To improve the quality of life for the more vulnerable communities around the world with innovative spaces that improve their experience of healthcare.
Established in 2016, the Altro Foundation is dedicated to transforming healthcare spaces to help the more vulnerable communities around the world.
We are about collaboration and involvement in communities; utilising practical applications to transform healthcare spaces to improve wellbeing. We support transferring skills through a learning culture and embrace innovation to create solutions for tough challenges.
At the Altro Foundation we use our skills, capability and resources, to help solve real world challenges of remote, lowresource settings. We look outward for ideas and innovations and support social enterprise to enable people to live better and enhance their wellbeing.
The Altro Foundation supports a number of charities that provide healthcare and support to vulnerable communities around the world.
We are delighted to announce our new partner and recipient of an Altro Foundation grant, is Healthy Valleys. We are now working with this community initiative to create a ‘wellness wagon’, a tailor-made clinic of wheels that can be used to provide mental health support within communities. Watch this space for updates on how the project develops.
Healthy Valleys is a health initiative that supports communities in rural South Lanarkshire. It focusses on providing opportunities for local people to improve their health and wellbeing, and build stronger communities in areas of deprivation, or where there are service gaps.
Find more information about Healthy Valleys here
Team Leader, Resilient People at Healthy Valleys, Alison Stanley said: "We're delighted to be able to work in partnership with Altro to realise the vision of a mobile wellbeing vehicle that will allow us to take services directly to the heart of isolated rural communities.
“The challenges of rural life are often overlooked: communities face the same challenges as urban ones, but with significantly less access to even basic amenities. Pre-Covid we were looking at how we could deliver place-based support, but community venues are costly to hire, and not all of our villages have one! Over the last year it's become an increasingly important for us to find a way to reach out, deliver support and improve health and wellbeing outcomes individuals' and communities where they are across Clydesdale."
Sarah de los Rios, Trustee, Altro Foundation, said: “We’re so pleased to announce our partnership with Healthy Valleys, enabling this inspiring project to grow the crucial mental health support it’s already providing in South Lanarkshire.
“We’ve seen the impact that a wellness lounge can make in the heart of communities, through our work with charitable organisations in Kenya and South Africa. It’s unusual to take an idea that’s worked in a developing country to communities in the UK, rather than the other way round, but the sterling work by PDO Kenya to provide mental healthcare to those in need, coupled with our awareness of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, inspired us to seek a partner here in the UK, where we could also make a difference. We’re looking forward to working with the team at Healthy Valleys to create their own wellness lounge, and see the effects of being able to reach their community in this new, direct way.”
The projects supported by The Altro Foundation have all been impacted by the global pandemic. Communities have to cope not only with the virus and its physical effects, but the impact on mental health and local economic stability. The charities we work with have had to adapt quickly, changing working practices and the type of support provided to best help these communities. It’s been incredibly rewarding to be there when help has been desperately needed and we thank our partner foundations for their swift actions and commitment.
Starfish Greathearts Foundation: South Africa is one of the countries most affected by Covid-19. With the healthcare system lacking, particularly in rural areas, the charity’s wellness wagon was used to overcome the challenge of reaching these communities. This included transporting those in need of treatment or testing, as well as distributing emergency parcels of medication, hygiene, goods and food parcels. Starfish also undertook hygiene awareness and education to help reduce spread.
“It has been a very difficult year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Some of the parents of children attending the preschool have lost their jobs as their companies had no money, and some of the parents also lost family members to the virus. It has been difficult for the children not to attend school, but thanks to support from Starfish we have been able to help the children in our community”, Sibonisile, care worker and teacher.
PDO Kenya: With strict lockdowns having a huge impact on the economy and poverty, and thousands of Covid-19 cases, mental health issues – already affecting one in ten Kenyans – have greatly increased. The mental health charity extended the use of its wellness lounge to hold mental wellness camps for front-line healthcare workers. The weekend camps saw the medics exercising, dancing, playing games such as volleyball and football and sharing their experiences with each other.
LATRA: In Greece, overcrowding in Lesbos’ refugee camps, in part due to the destruction of the Moria camp by fire, has led to high numbers testing positive for Covid-19. LATRA and the Altro Foundation, already working together at the Kara Tepe camp, have funded an additional Isobox unit, in place now, to support testing. The unit was also equipped with 1200 litres of hand sanitiser.