Gratitude is a word with many meanings to many people. Ordinarily when we think of gratitude we think of the person we held the door for, which could not even say thank you. Sometimes we take without saying thank you. Do you thank someone for a gift? Perhaps you are grateful that you can afford the new I- phone you have admired, or thanked your waitress for a well-served meal. Maybe people are thankful for their family being close and being able to visit them for the Holidays with the car loaded with gifts for Suzy and little Johnny, Uncle Bob and all the rest of the relatives.
Gratitude to me is so much more than material things or even the food I eat. Gratitude to me encompasses so many emotions that I only hope I can convey them with words.
Gratitude is having the freedom to give unselfishly to those who have nothing. It is the feeling in my heart of knowing one person drank a ladle of fresh clean water after having sifted through mud for most of their life. Waking up in relief that your humble home is still standing and your spouse is at your side. Being able to receive the rice and grain from the UN knowing your family will live another day. Watching the light in your child’s face as he or she goes to school for the first time, even though it has no seats and only a roof for shelter.
There are people in this world who have never had the pleasure of opening a gift all gaily wrapped. There are small children who have been forced into slavery, and if they are lucky they are not killed in war. Little girls have been raped at the young age of eight and nine, as their families look on in horror. Mothers watch as their children slowly die, their little bodies ravaged by AIDs.
Gratitude, do you really appreciate the meaning of this word?
Monday, December 1, 2008
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.
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.
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