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eveelavatorspeechHR.pptxEvelyn Mensah
Africare’s Challenges and Health Policies
Who We Are
Africare is one of the most experienced and largest African-American led non-profit international development organizations, and we are leaders in development assistance to Africa.
Since our founding in 1970, Africare has delivered more than $1 billion in assistance to tens of millions of men, women and children across the African continent.
Africare centers its development approach around active community participation and partners with local organizations to ensure institutional strengthening and capacity building.
Challenge: Enough food is not good enough.
Nearly 40% of African children under 5 are malnourished, but surprisingly, not all of those children are going hungry.
Even if you have enough food to fill your belly, that food still needs to be nutritious enough to strengthen your body.
This is especially important in the first 1,000 days of a baby’s development, from the mother’s pregnancy through the child’s second birthday, when growing bodies and growing minds need the proper nutrients to develop and give the child their best start possible in life.
Africare’s Solution: Proper nutrition is a child’s best start
Gardening and Cooking Demonstrations: Africare encourages families to devote small chunks of their land to household gardens. Rather than selling the garden’s produce in commercial markets, where farmers sell the majority of their crops, families use these easily maintained gardens to grow food for immediate consumption.
Social and Behavior Change Communication: This is the driving force behind Africare nutrition projects. Giving someone more nutritious food or a vitamin supplement does not solve a problem. Communities must grow more nutritious food and seek out supplementation themselves.
Vitamin Supplementation: Poor diets lead to critical deficiencies in important nutrients like Vitamin A. Malnourished children need to be supplemented with the nutrients they are lacking. Africare staff and trained extension workers educate communities on the importance of nutrition, and we mobilize community members to seek nutrition services at health facilities and to encourage their neighbors to do the same..
Africare’s Health & Safety Policy
Africare Health and Safety Policy Africare is committed to conducting its business in a manner that protects the health and safety of employees, clients and others involved in our operations. Through the active participation of every employee, we will strive to prevent adverse health outcomes, accidents, or injuries arising from our operations. We are dedicated to continuous efforts to identify and manage health and safety risks associated with our activities.
Accordingly, with regard to Health matters, it is Africare's policy to:
• identify and evaluate health risks related to our operations that potentially affect employees, contractors or the public;
• implement programs and suitable protective measures to manage such risks;
• provide for the handling of medical emergencies;
• undertake periodic assessments to ensure compliance with this policy.
With regard to Safety matters, it is Africare's policy to:
• design and maintain facilities, establish procedures, provide training and conduct operations in a manner that safeguards people and property;
• respond quickly to emergencies or accidents resulting from our operations;
• comply with all applicable laws and regulations, and apply responsible standards where laws and regulations do not exist;
• undertake periodic assessments of our operations to measure performance and to ensure compliance with this policy.
