The rural poor are an important focus of the work of the members of Aid for Africa, and agriculture is an important component of that work. Millennium Promise for example, along with the Earth Institute, is working in rural areas in ten African countries to increase food production, improve education, prevent and treat disease, and provide access to safe and reliable water. By jump-starting broad economic growth in rural areas, the idea is to feed into broader national goals.  A Glimmer of Hope undertakes an innovative and integrated approach to poverty reduction in rural Ethiopia, one village at a time. Village Enterprise Fund provides the means to create income-generating business in rural Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. In an innovative partnership with the government of Sierra Leone, World Hope International is working both to bring foreign investment to the port areas of Sierra Leone and to champion agricultural and water projects in other parts of the country and throughout Africa. Agricultural development and self sufficiency are critical to the Malawi Project ’s efforts to help empower the rural poor in Malawi, where agricultural improvements in recent years have been stunning.

There are many barriers to improving agriculture in rural Sub Saharan Africa, but, as the McKinsey report suggests, Africa has 60 percent of the world’s unused arable land and the low crop yields on the land in use suggest they could be much higher. Poverty reduction efforts that include agricultural development are a natural.

In Africa Panthera is creating the  Pan-African Lion Corridor that protects key lion habitat and connects core lion populations in order to preserve the species’ genetic diversity.  With our partners at the Kenyan-based Living with Lions, we developed the unique Lion Guardians Program in southern Kenya.  This program involves training local Maasai warriors to become the front line in reducing human-lion conflict.  They do this by informing Maasai cattle herders of areas occupied by lions, by helping farmers improve cattle husbandry and find lost livestock, and by discouraging lion hunting.

Hundreds of newly trained healthcare workers supported by Touch Foundation are already saving lives. Currently, we are training 900 students in eight professional specialties. Upon graduation, nurses will deliver primary care, particularly in rural areas, assistant medical officers will deliver lifesaving interventions, and pharmacists will be equipped to administer preventive and curative medications.

Our focus is presently on Tanzania, where we are learning lessons what will be applied across Sub Saharan Africa. The U.S.Government describes Tanzania as a “regional anchor of stability.”  Touch Foundation has chosen Tanzania as the anchor of its work.

Empowering families to feed, clothe, and shelter their children is a critical component of combating child slavery.  We provide microloans to mothers for building businesses so they can support their families.  In addition to education, Sanctuary of Moses Missions funds wells to provide clean water to villages, and supports clinics with medical supplies. Our goal is to continue sustainable support in Adjohoun through the addition of a trade and technical center and clinic in Kpomasse.

To the Editor:

It is heartening to read about new research focused on women and children in the fight against H.I.V./AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa (“2 African Studies Give Women Hope in Fighting H.I.V.,” front page, July 20).

Currently, some 14 million women and children in the region live with H.I.V. or AIDS — nearly two-thirds of all cases. A shift in approach to Africa’s most vulnerable is overdue and crucial.

But as we await more research on the effectiveness of microbicides and payments to families with girls in averting the spread of H.I.V., let’s ensure that funding for prevention programs already proven effective for women and children, like those that stop mother-to-child transmission of the disease, continue to be improved and expanded.

Barbara Alison Rose
Executive Director, Aid for Africa
Chevy Chase, Md., July 20, 2010

A version of this letter appeared in print on July 22, 2010, on page A26 of the New York edition.

• In Ethiopia and Kenya, we finance programs for thousands of homeless children, kids victimized by poverty, war, and HIV/AIDS;
• In Tanzania, we offer science scholarships to orphaned girls with a talent for math and science, but who lack the resources to pursue high quality education.
• And in Kenya, we support girls fleeing female genital mutilation and provide them with the opportunity to go school, start a business or learn a trade.

Each of our programs is guided by the belief is that Africa’s future rests with its children and that projects developed and run by local communities produce long-term results.

“Rights here, right now,” the theme of the 18th International AIDS Conference kicking off in Vienna, Austria, today, champions the role of human rights in the fight against HIV/AIDS.  In Sub Saharan Africa, where more than 22 million people—including 12 million women and nearly 2 million children—live with HIV/AIDS, nowhere is the need greater for supporting human rights, particularly for women and children.  But global economic conditions are hampering AIDS treatment and the expansion of HIV prevention efforts around the world, particularly in Sub Saharan Africa.  More people die from AIDS in Sub Saharan Africa than anywhere else—72 percent of all deaths from AIDS in 2008. Let us hope that as the conference delegates share research, proposals, and plans this week, the poor and most vulnerable of Sub Saharan Africa will be in their sights.

Aid for Africa members confront the realities of HIV/AIDS everyday as they work with their African partners throughout Sub Saharan Africa. On World AIDS Day 2009, Aid for Africa highlighted some of the work of its members that are increasing access to services, providing effective treatment, and preserving human dignity. It seems appropriate to highlight this again with a few additions.

Health Alliance International works in partnership with ministries of health to build their health systems, including HIV/AIDS testing and treatment projects in Mozambique, where antiretroviral therapy has increased from just 4,000 in 2004 to 80,000 today.  African Solutions to African Problems supports community-based programs and women’s networks to help them better deliver life-affirming care for orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Partners in Health has proved that AIDS can be treated in a poverty setting through its effective model of community-based care now being used in Rwanda, Lesotho, and Malawi. African Child Care Association provides HIV/AIDS prevention training to teens in Cameroon.  mothers2mothers is helping some 50,000 women a month prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS throughout Africa.  AID Village Clinics helps educate, prevent, and treat the Maasai of western Kenya affected by HIV/AIDS.  Firelight Foundation supports and advocates for children orphaned or affected by HIV/AIDS. Children of Uganda cares for AIDS orphans and other disadvantaged children in Uganda with the goal of helping them become healthy and productive members of society. South Africa Partners creates partnerships between organizations in the United States and South Africa for HIV/AIDS support groups. Foundation for Hospices in Sub Saharan Africa supports African organizations that provide home-based hospice and palliative care to those who are dying of HIV/AIDS. World Hope International provides HIV/AIDS prevention and orphan care. African Services Committee provides HIV testing, prevention, and AIDS support in urban and rural Ethiopia.

We inspire giving and empower others to fundraise for sustainable water solutions. We use local partners on the ground to build and implement the projects. Then, we prove every single project funded with GPS coordinates, photos, and stories from the field. In less than four years, charity: water has funded clean water solutions for more than one million people. We work in 16 developing nations around the world, most in Sub Saharan Africa.

Almost a billion people on the planet do not have access to clean and safe drinking water. We’re working to change that, and fast.

Friday, July 16: Trees for the Future has been helping people living on degraded land to improve their lives through environmentally sound development projects in Africa and throughout the world.  Nowhere is the need greater than in Haiti.  An aggressive reforestation campaign could minimize the effects of natural disasters, improve agriculture, and provide jobs. Read Newsweek

Tuesday, July 13, 2010: Nate Henn, the 25-year-old former University of Delaware rugby player who died in the Kampala, Uganda, bomb blast on Sunday, July 11, joined the nonprofit Invisible Children last year and spent much of his time as an unpaid volunteer, traveling with the group around the United States. Henn died from injuries suffered during a terrorist attack while he was watching the World Cup with friends at an Ethiopian restaurant in Kampala.  Invisible Children works with Ugandan children affected by decades of war between rebels and government forces. Rebels abduct the victims — referred to as invisible children — and force them to fight the government. Some younger girls are forced into sex slavery. Read more and view video by Invisible Children co-founder Jason Russell.