LUANDA, ANGOLA, March 30, 2021 – The COVID-19 Action Fund for Africa (CAF-Africa), an international coalition of non-governmental organizations, worked with the Ministry of Health and World Vision International to procure and deliver more than 300,000 personal protective equipment (PPE) items for Angola’s Community Development and Sanitary Agents, also known as “ADECOS.” The nation’s 1,445 ADECOS will receive more than 300,000 PPE items to help aid in the fight against COVID-19 and continue malaria case management services.
“COVID-19 didn’t end last year,” said Madeleine Ballard, Executive Director of Community Health Impact Coalition and one of CAF-Africa’s coordinators. “Community health workers still need to be supplied with the PPE they need to continue to deliver health services safely.”
The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Territorial Administration deployed ADECOS at the community health level as an integral part of malaria treatment, case management and prevention for rural and hard to reach communities. Early in the pandemic, Angola faced PPE shortages and could not supply ADECOS with the adequate PPE items needed to continue safely serving their communities, causing a disruption in health services.
During the pandemic, ADECOS have also helped rural communities administer COVID-19 testing and referral services. Having the adequate PPE items allows them to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 while remaining protected. CAF-Africa partners World Vision International work with ADECOS and have lead trainings on proper PPE use and COVID-19 prevention measures.
Since August 2020, CAF-Africa has committed and delivered PPE to more than 66 million PPE items for almost 500,000 community health workers in 18 African countries. The coalition continues to mobilize resources to get PPE items to community health workers on the frontlines in additional African nations.
About the COVID-19 Action Fund for Africa
The COVID-19 Action Fund for Africa (CAF-Africa) is an award-winning collaborative of 30+ organizations dedicated to providing personal protective equipment (PPE) to Community Health Workers (CHWs) on the frontlines of Africa’s COVID-19 response, including CHWs in Angola. CAF-Africa is organized by and draws on the diverse expertise of its non-profit partners: Community Health Acceleration Partnership, Direct Relief, the Pandemic Action Network, and the Community Health Impact Coalition and its member organizations including Integrate Health, Last Mile Health, Living Goods, Lwala Community Alliance, Muso, Partners In Health, Pivot, and VillageReach. For more information, visit www.cafafrica.org.