Africare
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Africare is a United States based non-profit organization specialized in development aid for Africa. Africare was founded in 1970 as a private non profit organization by former Peace Corps members who had worked in eastern Niger. Since that time, communities in 35 nations Africa-wide have benefited from direct Africare assistance. During the fiscal year of 2004, Africare supported more than 150 programs in 26 African countries.
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[edit] Organization
Over the course of its history, Africare has become a leader among private, charitable U.S. organizations assisting Africa. It is the oldest and largest African-American organization in the field. The NGO employs staff largely indigenous to the countries and to the areas where it works. 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. Its current president is Julius E. Coles.
[edit] Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award
Each year, Africare presents the Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award (BWD). The award is named for the late John T. Walker, the first African-American Episcopal Bishop of Washington, DC. At BWD 2006, Africare gave the award to former United States president Bill Clinton.
[edit] Methods
Africare works in partnership with African communities to achieve healthy and productive societies. Africare's approach places communities at the center of development activities. Africare believes that only through strong communities can Africa feed itself, appropriately exploit its natural resources, educate, care and protect its children, promote the economic well being of African people and live in peace.
[edit] History
Africare is the oldest and largest African American organization in the field. And Africa is Africare's specialty. In 1970, when Africare was founded, West Africa was in the midst of one of the most severe droughts in its history. Among those providing help -- medical aid to the Maine-Soroa town Hospital in Diffa, Niger -- were 17 American volunteers, led by William O. Kirker, M.D., and Barbara Jean A. Kirker, who named their group "Africare". The Kirkers themselves had been working in Africa, to improve African health care, since 1966, but eventually, they needed more support. Diori Hamani, then president of the Republic of Niger, appealed to the United States on the effort's behalf, asking : "Why don't black Americans, whose ancestors came from the continent, respond to the needs in Africa?"[citation needed]
C. Payne Lucas, then the director of the Peace Corps Office of Returned Volunteers in Washington DC had served previously in Niger and knew the president from that time. In dialogue there emerged was a concept for an assistance organization that was progressive, culturally respectful, and uniquely, multiracial in origin as well as Africa wide in scope.
In 1970, Africare was incorporated in Hawaii, with Kirker as its founder and first president. In 1971, Africare was permanently re-incorporated in Washington, D.C.; Lucas became the executive director (later, that title changed to "president"), and Kirker joined the Board. In addition to Kirker and Lucas, other incorporators were Oumarou G. Youssoufou, a Nigerien diplomat, and Joseph C. Kennedy, Ph.D., then at Peace Corps. It had a $39,550 budget, a U.S. headquarters in the basement of Lucas's home and one project in Niger.
Africare concentrated on helping to alleviate the effects of severe drought in West Africa. By the mid 1970s, Africare had shifted its emphasis to development programs in the areas of food, water, the environment and health--expanding in the late 1980s to include microenterprise development, governance, basic education and, tragically, HIV/AIDS response. Africare provides emergency humanitarian aid as well.
[edit] Recent History
In mid June 2002, C. Payne Lucas retired after 31 years as president and Africare welcomed as its third president, Julius E. Coles, a 28 year veteran of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the first director of the Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center at Howard University and, most recently, director of the Andrew Young Center for International Affairs at Morehouse College.
By 1997, Africare had expanded to the point where President Nelson Mandela of South Africa stated,
"I regard Africare as one of America's greatest gifts to Africa. Your work, in every corner of our great continent, has sustained our own commitment to building a strong and free Africa."
[edit] Noteworthy Accomplishments
To date, Africare has delivered more than $540 million in assistance—representing over (2,000 projects need to update) and millions of beneficiaries—to 35 countries Africa wide. Today, Africare’s 150 plus programs reach families and communities in 25 nations in every region of Sub-Saharan Africa.
[edit] Village based rural development in Africa
In the area of health, special achievements have been in child survival, river blindness control, malaria prevention, national level pharmaceutical management and HIV/AIDS response at the grassroots. Africare has constructed thousands of wells and irrigation systems. 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 Zambia, where it has worked since 1978, Africare has worked in several hundred communities. It has been especially active in helping rural groups, particularly women and youth, to generate income and to support community needs. These initiatives have encouraged the cultivation and processing of sunflower seed into edible oil, renewable use of forest resources and marketing of honey and furniture, support for orphans and vulnerable children, mobilization of adolescents to educate peers about HIV/AIDS and development of community schools.
[edit] Humanitarian emergencies
Africare has worked in the Sahelian drought of the 1970s; the Somalia refugee crisis and the Africa wide drought of the 1980s; since the 1990s, crises brought on by warfare in Angola, Somalia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Burundi and elsewhere; and since 2002, the resurgence of widespread famine in Southern Africa and the Horn of Africa.
Throughout Sierra Leone's ten-year civil war (1991-2001) as much as one-fifth of the population were internally displaced. Africare's intervention began with addressing the immediate food and medical needs of the IDP population, and subsequently promoting self-reliance and self-sufficiency of that population. Activities have included farmer self-help assistance, child immunization, and health care for pregnant women. Work towards the restoration of human dignity and the independence of those who were physically, psychologically, and economically affected by the war was a direct result of Africare's intervention. Africare continues working through its USAID-funded CORAD project, to improve health conditions and re-establish livelihood's through agricultural activities for vulnerable women and children. Africare has used the inclusive model of organizing and empowering village-level groups that include members who represent every segment of the community.
[edit] Bridge between Africans and African Americans
Before Africare came into being, African Americans donated relatively little to Africa (except through the church) because there was no single agency that truly sought to create a bridge to "the motherland".[citation needed] Africare set out to create that bridge, and it has had noteworthy success. Among Africare's most loyal donors have been African-American churches, community groups, social clubs, sororities and fraternities, and more. Sums donated by African Americans have ranged from annual individual gifts of $10 or $25 to the African-American Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority's total giving, over 15 years, of $1.4 million. Through numerous Africare-sponsored events, African Americans have had the chance to learn about Africa and to get to know African people. From the other side, through its African Diplomatic Outreach Program, Africare has arranged monthly discussions between the African diplomatic corps in Washington, D.C., and top-level American experts in fields of concern to Africa. The meetings have facilitated working relationships between African ambassadors and their U.S. counterparts, in turn advancing Africa's cause.
[edit] List of notable awards and honors
- 1975 Africare's president received honorary doctorates from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (1975), and Fisk University for Africare leadership.
- 1980 - 1990 Africare President C. Payne Lucas received National Orders of Benin (1990), Cote d'Ivoire (1984), Niger (1980), Senegal (1982) and Zambia (1986), the nations' highest awards for humanitarian service.
- 1980 The Capitol Press Club selected Africare's C. Payne Lucas as its Humanitarian of the Year for his leadership of Africare.
- 1983 C. Payne Lucas, was a member of the American delegation to Geneva, led by U.S. presidential appointee Shirley Temple Black, which convened a donors' meeting to discuss the famine in Somalia.
- 1984 United States president Ronald Reagan presented C. Payne Lucas with the Presidential End Hunger Award.
- 1986 The Phelps-Stokes Fund presented Africare with the Aggrey Medal for accomplishments in establishing enduring links of friendship and cooperation between the United States and Africa.
- 1990 Africare was the first recipient of the Land Grant College Distinguished Bicentennial Award.
- 1991 C. Payne Lucas was the first African-American recipient of the American Political Science Association's Hubert H. Humphrey Public Service for Africare leadership.
- 1993 Lucas, was appointed to the Board of Directors of the African Development Foundation.
- 1995 Lucas, led a US government mission to Rwanda and Burundi to explore ways to reduce the tension between Hutus and Tutsis.
- 1996, 1998 - 1999 The U.S. Embassy in Angola has twice recognized local Africare employees with its annual humanitarian award. The award's first recipient, in 1996, was Pedro Siloka, the provincial coordinator of Africare programs in Bie Province. Siloka survived the 18-month "Battle of Kuito" and organized emergency feeding centers that saved several hundred lives. The second Kuito employee, Diogo Castigo, was honored for his work in late 1998 and 1999, when fighting resumed.
- 2000 The Washington Capital Area chapter of the United Nations Association cited Africare's emergency relief work in Angola.
- 2001 The Greater Washington Urban League presented Africare with the Ronald H. Brown International Community Service Award. The National Conference on Black Philanthropy presented Africare an award for Outstanding Achievement in Philanthropy. The Magic Johnson Foundation, Inc., honored Africare for helping African children affected by HIV/AIDS.
- 2002 The Southern Christian Leadership Conference honored Africare for supporting national civil rights and humanitarian endeavors.
- 2003 The Amistad Achievement Award was given to Africare President Julius E. Coles by the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, for contributions to the African continent.
- Current: Africare has been ranked a “Three” and later "Two" Star Charity by Charity Navigator, a United States independent charity evaluator. The American Institute of Philanthropy has designated Africare as one of its "Top-Rated Charities".
