Katine FAQs: Who is involved?

Who is involved?

Who is AMREF?
AMREF is Africa’s leading health development organisation – saving and transforming people’s lives – in some of the poorest and most marginalised communities.

AMREF is a truly African organisation. Its headquarters are in Nairobi, Kenya and there are country programmes in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Africa, Southern Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. AMREF employs more than 700 people, 97% of whom are African.

What do they do?
AMREF brings good quality and affordable health care closer to those who need it most - improving access to health treatment and preventing poor health through community education. Working closely with African communities and governments, AMREF ensures that its health projects are relevant and sustainable.

Why is AMREF getting involved in areas outside of its mandate? i.e education, agriculture?
AMREF has agreed to deliver an integrated development programme, but it will not be working alone in implementing programmes where it does not have the expertise, i.e education, agriculture and finance. We are partnering with the experts in their relative fields – the ministry of education for the education component, FARM-Africa for agriculture and Barclays for the financial component.

AMREF also feels that our experience of working with and empowering communities to strive for their own development means we are well placed to deliver such an integrated project. Empowering the community to engage in local governance is one of the cross-cutting goals of the project.

Why did AMREF choose to partner with the Guardian?
The project will contribute to AMREF’s overall vision - better health for Africa. The project will be delivered in line with AMREF’s approach of community partnering – listening to the community, and working with them to develop projects that are relevant to their specific needs, culture and circumstances. By working with the Guardian, the project will help us to give African communities a direct voice in the global arena.

It will also give Guardian readers and AMREF supporters the chance to see how long-term community development works and realise that it does not happen overnight. Most development communication materials dip in and out of different projects and countries and people only really get snapshots of people’s lives. This project will give the public a chance to observe a development project throughout its lifetime, watching as plans evolve and the community begins to see the benefits of the project activities.

The project will also encourage dialogue about development issues in general.

For more details on the project please go to the website www.guardian.co.uk/katine

Who else is involved?
The project is run as a partnership with AMREF, the Guardian news and Media and Barclays. FARM-Africa and Panos are also involved. See below for more info.

Who is the Guardian News and Media?
Guardian News and Media is the UK publisher of the award-winning Guardian and Observer newspapers and the network of Guardian Unlimited websites.

The Guardian, published Monday – Saturday, has a daily readership of approximately 1.2 million. Its sister paper, the Observer, published on a Sunday, has approximately 1.4 million readers. Guardian Unlimited is one of the world's leading online newspapers, with 16.7 million users a month, the highest ever figure for a UK newspaper website. www.guardian.co.uk

What is their involvement in the project?
The Guardian, Observer and Guardian Unlimited will regularly report on the project, through news articles, features, videos, blogs and podcasts. The Guardian has given a £100,000 initial donation to help the project start up. Their support will come through awareness-raising through the newspapers and website and through their staff members’ time commitments.

Who is Barclays?
Barclays is an international financial services organisation, which has an annual income in excess of £20 billion and more than 27 million customers around the world. Barclays assistance for this project is part of its new Banking on brighter futures programme, which has pledged £150 million to different projects for the next five years, coupled with 150,000 hours of employees’ volunteering time. For more information, visit: www.barclays.com/community

What is their involvement in the project?
In addition to providing funding, Barclays will also work with AMREF in Katine to provide better access to financial services and help community members to better manage their small businesses and their money. They also hope to provide mentoring and skills training to community leaders, health unit management committees, school trustees and other community organisations on financial management.

Who is FARM-Africa?
FARM-Africa is a specialist, non-governmental organisation that works with marginalised farmers and herders in Africa. Its aim is to reduce poverty through developing innovative approaches to natural resource management, helping African farmers find their own pathways out of poverty. It works in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Southern Sudan and Tanzania. www.farmafrica.org.uk

What is their involvement in the project?
FARM Africa will be working with farmers in the area to improve their productivity and to increase access to alternative markets for their produce.

Who is Panos?
Panos is an international organisation that works with the media and other communicators to foster debate on under-reported, misrepresented or misunderstood development issues. They believe that only by including the voices and views of those most affected by these issues - usually the poorest and most marginalised people in society - will lasting solutions be found. www.panos.org

What is their involvement in the project?
The Guardian is enlisting the help of Panos to report on project developments in Katine and to provide content to the Guardian website. This will be carried out by a Ugandan journalist.