About Us
Africa Forward Institute (AFI) is a Non-profit Organization dedicated to helping African countries fulfill their potential through economic, educational and health opportunities. AFI seeks to accomplish this goal by working with existing organizations and agencies in an effort to provide them with the resources and training tools they need to establish their economic independence. AFI is a nonpartisan organization with no political affiliation
AFI will be working to develop relationships with government officials and ambassadors in our target countries to establish contact points within those communities. Through these contact points, we will be working in an effort to collaboratively develop strategies designed to assess and address each area’s particular needs. In addition to assessing and addressing the needs of our target communities, we will also be working to open communication channels. This will enable AFI to maintain contact with the individuals we are serving and continually develop new methods for serving our target communities.
One of the major issues AFI will be addressing within our target communities is a lack of quality education. This problem is most evident in the smaller villages and rural communities of these countries. In an effort to improve education, we will be stressing the importance of making education mandatory for all children in all countries. In order to achieve this goal, we will need to address the educational infrastructure in these areas.
Many of the educational facilities that are currently functioning in most African countries do not have the necessary funding to supply the materials needed to provide quality education to their students. In an effort to address these needs, we will be working diligently to collect donations of school and teaching supplies which we will ship to these areas. We will also be working with the schools to develop improved curriculum for their students and implement new education programs. Through our work with these schools, we will be improving accessibility to an education that would be comparable to what students would receive in other parts of the world.
AFI will also organize and conduct trips to our target communities to help repair and rebuild existing school facilities that are in disrepair. For communities where there are no schools or the schools are beyond repair, we will build new facilities. Our goal is to ensure that every community we work with has a school that is within a reasonable distance of students’ homes. AFI’s emphasis will be on ensuring that the schools we work with are able to focus on providing educational services with up-to-date materials, in a safe structure.
In addition to offering opportunities for improved education, AFI will also work with individuals in target communities to improve the overall health of the communities, with a specific emphasis on women and children. This will be achieved by organizing and holding training sessions, which focus on teaching proper hygiene, basic nutrition, and the importance of clean drinking water. Initially, AFI will offer this training to the entire community in both group and one-on-one sessions. Over time AFI would like to begin training residents in the communities to lead these courses as a more sustainable method for program continuation. Over time, as AFI grows and funding increases, we will increase the number of programs we are able to offer. We will also be continually searching for new programs and activities we could implement to better serve our target populations. It is AFI’s goal to be able to provide the highest quality services possible and to ensure that funding and resources received are directed towards the services of those in need. Africa Forward Institute adheres to the U.S. Department of Treasury Anti-Terrorist Financing Guidelines: Voluntary Best Practices for U.S.-Based Charities.