My opportunity to serve mankind came in the most unexpected of ways, but fulfilled a desire that had become part of my conscience for many years. A friend called me after I finished my undergraduate studies to inform me of his desire to visit Africa for a short holiday. This particular friend requested my assistance in helping her to find all the best tourist sites she could visit in Africa, especially in Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa. While I was searching for the sites, I bumped into a website with pictures of children suffering from cleft palates, with a caption indicating that all they needed was $40 for surgery to be performed on them, but couldn’t raise the money due to their poor backgrounds. Some help-line numbers had been scripted below the caption. My raw desire to be of service to mankind triggered me into calling the numbers given to pledge my financial support for the children. This is how I came to know about AMREF USA.
AMREF is the largest indigenous Health organization in Africa, operating in ten countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and has over 15 offices worldwide. Its office in the US is based in New York City, and this is where I offered my voluntary services. The main functions of the US office is to arrange for fundraising activities as well as coordinate logistics for US program officers running healthcare programs in a number of African countries under the auspices of AMREF.
After a brief stint as a volunteer liaison officer for fundraising, I was requested to coordinate logistics and funding for a new healthcare program targeting people living with HIV in Kenya. I was to liaise with US volunteer personnel on the ground to make sure that everything was progressing as planned. My tasks, however, revolved around the New York City office, and did not in any way entail travelling to the field. I was also tasked with the duty of soliciting for cheaper antiretroviral drugs from drug manufacturing companies in the hope of saving thousands of people who were dying from the scourge within the program area. I knew it was a tall order for me, but one which I was ready to surmount.
Having laid down a firm strategy for the HIV program, I engaged a group of five other volunteers in a spirited attempt to seek for willing donors for the project. After several initial disappointments, I managed to get two multinational companies to voluntarily fund the HIV program to a tune of $50, 000 per year. 90% of these funds went directly into purchasing antiretroviral drugs for pregnant mothers and children, while the remaining 10% catered for other office logistics. I was also able to convince a drug-manufacturing company with offices in New York City to start producing generic anti-retroviral drugs, which are cheaper in the market compared to original regimens. We used the funds availed by our donors to buy the generic drugs and ship them to the program area in Africa. As a result of this effort, many people have access to antiretroviral drugs and the death rates caused by the virus went down by over 70%.
I gained a lot of knowledge from my volunteer work, especially in areas of financial management and allocation, negotiation skills, and leadership. I also learnt some basic office management practices, including work scheduling, time management, and logistics management. My contact with people from different social and cultural backgrounds as I solicited for funds in the US was an eye opener as it enabled me to realize that there is a lot of potential in diversity.