National AIDS Day

Sub Saharan Africa is home to more than 60% of the population living with AIDS (24.7 million) but only a little over 10% of it’s population. In 2006, an estimated 2.8 million people in the region became newly infected.

Staggering numbers aren’t they? More than 3 quarters of those needing anti-retroviral are not receiving them. AIDS related deaths in Africa have orphaned an estimated 12 million children, and as many as 1,300 children die every day from the disease. Gender inequality means women are affected the worst.


The African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) is an international African organization headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.

AMREF's vision is Better Health for Africa.
AMREF's mission is to ensure that every African can enjoy the right to good health by helping to create vibrant networks of informed communities that work with empowered health care providers in strong health systems.
AMREF has 50 years’ experience in health development. In 1957, three surgeons founded the Flying Doctors Service of East Africa, laying the foundation for what is now one of the continent’s leading health development and research organisations. Today, AMREF implements its projects through country programmes in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Southern Sudan and South Africa. Training and consulting support are provided to an additional 30 African countries.
Knowledge is a core product of AMREF’s activities. AMREF implements projects to learn, and shares this evidence-based knowledge with others to advocate for changes in health policy and practice. Based on the belief that health is a basic human right, AMREF seeks to empower communities to take control of their health and to establish a vibrant and participatory health care system made up of communities, health workers and governments.
Our Strategic Focus
AMREF’s strategy seeks to strengthen health systems and to design and enhance interventions that improve people’s access to health through their active participation. Informed by Africa’s health crisis, AMREF’s comparative advantage and five decades’ experience of working with communities and health systems in the region, the AMREF strategy will be pursued through three interdependent programme themes:
Community Partnering for Better Health
Health Systems and Policy Research
Capacity Building


AMREF can use your help. Please visit their website. There is so much that is needed, from donations to volunteers. You can make a difference.