Accenture Grants African Medical and Research Foundation US$ 1.4 Million, Teams with Vodafone to Develop Mobile Training for Community Health Workers

Accenture Press Release:

October 01, 2013

Accenture Grants African Medical and Research Foundation US$ 1.4 Million, Teams with Vodafone to Develop Mobile Training for Community Health Workers 

Grant is part of Accenture’s corporate citizenship focus, Skills to Succeed

NEW YORK; Oct. 1 2013 – Accenture today announced that Accenture and the Accenture Foundations have awarded the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) a grant of $US1.4 million to help AMREF develop a pilot mobile health training program for community health workers in Kenya. This grant brings Accenture’s direct support to AMREF to more than US$4.3 million since 2005.

The pilot program is a cross-sector partnership with Vodafone Group and Safaricom, Vodafone’s affiliate in Kenya. Vodafone and Safaricom are providing scalability and mobile solution expertise with technology partner Mezzanine and the Kenyan Ministry of Health, which will provide regulatory advice and access to community health workers. The M-PESA Foundation, the charitable trust funded by revenue generated from Vodafone’s mobile money transfer service M-PESA, will provide funding of up to $600,000. The pilot builds on Vodafone’s mhealth portfolio, which increases access to healthcare services through its customer reach and scalable mobile health solutions that are developed with its network of global partnerships.

The award reflects Accenture’s global corporate citizenship initiative, Skills to Succeed, which plans to equip 500,000 people around the world by 2015 with the skills to get a job or build a business. The grant, which consists of cash as well as the time and skills of Accenture employees, will help AMREF equip 300 community health workers with job skills over the next 10 months and has the potential to bring healthcare services to thousands of people across Africa.

“Supporting AMREF helps exemplify Accenture’s commitment to building skills and improving the communities in which we live and work,” said Jill Huntley, managing director of corporate citizenship at Accenture. “AMREF is proving it’s possible to develop replicable and scalable programs that teach crucial, even lifesaving, job skills.”

“Mobile devices allow health workers to access information with minimal limitations of cost,” says Dr. Teguest Guerma, Director General AMREF. “We believe that such devices will contribute significantly towards improving health outcomes and well-being of the communities we work with. As mobile phone usage in Africa is booming, there is a clear opportunity to use mobile phones as educational tools. This real time access to on-demand skills training will allow health workers to increase their effectiveness and employability.”

M-PESA Foundation Executive Director, Les Baillie said, “This partnership will transform the way in which maternal health information and education is provided to community health workers, who play a critical role in the provision of healthcare in Kenya, particularly in rural communities. At the M-PESA Foundation, our aim is to support projects which will have a lasting impact on the communities in which we operate. It is our intention for this partnership to make a significant, and lasting, contribution towards improving the lives of many mothers and their children.”

About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 275,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. Through its Skills to Succeed corporate citizenship focus, Accenture is committed to equipping 500,000 people around the world by 2015 with the skills to get a job or build a business. The company generated net revenues of US$28.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2013. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

About Vodafone
Vodafone is one of the world's largest mobile communications companies by revenue with approximately 404 million customers in its controlled and jointly controlled markets as of 31 March 2013. Vodafone currently has equity interests in over 30 countries across five continents and more than 50 partner networks worldwide. For more information, please visit: www.vodafone.com.

About AMREF
The African Medical Research Foundation is an international African not-for-profit organisation headquartered in Nairobi founded as the Flying Doctor Service of East Africa in 1957. AMREF’s vision is for lasting health change in Africa: communities with the knowledge, skills and means to maintain their good health and break the cycle of poor health and poverty. With a focus on women and children, AMREF works with the most vulnerable African communities to achieve lasting health change. AMREF reaches over 35 countries, with country or regional offices in seven countries and a staff of over 1,000. AMREF provides training and consulting support across various countries in Africa and to date has trained over 600,000 health workers of all cadres using a range of approaches, including the use of technologies such as electronic learning and mobile learning. www.amref.org.

About M-PESA FOUNDATION
Registered as a charitable trust in 2010, the M-PESA Foundation provides grants for the implementation of large scale, long term projects in the areas of Education, Environment and Health. To date, the M-PESA Foundation has funded bio diversity conservation in the Nairobi National Park and the Mau Eburu Ecosystem; and has funded major infrastructural improvements for Starehe Girls Centre, a leading girls school that focuses on providing educational opportunities for bright girls from needy backgrounds. The Foundation also supports initiatives that integrate technology for social good. 

About Safaricom
Safaricom is one of the leading integrated communications companies in Africa with over 17 million subscribers. Safaricom provides a comprehensive range of services under one roof: mobile and fixed voice as well as data services on a variety of platforms.
 

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