New York City-based technology consultant firm Accenture has announced a donation valued at $2.9 million to the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) to implement an electronic training program to increase the number of qualified nurses in Kenya.

Currently, over 85 percent of Kenyan nurses are certified below a qualified level and have not been trained in the management of new and re-emerging diseases, such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, that are compounding the poverty situation in Africa. The donation comprises a $1.7 million grant from the Accenture Foundation and $1.2 million of in-kind technology consulting and related services, including program management support and 14,500 hours of donated time from professionals in Accenture's training unit. In addition, nurses will receive disaster-management training, which will enable them to effectively support responses to man made and natural disasters, such as famine.

"The Kenyan Ministry of Health asked AMREF to work in conjunction with the Nursing Council of Kenya to upgrade 26,000 nurses from certificate to diploma level, allowing them to deliver basic health services, as well as manage and treat new and re-emerging diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis," said Dr. Peter Ngatia, AMREF's director of learning systems. "With the current shortage of nursing instructors, training 26,000 nurses would take one hundred years; by leveraging Accenture's innovative electronic learning solutions, we are targeting to train the same number in just five years."