AHEAD PROGRAMS

AHEAD, Inc. has made a difference in the health of mothers, youth and infants, having touched the lives of more than a million people.

Currently, AHEAD, Inc. has programs in Tanzania and the Gambia, where Malaria, malnutrition and diarrheal diseases remain the primary causes of death among infants and children, and infant mortality rates are often 18 times higher than in the United States. Health facilities are often understaffed and ill-equipped to handle the many needs facing communities.Currently AHEAD has projects in Tanzania and The Gambia where infant mortality rates are often 18 times higher than in the U.S. 

Using a comprehensive and multi-sectorial approach AHEAD carefully conceptualizes and develops self-help, sustainable programs. These programs are implemented at the village or local level and involve the beneficiaries in all aspects of planning, training, implementation, monitoring and evaluation; thereby, ensuring that all villagers gain maximum benefits from AHEAD programs.

Primary Health Care

Nurses providing immunizations

Priority is given to child survival and safe motherhood programs that focus on HIV/AIDS and STD prevention, immunizations, nutrition, growth monitoring, pre and postnatal care, gender equity, teen pregnancy prevention, family planning, water and sanitation.

All programs and projects are implemented at the community level and involve the beneficiaries in all aspects of planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation in order to assure sustainable impact.

Over the past 20 years, AHEAD focused its attention in the Shinyanga Region of Tanzania, which is located in the north central part of the country, 80 miles south of Lake Victoria. A team of nurses travel daily to remote villages to provide essential health care, otherwise nonexistent for the villagers.

Village mothers gather for health services

Mothers often walk for miles to bring their children for Village Health Outreach Day, with one baby on their back, toddlers in tow, and sometimes one in utero.

The Health Outreach Program provides immunizations for infants, children and women, conducts growth monitoring; implements nutrition intervention for malnourished children, provides antenatal care for women, provides family planning services, and conducts health education sessions for mothers and fathers. AHEAD also conducts training workshops for Village Health Workers (VHW), Primary Health Committees (PHC), and other health providers.

HIV/AIDS PREVENTION AND CARE

The continuing crisis of HIV/AIDS is threatening to erode the economic and social progress that has been made in Sub-Saharan Africa during the past three decades. HIV infection is unevenly distributed across geographic area, gender, age, groups and social economic classes.

The percentage of the population in Tanzania infected by HIV ranges from less than three percent across most of the country to more than 44.4 percent in certain sub populations, with 60% of HIV infected population comprised of people below the age of 25. Two groups emerge as the most affected, youth and women. The epidemic has struck more the most economically active group of adults, those aged 15-45 leaving many children behind. The number of children orphaned by AIDS in Tanzania could exceed 1 million by 2010.

The problem of HIV/AIDS is fueled by societal, behavioral, and biological determinants. When these important and far-reaching indicators are combined with other sexually transmitted infections (STI), teen pregnancy, poverty, illiteracy, high infant mortality rates (IMR) and high Maternal Mortality Rates (MMR), the enormity of the health and development task facing Tanzania and other countries seems overwhelming.

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