Africare

Assists communities Africa-wide in water, environment, education, business development and emergency relief. Emphasis on food/agriculture and health, especially HIV/AIDS. A leader in aid to Africa.

Why do we exist?

Africare is a leader among private, charitable U.S. organizations assisting Africa. Founded in 1970, it is the oldest and largest African-American organization specializing in African aid. Africare works to improve the quality of life in Africa. Africare’s programs address needs in the principal areas of food security and agriculture as well as health and HIV/AIDS. Africare also supports water resource development, environmental management, basic education, microenterprise development, governance initiatives, and emergency humanitarian aid. Chronic problems of poverty, hunger, and poor health are persistent barriers to a better life in Africa today. HIV/AIDS in Africa has spread alarmingly and attracted worldwide attention. Africare strives to provide aid to the people who are most in need. Project by project, village by village, person by person, Africare provides help and hope — poverty overcome, communities feeding themselves, health improved, HIV prevented, orphans of AIDS who now have care — made possible through the partnership of Africare, our African counterparts, and our supporters worldwide.

What have you accomplished?

Africare has been a pioneer in village-based rural development in Africa. In the area of health, special achievements have been in child survival, river blindness control, national-level pharmaceutical management, and AIDS prevention at the grassroots. Africare has constructed thousands upon thousands of wells and irrigation systems, bringing safe, reliable water supplies to some of the most isolated, desertified communities in Africa. Food production, food monetization, and food security continue to represent major focal points of Africare's work—as does assistance to small-scale entrepreneurs, from edible oil producers throughout Southern Africa to women farmers and women-owned co-ops Africa-wide. In addition, Africare has responded to immediate need, working on the front lines of virtually every humanitarian emergency in Africa for over 30 years. Since the onset of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s, Africare has supported national and local initiatives in Africa to combat the spread of the epidemic. Africare has been effective in improving the quality of life of people suffering from or affected by the scourge of HIV/AIDS. One example of Africare’s beneficial assistance is its sponsorship of a support group for AIDS widows and people living with AIDS—"Association Abateaninkunga" ("People Helping People")—which was created by its members in a rural community outside Kigali, Rwanda. "At first," says Alphonse Bizima, president of the association, "we met once a week to pray together. That was it." With training and a small loan from Africare, the group set up a soap-making enterprise — now producing 1,000 bars of soap a day. Physically, the work is not taxing and is done by the healthier members. Most of the soap is sold; the rest is for personal use. And the profits are shared among all. "This project is helping us to find solutions to our own problems," Alphonse notes. "We make money to pay our kids' school fees and our medical costs. Life is just a little bit better." People Helping People was one of many groups participating in a larger Africare HIV/AIDS-assistance program, spanning the Kabuga and Kanombe districts.

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