1956
Three doctors – Michael Wood, Archibald McIndoe and Tom Rees – drew up a ground-breaking plan to provide medical assistance to remote regions of East Africa.
Spurred by what they had seen of the combined effects of poverty, tropical disease and a lack of adequate health services, their vision was born in the foothills Mount Kilimanjaro.
At that time, there was one doctor to every 30,000 people in East Africa. Medical facilities were sparse and impassable roads made access to medical care difficult for people in rural and remote areas. Archie, Tom and Michael saw an air-based service as the only way to get health care to remote communities.
1957
1960s
1961
1975
Late 1970s
Amref Health Africa continued providing mobile clinical and maternal and child health services. We also started to focus on community-based health care and training community health workers to deliver primary health care. Technical support units, maternal and child health, family planning and environmental health were also set up.
1978
HRH Prince Charles becomes Patron of the Amref Health Africa UK office.
1980s
Amref Health Africa moved into community health development, closer collaboration with the Ministries of Health in the region, and cooperation with international aid agencies.
Greater emphasis was given to creating stronger health systems, with special attention to health needs identified by communities themselves. Amref Health Africa staff gained experience in planning and the management of health services at a national level – expertise that has since been shared with health ministries.
Early 1990s
Amref Health Africa established a unique year-long training course in community health. We also expanded to include disease control initiatives, focusing on malaria, HIV/AIDS and TB.
1993
Amref Health Africa partners with numerous celebrity ambassadors to increase awareness of our cause worldwide. Here, David Bowie and Iman, collect an Amref t-shirt at a charity auction at Christies, London.
Mid 1990s
1999: Amref Health Africa is awarded the Conrad Hilton Humanitarian Award.
To meet an increased health care need, Amref Health Africa prioritised research, capacity building and advocacy relating to: HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections, TB, malaria, clean water and basic sanitation, family health, clinical services, training and health learning materials.
In recognition of the need for partnerships at the community level, Amref Health Africa worked closely with local groups to enable community-based planning, shared identification of issues and priorities, and efficient use of resources.
2000s
2005: Amref Health Africa is awarded the Bill and Melinda Gates Award for Global Health, the first African organization to do so.
In recent years, Amref Health Africa has highlighted the fact that despite significant investments by donors in health products and delivery of health services, many people in Africa still have limited access to sufficient and quality health care.
Our current strategy focuses on finding ways to link health services to the people that need them most by focusing more on people, and less on diseases.
2005
2007
2017
Since 1957, our way of working has been: “African solutions for African health challenges.”