Africare's Country Director in Nigeria, mirrors the genuine power of African women: hardworking, nurturing, and a human shield from daily tragedies. The Harvard-educated pediatrician is passionate about making change in her country.  She hopes her work in the health sector will transform the lives of millions of women and children in Nigeria. She is actively working towards this. 

Dr. Doherty believes that the key to Nigeria's development lies in women being involved in decision making. "Since half of the Nigerian population is women, they need to be present at the table alongside men to make decisions about their lives, "she insists.
 
She says that achieving gender equality is still a "pipe dream" in Nigeria. While the country has anti-discriminatory laws and regulations, violence against women and gender stereotypes persist.  Nigeria also has a high infant and maternal mortality rate and is struggling with limited access to quality health care. "Provision of high quality primary health care is one of the major gaps in the Nigerian health system," she asserts.
 
Power Forward, a partnership between ExxonMobil, the NBA, and Africare, uses the game of basketball to teach and mentor students from secondary schools in Abuja about health literacy and life skills such as leadership, respect, and personal responsibility.


Africare has been involved in a wide range of health, environment and economic empowerment projects in Nigeria since 1978. One example is set to transform the diagnostic landscape of malaria in Nigeria. Africare joined forces with Fio Corporation, a Canadian technology company, to introduce automated malaria testing and real-time reporting in Nigeria's Akwa Ibom and Rivers states. 
 


Dr. Doherty is enthusiastic about the upcoming market-shaping campaign that will promote the uptake of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) (also known as cooking gas) as the preferred cooking fuel in Nigeria. Nigeria has the world's ninth largest reserve of gas, and the lowest LPG utilization on the continent. Kerosene, charcoal and firewood are widely used in Nigeria and they expose women and children to health risks. 
 
Cooking for three hours a day exposes women to similar amounts of benzopyrene as smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, according a study by the World Health Organization. This exposure increases risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and acute respiratory infections in children, one of the leading causes of child mortality, the study reveals.
 
Dr. Doherty says that Nigerian women should have full access to LPG. "It is not yet widely available, but supply still far outstrips demand," she says "Our role here is to demand creation through behavior change communication." 
 
Dr. Doherty's zeal for helping women and children grew stronger when she started her career as a medical doctor.  In her first foray into the field of public health as a young physician, she and her team worked to designate the health facility where they were working as a "Baby Friendly" Hospital.
  
She recalls that her most difficult moments as a young pediatrician were the times when children died. During her pediatric residency training at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital in the early days of the HIV epidemic, treatment for children was barely available and it was expensive. The diagnosis usually came quite late- the children were already very sick. 
 
"I came to understand that I couldn't solve all the problems I was seeing in clinical practice, but I knew I was capable of delivering more help," she emphasizes.
 
Dr. Doherty viewed the public health field as a tool that she could use to address the needs of people in a more impactful way, leading her to pursue a degree in Public Health at the Harvard University School of Public Health in 2001. She subsequently went on to pursue her post graduate residency training at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pennsylvania in 2006.
 
Dr. Doherty leaves a mark wherever she goes.  During her residency at Children's, she developed and introduced a pediatric environmental health curriculum at her school which was adopted and built upon by subsequent residents in training. She credits this success to her late mentor, Dr. Michael Shannon, with whom she studied for over a year at the Boston Children's Hospital.  She received the Vincent Londino Jr. Memorial Pediatric Senior Resident Award at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh as an outstanding resident teacher and clinician as a result of her work in this area.

She says that her mother has been the greatest influence on her life. She is the daughter of the renowned Professor Grace Alele Williams, the first woman to earn a doctorate degree in Nigeria. "She influenced me to be consistent and courageous," she recounts. Dr. Doherty, the mother of three, acknowledges the support of her husband in raising children together and giving each other time to progress in their careers. She says they also have a lot of help from their extended family and friends.
 
References
1. Gender equality in Nigeriahttp://www.genderindex.org/country/nigeria
2. Indoor air pollution in developing countries: a major environmenta
l and public health challenge http://www.who.int/bulletin/archives/78(9)1078.pdf
 
   

Our Advocate for Better Health Services in Africa:
Dr. Christopher Mfornyam



The mission of Africare is to improve the quality of life of the people in Africa. For decades, Africare has devoted efforts to improve health systems on the continent. Meet one of our heroes:  Dr. Christopher Mfornyam, affectionately known as Dr. Chris.
 
Sub-Saharan Africa has a high burden of disease. It leads with high numbers of infant mortality and maternal death as well as HIV infections. It is also battling against the mushrooming scourge of non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, heart disease, cancer, obesity and diabetes. Despite such grim health data Africare has for decades made a commitment to improve the health systems.
 
Dr. Christopher Mfornyam has devoted his career to pioneering positive changes in African health systems. He is the Deputy Director of Health at Africare.  He provides technical assistance and support to our programs in Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Malaria, HIV/AIDS and Nutrition. Throughout his career, he has had an immense passion for saving lives and it drove him to focus in the field of public health. 
 
Dr. Chris believes access to comprehensive quality health care services is an essential solution to major health challenges in Africa. Born and raised in Cameroon, he started his career as a medical doctor there. He served in different positions of responsibility for the Ministry of Health of Cameroon (MOH) and later Plan International. 
 
During the course of his years of public service, Dr. Chris was responsible for oversight of health care delivery in both the public and private sectors in a variety of health districts where he served in Cameroon. He is passionate about facilitating access to essential health services to marginalized and hard- to- reach populations. 
 
Some of his memories include personal and direct involvement in outreach to provide health services to the indigenous marginalized Baka (Pygmy) ethnic group living in the equatorial rain forest in the East Region of Cameroon. The Baka live a nomadic life hunting and harvesting honey and wild fruits for food.   "I used to go frequently to their remote camps in the forest to treat the sick and vaccinate the children," he said.  "I also facilitated establishment of birth certificates for their children and issuance of National Identity Cards (NIC) to the adults," he recalls. Birth Certificates are a basic requirement for enrollment in elementary school and the NIC is mandatory for all adult citizens of Cameroon.
 
Being in the public health field gives him satisfaction since he has the opportunity to contribute to saving millions of lives by positively influencing improvements in the health care delivery system.  "Instead of focusing only on people who are suffering from an illness, I have the opportunity of facilitating the provision of comprehensive solutions that integrate promotional, preventive, curative and support services to the majority of the population," he says.  Dr. Chris believes that improving the health care delivery system is the surest way to do the greatest good to impact the largest number of people. He believes that Africare is lifting the lives of Africans, particularly those in hard to reach and resource scarce communities.
   
"Africare provides health services to communities with the greatest needs.   It has contributed to the provision of quality health services through partnership with one health ministry after another, as well as and other development organizations, both public and private".
He cites a successful HIV/AIDS project in South Africa which has benefited more than one million people. The Injongo Yethu project provided technical support to 172 health facilities and to 51 community based organizations between 2005 to 2012.
 
Another important project he mentions is in Zambia where Africare has funded construction of maternity waiting homes. The work at the houses helps pregnant women who live far from hospitals to access appropriate health services and deliver children with the assistance of skilled birth attendants. The attendants can respond quickly to adverse obstetric problems which could compromise the health and/or life of the mother and the newborn.
 
Dr. Chris believes Africa can address health challenges more effectively if political acknowledgement of health as a key priority sector of development is accompanied with sufficient funding from host country annual budgets. "Let's get our priorities right; African governments should prioritize health, education, agriculture, and infrastructure and adequately fund them" he says.
 
Insufficient funding poses a major challenge to improving the health systems however, he believes that a good number of African countries do have resources. "External support is important but we need to show proof that we are accountable for the resources generated in-country." He adds, "we need to invest in human resources; train properly, supervise and motivate those we train."  He urges African leaders to be keen in providing adequate oversight and evaluation of development projects. As a leader in the field of public health, he describes himself as a proactive person.
 
"Actions speak louder than words," is his favorite adage. "Leadership is service; it is about mentoring teams to achieve goals".  His sense of leadership is rooted in his childhood practices and experiences at the family and community level. Growing up in a village in the Northwest region of Cameroon in a family of four siblings and peasant parents, he felt responsible to assist his parents.
 
"I did chores without being asked and without complaining.  I happily fetched firewood, carried water for household use, and cleaned the house/yard. This motivated my siblings to do the same" he says. Throughout his schooling years he was elected by his classmates or chosen by teachers to positions of leadership. "I led by example," he asserts.
 
Dr. Chris is happily married and is a proud father of four. He passes down the ethics of being proactive to his children. Besides his work, he unwinds by watching soccer, listening to good music and singing gospel. He also is an avid follower of world affairs news. As an African living abroad, he believes that he is still contributing in developing his continent of birth. "At Africare I am devoting all my energy and the opportunities that arise to work as much as I can to serve my continent, especially African mothers and children."