The West Africa Institute (WAI) is dedicated to empowering the people of Sierra Leone and West Africa to be healthy, economically secure, and autonomous. It creates and implements programs that will achieve this goal by promoting healthcare, micro credit financing, appropriate technologies and sustainable agriculture.

The West Africa Fistula Foundation (WAFF), WAI’s original and still largest program, strives to end the cycle of preventable infant and maternal morbidity and mortality so prevalent in Sierra Leone and across West Africa. 

In Sierra Leone, 1 woman in 8 dies during childbirth. Throughout Africa it is estimated that 2-3 million women suffer from obstetric fistula, a condition often resulting from labor complications.

WAI and WAFF collaborate with and train national doctors, healthcare practitioners, and other professionals so that the people of West Africa will ultimately run these programs independently.