In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, people are forced to travel long distances and several hours a day collecting the water for cooking and drinking. In this week's episode of Nourishing the Planet TV, Nourishing the Planet research intern, Dan Kane, explains how one community in South Africa has developed a unique solution for the area's lack of clean water. By setting up nets across a high mountain pass, the village of Cabazane is harvesting fog to produce water from thin air. 

Also see 1,000 Gardens Continue to Grow in Africa

Source: Nourishing the Planet

Water and Maternal Health in Magadi, Kenya

Although women is sub-Saharan Africa are the purveyors and nurturers of life...the carriers of water and producers of food, very little investment is made in their health and well being by either their families or governments. AMREF is working to provide safe drinking water so as to improve the lives of African women and consequently, that of their families.

AMREF is an international African organisation headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.

AMREF's vision is Better Health for Africa.

AMREF’s mission is to ensure that every African can enjoy the right to good health by helping to create vibrant networks of informed communities that work with empowered health care providers in strong health systems.

AMREF has over 50 years’ experience in health development. In 1957, three surgeons founded the Flying Doctors Service of East Africa, laying the foundation for what is now one of the continent’s leading health development and research organisations. Today, AMREF implements its projects through country programmes in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Southern Sudan and South Africa. Training and consulting support are provided to an additional 30 African countries.

Knowledge is a core product of AMREF’s activities. AMREF implements projects to learn, and shares this evidence-based knowledge with others to advocate for changes in health policy and practice. Based on the belief that health is a basic human right, AMREF seeks to empower communities to take control of their health and to establish a vibrant and participatory health care system made up of communities, health workers and governments.

Our Strategic Focus
AMREF’s strategy seeks to strengthen health systems and to design and enhance interventions that improve people’s access to health through their active participation. Informed by Africa’s health crisis, AMREF’s comparative advantage and five decades’ experience of working with communities and health systems in the region, the AMREF strategy will be pursued through three interdependent programme themes:

Community Partnering for Better Health
Health Systems and Policy Research
Capacity Building

Source: AMREF