Non-Governmental Organizations in Public Health - Essay Example

The vision of the African Medical and Research Foundation is to promote unwavering health development in Africa: societies with the means, skills, and knowledge to preserve their decent health and eliminate the cycle of poverty and deficient health. AMREF’s mission is to guarantee that all Africans are able to benefit from the right to decent health by assisting to establish vivid connections of well-versed societies that work with knowledgeable health care experts insufficient health systems (Kibua, 2009). There is a health focus included in the mission and vision of AMREF.

AMREF obtains its finances from a number of sources, for example, grants, funding from other organizations, and awards. AMREF’s projects have always gained support in form of grants, for example, the Dutch Postcode Lottery has availed a grant of 1.7 million Euros to the foundation so as to develop an investigation on the efficiency of mobile phones in instructing health professionals. It also gets financial support from organizations such as Accenture and Irish Aid. Finally, the foundation has won awards, for example, in 2005, the Gates Award for Global Health and Conrad Hilton Humanitarian Award, which have come with large sums of prize money (Kibua, 2009). Conflict of interest arises when AMREF leaders and workers receive significant gifts from the people they serve.

AMREF provides preventive and curative services. It trains health employees, conducts researches, and services related to strengthening health systems. It engages in activities that illustrate local and adequate to the health requirements of the community. Yearly, the foundation trains over 100,000 community health workers to provide health assistance in their areas. It also conducts research so as to influence, inform, and call for change. It serves approximately 40 African nations with inadequate health institutions and insufficient sanitary conditions (Guerma, 2012). Those eligible for the services include urban slums, people in remote regions, conflict engulfed areas, and nomadic individuals.

AMREF contains documented accomplishments in enhancing individuals’ health conditions. In the 1960s, it introduced flight clinics and ground-based medical services to serve remote and under-served regions, for example, Kajiado in Kenya. In 1975, it started educating and training rural health workers. In the 1980s, it embarked on strengthening health systems while focusing on the needs established by societies. In the 20th century, AMREF interacted more with societies to allow identification of priorities and issues, and community-based planning (Guerma, 2012).

Nurses have several duties in the organization. They are the foundation of AMREF. They are the foremost health caregivers and the initial point of connection for the societies, mostly for the underprivileged, who frequently reside in inaccessible and remote regions of the nations they serve. They react to escalating needs for efficient healthcare and rising healthcare difficulties caused by ailments (Guerma, 2012).