Salmon continue support for the charity Advantage Africa with a further donation of £38,000
Mon,26 January 2009
WATFORD, England – January 26, 2009, Salmon is delighted to announce a further £38,000 donation to the charity Advantage Africa, complementing donations made in 2006 and 2007.
Advantage Africa identifies and supports the work of inspirational men and women in Africa who are determined to overcome hardship in their communities. With Advantage Africa’s encouragement and support, these individuals and their community groups are providing opportunities and hope for thousands of people living in poverty and stigmatised by disability or HIV.
Advantage Africa’s genuine partnerships with these ‘change makers’ in Africa encourages them to pursue their own ideas and plans. ‘We don’t come in with our own schemes but support the aspirations of local people’ says charity founder Andrew Betts. Andrew says that in addition to providing funds, Advantage Africa helps build the skills of their partners to implement projects such as schools for disabled children, a nutrition programme for children orphaned by AIDS and a village health centre.
Andrew explains: 'Salmon's continued partnership with Advantage Africa has helped some of the most disadvantaged people in Kenya and Uganda to overcome poverty for good. For example, with Salmon’s support we have been able to help 200 widows in Uganda, most of them HIV positive, to start keeping chickens. This provides them and their children with nutritious eggs as well as income with which to survive. And our nutrition project in western Kenya, which provides 80 orphans and vulnerable children with their only meal of the day, would not have continued without Salmon’s support. Last year we helped the community buy land on which to grow food and ensure that the project is now becoming more sustainable’.
Andrew is clearly passionate about reaching the most marginalised people in Africa – those he says are ‘doubly disadvantaged’ because they are not only poor, but also stigmatised and denied opportunities for education or employment because of the beliefs and fear surrounding disability and HIV. Because of this, all Advantage Africa’s projects have an element of advocacy and education to overcome such discrimination. ‘In one village we work, HIV prevalence was as high as 30% and there was complete silence surrounding the issue’ he says. ‘As a result of the last few years activity, people now talk freely about HIV, the entire congregation of one church went for an HIV test and the community are using every tool in the box to prevent its spread’.
Andrew is full of enthusiasm and gratitude as he explains how Salmon’s recent donation will help Advantage Africa carry out more life-changing projects in 2009. This year, the charity will be helping to improve housing for child-headed households in a Ugandan slum and open an HIV resource centre in Kenya. They also aim to help their partners to provide more mobility aids for disabled people and more antiretroviral therapy for people living with HIV than ever before.
For more information on Advantage Africa, please go to www.advantageafrica.org.
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