Formerly known as the University College for Aspiring Missionary Doctors, Doctors with Africa CUAMM was founded in 1950 by Francesco Canova, previously a missionary doctor in Jordan. Monsignor Girolamo Bortignon, Bishop of Padua, immediately supported the project. The first and still actual motto was the evangelical instruction “Euntes curate infirmos” – go and care for the sick.
The initial aim of the project was the recruitment and training of medical students from Italy and elsewhere interested in spending a period of their professional lives working in the service of missionary hospitals and needy populations in developing countries.

Through this decade, several African countries gained their independence and many other significant changes happened worldwide. The impact of these transformations was felt even in the furthest-off missionary hospitals. In these years, CUAMM recognized that missionary hospitals could benefit by having a clear professional direction within a precise administrative framework and by developing relationships with national healthcare services in order to make possible the integration between hospital services, basic treatment and prevention capabilities.

In 1971, the Italian government passed its first-ever law on cultural, scientific and technical cooperation with developing countries, acknowledging the positive value of volunteerism.
In 1972, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs recognized Doctors with Africa CUAMM as a volunteer organization authorized to carry out institutional functions in developing countries in order to promote development and cooperation activities.
Between 1977 and 1979, after several deliberations on the role of so-called “missionary doctors” in international healthcare projects, CUAMM launched a new phase of its work: country programs based on bilateral agreements between the Italian government and a number of developing countries – in particular, Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique. CUAMM began to partner directly with local governments and authorities in order to implement extensive and community based development projects.
This approach aligned properly with the Declaration of Alma-Ata of 1978, a milestone document in which the World Health Organization reaffirmed health as a fundamental human right for all and called for action to improve basic healthcare everywhere, especially in developing countries.

A world where health is accessible and guaranteed to all human beings, especially the neediest and the suffering.

MISSION
Our mission is to advocate the universal right to health and promote the values of international solidarity, justice and peace. We work to protect and improve the wellbeing and health of vulnerable communities in Africa with a long-term development perspective.

Objectives

1. To improve the health status of communities in Africa, in the firm conviction that health is not a consumer good, but a universal human right, and that therefore access to health services cannot be a privilege
2. To promote a positive attitude and solidarity towards Africa — the duty of fostering interest and hope for the future of Africa, and commitment among institutions and public opinion

To achieve these objectives, in line with our strategic priorities, Doctors with Africa CUAMM:

• Designs and implements long-term health care cooperation projects to create or strengthen health systems that:
  – are centered on people, families and communities
  – value local personnel
  – give substance to primary health care
  – aim to improve their performance
  – support programs integration
  – strengthen collaboration between nfp and governmental sectors
  – invest in innovation, evaluation and operational research
• Focuses its action on reproductive, maternal, new-born, child and adolescent health; nutrition; infectious diseases; NCDs; and Universal Health Coverage (UHC)
• Trains and re-trains health care providers in Italy and Africa
• Conducts and disseminates scientific research in the fields of just global development and health, particularly with regard to African countries
• Carries out awareness- raising and educational activities on global health for the general public, national and international institutions
• Promotes socially responsible philanthropy and investment by individuals and institutions