Retooling Health Services for Internal Refugees in South Sudan

Poktap refugee camp in South Sudan, where staff supported by the John Dau Foundation are now providing nutrition support and health care.

In 2014 there were almost 60 million refugees worldwide—more than at any time since detailed record keeping—according to a new report from the UN agency charged with helping refugees.

The report also finds that one-sixth of the world’s refugees—11 million—are people who have been displaced within their countries. Called internally displaced persons, or IDPs, these “internal refugees” often don’t make the news because their displacement doesn’t disrupt another country. But their suffering and need is just as great.
In South Sudan the John Dau Foundation, an Aid for Africa member, has seen its mission altered and refocused on internal refugees because of ongoing fighting in that country since December 2013. The Foundation has supported the Duk Lost Boys Clinic, which was started by “lost boy” and genocide survivor John Dau in 2007 to provide health care to the people of the area.


During the conflict, Duk County has suffered some of the worst fighting in the country, according to Daniel Pisegna, the Foundation’s executive director. The clinic was destroyed and the population scattered. UNHCR estimates there were 1.4 million internal refugees in the country in 2014.

“Although the clinic is no longer operational, we have been able to provide support in refugee camps,” said Pisegna. That support has focused on nutrition, particularly for children five years old and younger and pregnant and lactating women.
“This conflict brought South Sudan to the brink of a severe famine, so the nutrition situation has been dire,” he said.

At the Poktap camp, women and young children gather daily for nutrition monitoring and food rations.

The staff of 20 from the Duk clinic are now working in three refugee camps, some in partnership with UNICEF and USAID, monitoring nutrition as well as providing maternity and primary care for some 40,000 internal refugees.

Word of the medical and nutrition services available at the camps has spread, attracting individuals from both sides of what has become a civil war. But conflict has been minimal.
“We don’t see a lot of animosity,” Pisegna said. “There is an understanding that the war has been unfortunate for everyone.”

Meanwhile, the work continues. Pisegna said that during the last nine months at the Poktap refugee camp, severe malnutrition has been reduced from 25 percent to 1 percent in children under five.
For the next six months, rain will make the camps unreachable by road. Supplies have been brought in and staff are in place to keep the health and nutrition programs in focus and ongoing

Will Ending Trophy Hunting Save Africa’s Lions?

Cecil was illegally killed in a trophy hunt gone wrong in Zimbabwe.

The illegal killing in Zimbabwe of Cecil, a lion that was protected and was the subject of a research study, has drawn international attention to wildlife trophy hunting in Africa. Outrage about how Cecil died has led to questions about the larger problem of wildlife conservation in Africa, specifically the decline in Africa’s lion populations.

Speaking on CNN International, Luke Hunter, president of Panthera, an Aid for Africa member working to ensure the future of wild cats through scientific leadership and global conservation action, said that wildlife trophy hunting is used in a number of African countries to help generate funding for conservation.
Wildlife conservation requires “massive resources” that African countries have difficulty generating, he said. “Zimbabwe uses legal trophy hunting to put money back into conversation.”
Hunter said that Zimbabwe does a “pretty good job” of managing trophy hunting and that he believed this illegal hunt was an “outlier.”

Lion populations in Africa are in overall decline in all but a few African countries, according to Hunter.  But trophy hunting is not the reason lions and other cats are declining in Africa. Lions are disappearing because of human encroachment into lion habitats and actions by rural African pastoralists who kill lions to protect their livestock.

“In Africa the huge challenge we face is a rapidly growing human population, a large percentage of which relies on livestock for their livelihoods,” Hunter said.
Hunter said it is up to the international community to help fund the African wildlife organizations that are charged with protecting lions and other wildlife.  Although we may find trophy hunting distasteful, he said, African governments need the funding that legal trophy hunting brings.

“There are solutions,” Hunter said.  He described Panthera programs that employ local people to monitor lion activity in order to protect livestock. The programs provide tools and techniques that help reduce conflict between lions and people.  Panthera provides training and equipment for lion monitoring and helps pastoralists build fortified corrals to protect livestock at night. “We reduce the issues from the beginning and also to provide incentives (to protect wildlife),” he said.

“This situation has shown how much people care,” Hunter said. The next step is to support African governments and the people of Africa to better manage wildlife.
Learn more about Panthera’s work to research and save African lions and its innovative solution to save leopards in South Africa

Two African Women Beat the Education Odds

Ageta Ayako grew up in one of the poorest sections of Nairobi, Kenya. She is the first in her family to graduate from university.

It’s back to a new school year for children throughout much of the world this month. In many countries in Africa, students lucky enough to attend school are in the middle of their academic year or have recently graduated. Ageta Ayako is one of the lucky ones. She graduated with honors earlier this summer from a Kenyan university. Another is Barikisu Muntari-Sumara, who graduated in late June from Ashesi University in Ghana.
Both women beat the odds.
A 2015 report by UNESCO provides the latest look at school enrollments and education levels throughout the world as of 2012. Although world student enrollments increased overall in the dozen years covered, enrollment rates in Sub Saharan Africa remained disappointing.


Thirty million primary-school-age children in Sub Saharan Africa were not enrolled in school in 2012. This represented half of all the children not enrolled in primary school throughout the world, according to UNESCO, the United Nations agency focused on education, science and culture.

The report notes that the world’s poorest children are four times more likely not to attend school than the world’s richest children. If they do go to school, they are five times more likely to drop out before finishing. It also finds that most countries in Sub Saharan Africa failed to eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education during the review period.

Barikisu Muntari-Sumara, who resisted pressure to marry at 13, graduated with a degree in Business Administration from Ashesi University in Ghana.

These numbers highlight why Ageta and Barikisu’s success stories are so remarkable.
Ageta grew up in the slums of Nairobi and attended St. Philips Primary School, which receives support from African Childrens Haven, an Aid for Africa member. Ageta received scholarships to attend high school. When she earned admission to a Kenyan university, she took out loans to finance her studies. Today she has a Bachelor of Science degree in Food Technology.

Barikisu resisted being married off at age 13. She became a street hawker to pay for high school and then received a scholarship to attend Ashesi University in Ghana. Ashesi University Foundation is an Aid for Africa member. Barikisu graduated with a degree in Business Administration.
Aid for Africa and its member organizations believe that education is key to Africa’s future. More than 60 of our 85 members include education in their missions. Two dozen provide scholarships to students—half of them exclusively to girls and young women.

Despite obstacles of poverty and gender, Ageta and Barikisu are university graduates. Their astonishing stories underscore the importance of supporting education in Sub Saharan Africa and the need to reduce the odds of students achieving their educational dreams.
Learn more about our member organizations that support education in Sub Saharan Africa. Learn more about the importance of educating girls in Africa

Aid for Africa Scholar Tracks Community-Led Nutrition and Health Efforts in Rwanda and Kenya

Nutrition centers in Gicumbi, Rwanda, provide a meeting place for mothers to learn about nutrition and child care.

This past summer Dianna Bartone, the fourth Aid for Africa Endowed Scholar, traveled to Gicumbi, Rwanda, and Nairobi, Kenya, as part of her graduate work in nutrition and public health at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. Bartone undertook this work with support from the Aid for Africa Endowment for Food and Sustainable Agriculture, a partnership between Tufts University’s Friedman School and Aid for Africa. The Aid for Africa Endowment provides a Friedman graduate student with funding to help defray the costs of research in Africa each year.

In Rwanda, where almost 40 percent of children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition, Bartone observed and documented the activities of village-based child nutrition centers in the Gicumbi region, which is  north of the capital, Kigali. The centers, which are run by local women, are a cross between community kitchens and day care centers for children under five.


Mothers bring their children to the centers along with food to share. The women learn from each other about hygiene, food preparation, nutrition and more, according to Bartone. Children receive a variety of foods that improve their diets. Some centers include vocational training for women. The centers serve multiple goals, including improved child nutrition and women’s empowerment, Bartone said.

“They [the centers] are community run and sustainable, which is exciting,” she said. “Women will hear about a center and visit it to see what is happening, then go back to their villages and replicate it.”

Dianna Bartone and Rwandan colleague.

Bartone said that the first center was launched in 2012. There are 13 centers in the region today.
Bartone shifted gears in Kenya, where the Kenyan government is working to decentralize health services throughout the country. According to Bartone, Kenyan health officials understand that community health advocacy organizations can be instrumental in disseminating public health information, particularly about sexual and reproductive health.

Bartone spent four weeks learning “who is doing what” and how health advocacy organizations already active in the country are coordinating with each other, or, in some cases, not coordinating.
To determine the gaps in effectiveness of these organizations, Bartone conducted interviews with key players in the communities. She found that issues like maternal health and HIV/AIDS were receiving attention, while family planning, general counseling, gender rights, sexual abuse and violence were not. Bartone found a consensus for the establishment of a legally based, government-sanctioned health advocacy network to ensure health initiatives are focused on need.

Bartone worked under the auspices of World Vision in conjunction with Rwandan and Kenyan staff. At Tufts, she is working to complete master’s degrees in human nutrition and public health.
Aid for Africa, which believes that development should be research-driven, created the Aid for Africa Endowment at Tufts University to support scientific research on the ground in Africa

From Education to Heath Care: Grassroots Partnerships are Changing Development in Africa

Construction of the new health clinic in Bududa, Uganda, which will serve the people of five additional communities.

Members of the Aid for Africa alliance believe that good works grow through partnerships. One long-term partnership is between Aid for Africa members Arlington Academy of Hope (AAH) and Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children (FIMRC).

After building a life in Arlington, Virginia, Ugandan immigrant John Wanda wanted to build something else — a school for his native village of Bumwalukani. Having come to the U.S. with their daughters, John and his wife decided to bring to Uganda the education principles of their daughters’ Arlington school. With the help of supporters through their U.S. charity, the Wandas did just that. Today, the village elementary school they envisioned ranks in the top 1 percent of some 19,000 schools in Uganda and is a model for the rest country. AAH also supports 600 elementary, high school and university students.


But education requires more than reading, writing and arithmetic. When the school began, it soon became apparent that the students needed health services and a health clinic. That’s when the Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children, or FIMRC, joined the effort.

FIMRC’s mission is to build clinics and provide community outreach and preventative health education programs in developing countries. They were invited to Bumwalukani to built a clinic to support the students. FIMRC staff also trained community health educators and provided volunteers to staff the clinic. Those efforts led to expansion of services to the families of students and then to the community at large.

In recent years, demand for clinic services began to outstrip capacity. The clinic provided services to 14,000 people last year, according to Meredith Welsh, FIMRC’s executive director. “But we didn’t have enough space or the ability to expand on the current property,” she said.
To meet the demand, FIMRC recently began construction of a larger clinic about one mile away from AAH’s school.

“We were fortunate to have land donated for our more expansive clinic,” said Welsh. She said that the new clinic will provide more services, including 24-hour care, maternity facilities, consultation rooms, and a separate area for patients with infectious diseases. Providing health services to the students of the school will also remain a priority, according to Welsh.

The new clinic has expanded the partnership between AAH and FIMRC to include the Ugandan government and funding from the 30/30 Project, Construction for Change and T-Mobile. Once completed, services will be phased in slowly to ensure sustainability. Welsh says the clinic will serve more than three times as many people as the original clinic.
This grassroots partnership is changing development in rural Uganda

New Partnership Turns Men’s Accessory into Support for Africa

Bows-N-Ties has created a series of pocket squares based on African flags. All sales will benefit Aid for Africa.

Originally conceived as an accessory for well-dressed men, the pocket square is now helping to empower women, children and families in Sub Saharan Africa. San Francisco-based Bows-N-Ties has created a limited-edition series of African flag pocket squares and is donating the proceeds from the sale of the squares to Aid for Africa.

The collection includes designs based on the flags of twelve African countries—Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa and Tanzania.
“It’s a collection that not only looks good, but literally does good,” said Hendrik Pohl, CEO of Bows-N-Ties. One hundred percent of the purchase price will benefit Aid for Africa.
How does a unique men’s accessory become a fundraising tool?
“In the past we created special collections to support veterans and animal causes, Pohl said. “This year we turned our attention to Africa.”

Although based on the flag of an African country, each pocket square design is unique. Pohl said that the company has produced only 200 of each design and will sell them for $10 each.
“If the charitable cause isn’t motivation enough to start wearing one of these 12 pocket squares, then perhaps the fact that wearing the pocket square will literally make you look better is reason to invest in one of these menswear accessories. Either way, wearing them will make you look good,” said Pohl.

Barbara Alison Rose, Aid for Africa’s executive director, said that the partnership with Bows-N-Ties will help raise awareness about the development challenges in Sub Saharan Africa and the important grassroots solutions in education, health care, economic development, agriculture, environmental protection and wildlife conservation that are meeting these challenges.
“We are thrilled to be part of an effort that will help others learn about and support efforts to empower women, children and families in Africa,” she said

Boosting Wildlife Conservation with Technology

Google Street View of Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya.

Love elephants, lions and giraffes but don’t have the time or money to take an African safari? Today is your lucky day! Google and Aid for Africa member Lewa Wildlife Conservancy have teamed up so you can take an African safari right now—virtually!

Using Google’s Street View you can visit Lewa’s Kenyan reserve and follow elephants, endangered Grevy’s zebra and more in real time. You can traverse the African savanna in Kenya without having to leave your computer. By connecting you with wildlife where it lives, Lewa and other wildlife conservation groups hope you will increase your awareness and take action on behalf of wildlife.

The Google-Lewa partnership is new, but the concept of technology and wildlife conservation is not. Scientists have been using technology such as radio collars to monitor and protect wildlife for decades. But traditional radio collars, which have to be used with hand held receivers often in close proximity to the animals are not always the best tools for researching wildlife.

Technology is critical to protecting the 400 elephants remaining in Virunga National Park in the DRC.

Today, smartphone tools, GPS and other technology are part of the conservation tool kit. A combination of technologies is being used to track a dwindling heard of elephants in the Democratic Republic of Congo with support from Aid for Africa member Wildlife Conservation Network.

During the 1980s there were some 8,000 elephants in the DRC’s Virunga National Park. Today only 400 elephants remain. Understanding where these elephants live and range will be critical to their survival. Kenyan-based Save the Elephants, which receives funding from Wildlife Conservation Network, has pioneered methods that track elephants in real time using Google Earth and GPS technology. This tracking is gaining effectiveness and serves as a vital tool in planning where to send patrols to guard elephants.

Recently, scientists began using accelerometers to protect elephants. Like their larger predecessors, the small, less expensive accelerometer devices developed for smartphones detect motion using g-forces. When used to monitor elephant movement and body orientation, they can signal when elephants are under attack.
In the future, drones may become another tool to monitor and protect wildlife. These controversial and expensive unmanned aircraft have the potential to provide rangers on the ground with information about wildlife location, migration and poaching.

With wildlife poaching on the rise throughout Sub Saharan Africa, particularly of elephants and rhino, technologies are needed to keep pace with increasingly sophisticated poaching operations. Google Street View allows anyone with a computer to experience elephants and other African wildlife in real time and perhaps spark a commitment to supporting ongoing wildlife conservation efforts and the development of new technologies for the future