Amref Health Africa UK

Amref Health Africa UK (Amref) is the African continent's leading health charity, founded and headquartered in Kenya, working primarily with women and girls to help secure their right to health.

Within this, their objectives include:

• strengthening health systems,
• training health workers, and
• improving access to services.

Amref's global vision is a world where everyone can access their right to health. They work with some of the most remote and marginalised communities on the African continent, empowering them to transform their health - and their lives. As an African-led organisation, Amref's knowledge of the communities and health challenges they face is unparalleled - making them uniquely placed to secure lasting change.

A key focus of Amref is to end Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C). FGM/C is unacceptable from a human rights and health perspective. Not only is it physically and psychologically harmful, it's often directly linked to child marriage and a lack of education for girls. Amref supports young women in their communities to learn about their sexual health and rights, and take part in an Alternative Rites of Passage ceremony, in place of the harmful cut.

In 2018, Amref's Nice Nailantei Leng'ete was recognised for her contribution to this work and named by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. 20 years ago, eight-year-old Nice ran away from her village to avoid being subjected to FGM/C. Today, Nice works for Amref, engaging with Maasai communities in Kenya and Tanzania to end the practice completely. So far, Amref have have helped over 16,000 girls in Kenya and Tanzania become women without 'the cut'.

Players of People's Postcode Lottery are helping Amref achieve their ambition of ending FGM/C across Africa by 2030. The funding is supporting a project that will facilitate community ownership of the goal to end FGM/C, reaching over 600,000 people. The project is training local ambassadors, who will help provoke change in their communities and speak out against FGM/C. Support from our players is also helping Amref to scale up their communications and public campaigns, supporting their ambition to ensure that the right to health for women and girls remains at the forefront of the agenda.