CHASE Africa

Who we are

Background

CHASE Africa was founded in 2000 and was originally called The Rift Valley Tree Trust (RVTT). Its initial objective was to encourage tree-planting initiatives around the shrinking Mau Forest in Kenya. In 2012, the RVTT changed its name to CHASE Africa (Community Health and Sustainable Environment), to reflect a shift in direction. CHASE Africa began to support primary healthcare and family planning programmes in remote, rural areas, initially supporting one partner, Communities Health Africa Trust (CHAT).  Over the past ten years, CHASE Africa has grown steadily. It currently works with fourteen partners (eleven in Kenya, two in Uganda and one in Tanzania), supporting several to set up community health programmes alongside their other work. Since inception, CHASE has delivered over 1.5 million basic health care services and over 550,000 family planning (FP) services in areas where most people depend on natural resources for their lives and livelihoods, where ecosystems are fragile, and biodiversity is under threat.

What issue is CHASE Africa seeking to address and why?

CHASE Africa seeks to empower women and girls by improving access to health services in rural communities and by addressing the high unmet need for family planning. In so doing it also aims to improve maternal and child outcomes, especially in communities that have been marginalised and underserved.

CHASE works in communities where there remain considerable barriers to girls and women realising their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and the unmet demand for modern contraceptives leads to high numbers of unplanned pregnancies, unsafe abortions and HIV infections. In parallel, rates of preventable maternal deaths are high (maternal death remains the leading cause of death of women of reproductive age) due to many women having closely spaced pregnancies without appropriate ante-natal and post-natal support, or access to facilities or trained staff for deliveries.

The situation is particularly acute for adolescents and youth in East Africa, who experience some of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in the world, alongside being the group at greatest risk of HIV infection. Girls who are not able to realise their sexual and reproductive health and rights are at greater risk of sexually transmitted infections (most notably HIV) and gender-based violence (including Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)), and are often forced to drop out of school, due to early marriage and unwanted pregnancy. 

Without control over her body and rights, a woman lacks agency to make decisions about her reproductive health. Enabling women and girls to realise their sexual and reproductive health and rights is therefore a fundamental step towards greater gender equality.

Enabling girls to choose to delay their first pregnancy is a fundamental way of breaking the cycle of poverty. Women with access to sexual and reproductive health services are more likely to complete their education, take up better opportunities and contribute to the growth and prosperity of their families and countries. They are also more resilient when it comes to reacting to natural shocks (such as climate change related drought and flooding, widely acknowledged to fall hardest on the most marginalised communities) and political and economic instability.

In parallel to its core health programmes, CHASE Africa also supports activities that aim to protect the environment by supporting community level activities to promote and improve sustainable management of natural resources, reduce land degradation and biodiversity loss. For rural communities that are heavily dependent on natural resources, this not only benefits ecosystems, but improves livelihoods and lives, especially of rural women and children who bear the burden of activities such as collecting water and firewood.

CHASE Africa’s programmes directly address SDG1 (no poverty), SDG 3 (good health and well-being), SDG 5 (gender equality), whilst also contributing to SDG 10 (reduced inequalities) and SDG 15 (life on land). They aim to improve maternal and child health and ensure that “no-one is left behind”.

Our vision is health, empowered communiities living sustainably in their natural environment.

Our mission is to support partner organisations, in Africa, that enable access to family planning, healthcare and rights, whilst protecting the environment and building resilience to climate change.