African Family Health Organization

African Family Health Organization

  • Project Focus:
  • Year of Award: 2022
  • Grant Award: $12,000

Background and Information

AFAHO’s founder is an immigrant woman from Senegal, West Africa who created the organization after she lost a friend who was also an immigrant from West Africa living in Philadelphia. This friend got sick, but due to the fear of her immigration status, she was afraid to seek out medical care at area hospitals and ended up hemorrhaging to death alone in her apartment in Southwest Philadelphia. After this tragedy, the founder was moved to create a safe haven for members of her community where they could seek help and assistance absent of fear. She initially advocated with the Philadelphia Department of Health to ensure access to medical care for the target population at City Health Centers and from there, the organization has evolved to meet the ever-emerging needs of the community. Knowing that Delaware County is home to a significant number of African and Caribbean immigrants and refugees, the organization opened a satellite location in Upper Darby in 2017 to respond to the growing demand for services in Delaware County. For more than 12 years, AFAHO has provided a range of individual and family-based health, human/social and educational services to greater Philadelphia’s under served and hard to reach African and Caribbean community members. Today, the organization serves nearly 1,500 unduplicated members of the target population annually.

Summary of Grant Request/Proposal

The African Family Health Organization (AFAHO) is an ethnic, community-based organization that provides health, human and educational services to African and Caribbean immigrants and refugees (ACIR) in Philadelphia and Delaware counties. AFAHO works to strengthen community health culture and facilitate social integration through the utilization of a unique peer support model that uses shared language, cultural expertise, advocacy, and system navigation. The focus of this grant is to provide rent and utilities and overhead for 3 women living in an Upper Darby housing unit for a period of 6-24 months, under the program titled “African Family Health Organization: Rehabilitative Environment & Care Leading to the Achievement of Impactful Moment (RECLAIM)”. These women are from the immigrant/refugee community and victims of domestic violence. The initiative is helping these women achieve adequate language, and self-sufficiency skills to secure a job.

Link to the organization’s website: https://afaho.org