Providing personal protective equipment to community health workers in Sub-Saharan Africa
(Programme concluded and no longer supported by the Trafigura Foundation)
Across Sub-Saharan Africa, more than 400 million people rely on close to one million community health workers (CHWs) for essential healthcare services. In the context of the COVID-19 crisis, CHWs have been on the front lines of preventing, detecting, and responding to the emergency with responsibilities ranging from community-based education to at-home care.
The need to provide PPE to CHWs has been paramount amidst the COVID-19 health crisis: without protection, they could neither treat and prevent the spread of COVID-19, nor provide other basic health services. However, and unlike other health workers, CHWs have been de-prioritised to receive supplies and PPE, as the main allocation of resources went to hospitals.
The Trafigura Foundation has supported the COVID-19 Action Fund for Africa (CAF-Africa), a collaborative, action-oriented initiative of 30+ organizations dedicated to protecting Africa's CHWs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the second half of 2021, CAF-Africa distributed 39.6 million pieces of PPE, including surgical masks and gloves, supplied to support 316,989 CHWs in 10 countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Rwanda, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
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