Locating Potential Funding Sources

Grant Proposal
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Grant Proposal
Part 1: Needs Statement
Many countries are increasingly recognizing health as a critical aspect of the economic and human development in Africa. As a result, many nations are increasing the investments in reforms and actions to help better the health outcomes of this region and speed up the progress towards attaining the Millennium Development Goals. The African Union has reiterated the national political will of various African leaders to “put health at the forefront of development” through acts like the Abuja Declaration that was signed in 2001 to increase every government’s health funding, and the Addis Ababa and Ouagadougou declaration.
Funding the healthcare sector is one of the critical areas that provide a significant opportunity to transform this political will and commitments into results. Financing health is also a key aspect in steering nations towards the aim of universal health coverage; a goal to develop the health systems of all countries that has gained the support of all WHO and UN member states. Developing a robust financing system for the health sector is a common goal for every nation around the world. Even developed countries are finding it increasingly hard to sustain the spiraling costs of healthcare amidst the present economic downturn.
The Kenyan health sector, especially in northern Kenya, is significantly underfunded and depends heavily on non-profit organizations to bridge the gap. Health issues like malnutrition, Malaria, Bilharzia, and other lifestyle issues like family planning are a grave concern in the region.

The rampant population increase within the area, and the country as a whole results in increased human-wildlife conflicts which lead to the loss of hundreds of human and animal lives. This program would help the semi-nomadic pastoral communities of northern Kenya get access to primary healthcare, with a core focus on holistic family planning to curb the uncontrolled population growth. By controlling the growth of population, the project will reduce human-wildlife conflicts hence save the thousands of lives lost to it annually.
Part 2: Potential Funding Sources
The Global Fund; Global Fund to Fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. (http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/).
Foundations in Africa; End Fund (http://www.end.org/)
Advance Africa; Conservation Food and Health Foundation Grants (http://www.advance-africa.com/Conservation-Food-and-Health-Foundation-Grants.html)
Conservation International; Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (www.conservation.org/).
African Development Bank; Health in Africa Fund (http://www.afdb.org/en/topics-and-sectors/initiatives-partnerships/health-in-africa-fund/)
Empowers Africa; Grant Programs for Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Natural Resources (https://empowersafrica.org/)
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Health in Africa Fund (http://www.gatesfoundation.org/).
International Finance Corporation; Health in Africa Fund (https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/corp_ext_content/ifc_external_corporate_site/home)
American Medical Association Foundation (https://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/ama-foundation/our-programs/public-health/healthy-living-grants.page?)
National Library of Medicine U.S.; AIDS Community Information Outreach Projects (https://sis.nlm.nih.gov/outreach/aids_cio_projects.html)
Part 3: Grant Proposal
Summary
Many African countries, Kenya included, have inadequate health facilities to cater for their citizens. The uncontrolled population growth further worsens the situation. The more the population increases, the more resources they need. As a result, people find themselves encroaching in wildlife reserves. This situation causes human-wildlife conflict which results in the deaths of hundreds of people and animals every month. The mobile camel clinics are a cost-effective way of curbing the population growth by providing long-term family planning measures. They also are, by extension, a sustainable way of reducing the human world-life conflict hence saving hundreds of lives each month. Assistance in this endeavor will have a direct positive effect on the lives of thousands of people.
Introduction
In many Africa and many other parts of the world, the rate of population growth far outpaces the rate of infrastructural and economic growth. This situation makes it difficult for the governments of these nations to amass adequate resources to cater for at least the basic needs of this growing population. As a result, many people of these countries live in abject poverty; people succumb to hunger and other easily preventable conditions. In the northern part of Kenya, 80% of the population either has little or no access to the most basic of health services (Kamau, Mbaria, & Koichi, 2012). A majority of these people are “transient, semi-nomadic pastoralists” who live in extreme poverty; surviving with less than $2 a day (Kamau, Mbaria, & Koichi, 2012). Studies also indicate that the communities in this region have some of the highest growth rate in Kenya; a growth which is, of course, difficult to sustain.
This increase in population causes strains on natural resources like land. The bigger the population gets, the more squeezed their land starts to feel, and the more likely they are to move into areas that the government and international conservationist bodies have reserved for wildlife. In fact, in Kenya, at least 70 percent of the country’s wildlife does not live within the national parks (Kamau, Mbaria, & Koichi, 2012). This fact means that on a daily basis, the communities in the regions where these animals live are likely to come into dangerous encounters with the wild animals. Statistics indicate that elephants alone kill more than 50 people a day in this part of the country; this number goes way up when all the other wild animals are included (Kamau, Mbaria, & Koichi, 2012). The pastoralists also lose significant portions of their flocks to carnivores like Lions, Cheetahs, and Leopards. As a result, they retaliate by killing hundreds of wildlife in their weekly encounters.
Despite several governmental and non-governmental efforts, this situation is still as bad as it is now. The government has increased the number of wildlife wardens in the region and tried to fence as many national parks in the country as they can, but the people and the animals still bump into each other on their quest to look for food and pasture (Maddison, 2013). A number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the country then came up with the brilliant idea of taking mobile clinics to the region to offer timely aid to the human victims of the human-wildlife conflicts. However, my organization always bases its principles on the philosophical concept of “an ounce of prevention being worth more than a pound of cure.”
After analyzing the situation with my cousin Alissa and her friends who went for their Master’s programs in the country, we decided to come up with an organization called Community Health Aid Network (CHAN). Our organization is meant to deliver a variety of health services that will include curative care (for instance malaria or infections of the upper respiratory tract). It will also provide HIV/AIDS counseling and testing services, immunization of children, tuberculosis testing and referrals, education about female genital mutilation (FGM), and emergency services for those injured by cattle rustlers or by the wildlife.
The northern part of Kenya where we intend to roll out our program is approximately 128,000 square kilometers large (Kamau, Mbaria, & Koichi, 2012). The average fuel consumption of an average van is a liter for every ten kilometers if the van uses petrol and one liter for every three kilometers if the van uses diesel. Data from the country’s energy regulatory commission indicate that the current cost of petrol per liter in the country is around 95 shillings ($0.95) and that of diesel is around 86 shillings ($ 0.86). That means that for one to crisscross this region once without going back and forth, they would need 1, 216, 000 shillings ($12,160) worth of fuel or 3,699,300 shillings ($36993) worth of fuel (Ndung’u & Muoni, 2016). This amount does not include the cost of the medical supplies, maintenance charges of the vans, and the amount needed to pay the staff. That is why my organization intends to use Camels and only one van to supply the said services to the residents of the northern part of the country.
Based on the research that my team carried out, running a camel clinic for one month will cost approximately $10,000. This cost includes the wages of both the medical and the support staff, camping equipment, food and medical supplies. Considering the number of people the mobile clinics are projected to help, and the number of women that in need of long-term family planning measures, the camel clinics would be a very cost-friendly intervention (Burton et al., 2011). The camels are slower than the vans, but so are the semi-nomadic pastoralists who live in this region. Some of the locals would be chosen to either lease or sell their camels to my organization, and be employed to lead the camels alongside the rest of their herds and their communities to wherever they would be migrating to. This way, members of these communities would always have enough medical supplies and family planning drugs wherever they go.
Conclusion
If our intervention can control the rates of birth in the region, it would successfully curb the unsustainable population growth within the area. Once the population growth is curbed, the human encroachment into the wildlife zones would be reduced and secondary measures taken to improve the situation further. All that is necessary to make this program a success once the money is available is at least three medics, 15 camels, and three locals to herd the camels. The only qualification needed would be a diploma from a recognized medical institution for the medics. The locals would need no qualification other than a sound knowledge of the routes and terrain of the region. Any monetary aid that you can offer to my organization would be highly appreciated. 100 percent of the received donations would be directed towards running CHAN’s mobile camel clinics. Instructions on how to donate are provided on the organization’s website whose link will be attached in a separate mail. All the donors who wish to be recognized would be named in our monthly updates on the company website as well as on any other forum that would be deemed relevant.
References
Burton, D. C., Flannery, B., Onyango, B., Larson, C., Alaii, J., Zhang, X., … & Feikin, D. R.
(2011). Healthcare-seeking behaviour for common infectious disease-related illnesses in rural Kenya: a community-based house-to-house survey. Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition, 61-70.
Kamau, P. K., Mbaria, J. G., & Koichi, K. (2012). Human-Wildlife Conflict in Kenya.
Maddison, A. (2013). Economic progress and policy in developing countries. Routledge.
Ndung’u, L. W., & Mouni, G. G. (2016). Effect of fuel hedging on the profitability of the airline
industry in Kenya. International Academic Journal of Economics and Finance, 2(1), 16-30.