Scroll to the top

One of the biggest problems that African governments face in providing healthcare is a lack of resources. A 2022 World Health Organization study of 47 African countries showed that, on average, there were fewer than two doctors, midwives, and nurses per 1,000 people across the region.

A new project seeks to strengthen healthcare systems across sub-Saharan Africa by integrating COVID-19 vaccinations into broader primary care provided by locally recruited health workers. Since last November, the project has administered more than 200,000 COVID-19 vaccines and trained over 2,500 new local health workers in Malawi, Senegal, Uganda, and Zambia.

Amref Health Africa, Africa’s largest health development organization, is leading this work thanks to a grant from The Pfizer Foundation, a charitable foundation established by Pfizer Inc. Find out more about what’s made this project successful.

When Mary Dawa and her family arrived at the sprawling Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement in northwest Uganda seven years ago, something critically important was missing: medical services. But slowly, that began to change.

Earlier this year, a team of locally recruited health workers came to provide Dawa and her community with COVID-19 vaccines. While there, they offered other primary and preventive healthcare services too: routine immunizations, dietary help for malnourished children, screenings for other diseases, and guidance on maternal and neonatal care.

These services are part of a bold, community-focused project that seeks to strengthen healthcare systems across sub-Saharan Africa. Amref Health Africa, the continent’s largest health development organization, is leading this work thanks to a grant from The Pfizer Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Pfizer Inc.

“There is a need to believe in our health systems,” says Dawa, who had fled from neighboring South Sudan. “And I am so proud that these interventions worked.”

A new project seeks to strengthen healthcare systems across sub-Saharan Africa by integrating COVID-19 vaccinations into broader primary care provided by locally recruited health workers.

Read moreShow less

A labor and delivery nurse discusses her family’s harrowing experience with Group B Strep and why she hopes prevention methods will improve in the future.

See Kelsey’s story.

Kristal Hartman, 45, has struggled all her life with chronic obesity and still considers herself to have the disease even after losing over 100 lbs. She and a Pfizer scientist meet to discuss the science behind potential treatments and how weight stigma can get in the way.

Watch more here.

While advances in science have enabled people to live longer lives, those extra years are not always quality ones. As bodies age, they become more vulnerable to disease, including infectious disease.

Learn why the risk of illness increases the longer we live.

When it comes to life-saving medicines, Pfizer knows every minute counts and has been committed to doing what’s right for patients for more than 170 years.

Click here to learn more.

When it comes to life saving medicines, Pfizer knows every minute counts and has been committed to doing what’s right for patients for more than 170 years.

Click here to learn more.

Latest