Greetings to all; As the Vice President of IBE Africa we want to thank you all for your continued support that you give our team
as the African Regional Executive Committee as well as persons with epilepsy. Although in 2020 we were threatened by COVID-19, work continued, and we managed to reach more people together and form new partnerships. We really work so hard indeed to adapt new ways of doing work.
A special mention and vote of thanks to our team of Mr. Youssouf Noormamode C.S.K, and Madam Betty Barbara Nsachilwa who devoted all they could to ensure we remain afloat, despite the challenges and all our chapters who have been loyal to raise the flag of persons with epilepsy in Africa.
AREC has been working from home at times and working with members online. We are extremely proud of all our loyal members who have been learning new skills to join in. We endeavored to ensure that no person with epilepsy was left out. We are incredibly grateful for the continued support that we are receiving from Band Foundation and now we have three streams of funding to our chapters. New additional chapters than the traditional ones have started to access funding to support their work.
IBE-Africa has been doing lots of advocacy in the last year about Making Epilepsy a Health Priority and we will continue to do so in this coming year. We listened
to people with epilepsy on what ought to be our focus and we will deliver more in this new operational year.
COVID-19 had impacted all chapter countries with 16 known deaths of persons with epilepsy. It is with sadness that we recorded deaths of some pillars in our work, notably among them Anthony Zimba (a man who supported and worked hard to establish many chapters in Africa.) He will be sadly missed by all in the epilepsy movement.
We wanted to thank you all for making sure that we stayed afloat despite all the challenges including economic challenges that the region faced.
Despite all this we scored remarkable achievements such as:
- Expansion on Chapters
(Mozambique, Gambia, Kenya) and discussion already at advanced stage with Botswana, Burundi, South Sudan and Madagascar. - A special call for the endorsement of the WHA Resolution 68.20
- Youth Petition on WHA Resolution 73.11
- Participation on Global Initiatives including key WHO forums.
- Launching of Making Epilepsy a Health Priority in Africa + Promising Strategies projects.
- Development of Advocacy Toolkit.
- Partnerships: ILAE, WHO, African Union, Pan African Parliament.
We salute you all for unwavering support and we will continue to deliver despite the challenging environment that we all find ourselves in.
Zikomo!!! Tatenda!!! Siyabonga!!! Enkosi!!! Dankie!!! Thank You!!! Merci!!! Asante Sana!!! Ke a Leboha!!! Obrigado!!! Me daa si!!! Barka!!! Webale!!! Murakoze!!! Tenkey!!!
Action Amos
Vice President Africa
