IN 2005 AMREF WON THE BILL AND MELINDA GATES AWARD FOR GLOBAL HEALTH: “AMREF HAS BEEN WORKING FOR DECADES, SAVING THE LIVES OF MILLIONS OF AFRICANS, AND THIS MAKES US HOPE THAT EVEN THE TOUGHEST HEALTH CHALLENGES CAN BE WON”.

BILL GATES

One and a half billion people in the world have to use contaminated water, the main vehicle for disease. In Africa, 4 out 5 deaths are linked to water. The lack of drinking water is one of the fundamental causes of hunger, disease and poverty.

Water is often far away. African women and children walk for up to eight hours a day to collect water, which is often contaminated. Easily accessible, clean water means being able to drink, wash, cook, provide for farm animals and irrigate crops: activities that bring health and progress.

The project

Arena and AMREF have decided to work together on the construction of an artesian well, in the Mkuranga District of Tanzania. The objectives of the project are to make clean water accessible to local communities, to provide users to responsibly manage water, to teach health and hygiene procedures. The building of the well, along with the training, aims to reduce poverty and diseases that affects many people, thus guaranteeing them better living conditions.

AMREF

AMREF is the largest non-profit African health organisation, which for more than 50 years has been working with the people of Africa to improve their health conditions. In Africa, AMREF handles about 140 health development projects: all of these projects depend on experts, doctors, water engineers and African social workers who are essential for finding solutions that are appropriate and sustainable within the African context and that will generate permanent benefits.