Give Them a Hand Foundation and partners – Earth Rights Institute, Inc., the United African Congress along with Black Star News, Cool and Kosie Productions and the International Association of Applied Psychology – have been concerned about the poor health care infrastructure in most African countries for several years now.
The lack of dependable, easily accessible hospitals and medical centers has been put in the spotlight recently by the Covid-19 pandemic and spurred many well-meaning organizations to take action to help governments and the people in their fight against the pandemic.
As far as we know most of those organizations are providing masks and other PPE for vulnerable populations. Those are very much needed today. However, our coalition has decided on a project that will benefit the continent on a permanent basis and be able to address not only communicable diseases but those like malaria and yellow fever and also reduce the number of maternal and infant deaths that occur.
To realize this goal, GTAH and partners will host a virtual fundraising concert on 5 December 2020 to raise funds for the purchase of mobile clinics and to build medical centres in the more remote and underserved rural communities in the countries in Africa most in need.
In this first year of our effort, we will focus on a limited number of countries in each of the five regions of Africa. Note that a mobile clinic functioning from an anchor-base hospital can serve a number of villages within a wide area. They will also be equipped to facilitate telemedicine services.
Give Them a Hand Foundation, Earth Rights Institute (ERI), the International Association of Applied Psychology and The United African Congress (UAC), have a well-established history of hosting awareness-raising campaigns on behalf of Africa and the Diaspora. For example, ERI facilitated the creation of Eco-Villages in Nigeria, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory-Coast and Senegal. GTAH and UAC hosted a major awareness-raising forum and concert at the United Nations during the Ebola epidemic that plagued West Africa 2014-2015.
In addition, GTAH and UAC provided humanitarian relief for Hurricane Sandy victims in New York, Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans as well as for earthquake victims in Haiti. The collaboration continues to host an annual World Interfaith Harmony event in the United States of America.
CONCERT: The free virtual global concert “Africa Rise! 2020” has already engaged a number of top artists from the Caribbean, Africa, the USA and the UK. There will be stars from Broadway, Grammy winning tap dancers as well as a prominent dance troupe and familiar figures in cinema and fashion. In addition, we have brought on board dozens of sports stars from the world of football/soccer, cricket, the NBA, the NFL, and cycling.
EVENT TIMELINE AND DURATION: The date for the concert is 5 December 2020 for a duration of three hours.
LOGISTICS: The concert will be broadcast and live streamed on several platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, African digital streaming channels and other social media outlets.
CONTRIBUTIONS AND DONATIONS: The concert will be interspersed with appeals for contributions, interesting features about Africa, and educational material. Donations will be made via mobile phone and website payment platforms as well as through direct interfaces during the live broadcast of the virtual show.
ORGANIZERS: Event conveners will be supported by a multi-talented team of music producers and authorized streaming providers with technological capacity to access rural community participation, and global viewers and donors.
GLOBAL TEAM:
Gordon Tapper, Founder, Give Them a Hand Foundation
Annie Goeke, Earth Rights Institute
Mohammed Nurhussein, Chairman, United African Congress
Stephanie Evans, Give Them A Hand Foundation
Judy Kuriansky, International Association of Applied Psychology
Milton Allimadi, Black Star News