Take a look at these organizations changing the world through healthcare. Healthcare can mean many different things across the world, but technology and mobility, within healthcare, are bridging the gap between the definition.
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Significant progress has been made over the last decade towards the elimination of paediatric AIDS. Yet each day, approximately 700 children are still infected with HIV. 90% of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa, and most acquire HIV from their mothers during pregnancy, childbirth, and breastfeeding.
Effective and inexpensive medical interventions are available that can keep mothers and babies healthy. Without these interventions, up to 40% of infants born to HIV-positive mothers will contract the virus. With treatment, that number can be reduced to 2%. However, most health centers in sub-Saharan Africa are severely understaffed which leaves doctors and nurses with only minutes to give a pregnant woman her HIV diagnosis and explain all of the drugs and tests she must adhere to in order to keep herself healthy and protect her baby from HIV.
The stigma of HIV that is prevalent in many African communities causes women to live in fear, making it difficult for them to get the care they need. Mothers2mothers (m2m) is changing that. We train, employ, and empower Mentor Mothers, who are mothers living with HIV, to work alongside doctors and nurses in understaffed health centers as members of the healthcare team. In one-on-one and group sessions,
Mentor Mothers provide essential health education and psychosocial support to other HIV-positive mothers on how they can protect their babies from HIV infection, and keep themselves and their families healthy. Mentor Mothers’ ties to the community and first hand-hand knowledge of HIV makes them highly effective peer mentors.
PATH drives transformative innovation in pursuit of a bold vision: a world where health is within reach for everyone, no matter where they live. PATH advances health equity in the belief that no child should die of a preventable disease, that all mothers should have safe births and healthy newborns, and that every community should have the tools it needs to thrive.
The organization accelerates smart ideas and mobilize partners to reach the world’s most vulnerable women and children. Their work spans five platforms: vaccines, devices, diagnostics, drugs, and system and service innovations. It bridges borders, sectors, and disciplines to shape the next generation of health innovations and maximize their lifesaving potential.
They are known for developing lifesaving health technologies with global impact. From the vaccine vial monitor that alerts health workers when a vaccine has been damaged by heat to low-cost diagnostics that detect malaria, diabetes, and other health threats in minutes, our tools and technologies reach millions of people around the world.
VillageReach improves access to healthcare around the world. The organization partners with governments, businesses, nonprofits, and other organizations to improve the performance and reliability of health systems in the most inaccessible and isolated last mile communities.
VillageReach was founded in Seattle, Washington in 2000 by Blaise Judja-Sato. While in Mozambique coordinating relief efforts for flood victims, Judja-Sato was struck by the limitations of existing infrastructure and distribution systems within Mozambique.
Upon his return to Seattle, Judja-Sato formed VillageReach as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization focused on infrastructure and logistics. In 2001, VillageReach launched an initiative to ensure prompt and universal access to vaccines and related medical supplies in Mozambique.
The VillageReach model is currently being implemented in 251 health centers covering a population of over 5.2 million people. Even as significant resources from the public and private sectors have provided new medicines, vaccines and equipment intended to benefit developing countries over the past years, significant gaps in the distribution of these health technologies to rural communities remain.
The Partners in Health mission is to provide a preferential option for the poor in health care. By establishing long-term relationships with sister organizations based in settings of poverty, Partners In Health strives to achieve two overarching goals: to bring the benefits of modern medical science to those most in need of them and to serve as an antidote to despair.
The organization draws on the resources of the world’s leading medical and academic institutions and on the lived experience of the world’s poorest and sickest communities. At its root, their mission is both medical and moral. It is based on solidarity, rather than charity alone.
An estimated ONE BILLION people lack access to even basic health care. They are plagued by preventable disease, untreated illnesses and neglected injuries. Even a simple toothache can become a life-threatening crisis.
Access to good medical care is the key to providing desperately needed hope and healing. But how can that be accomplished in countries without basic supporting infrastructure—including a clean water supply, a reliable source of electricity and trained medical professionals.
The answer began in a dream of a hospital ship, a self-contained instrument of mercy that would take highly qualified volunteers to the people who need them most.
That dream became Mercy Ships. Through the compassion of volunteers and donors, the 2,000-year-old example Jesus set of caring for the poor is being lived out on a daily basis.
We are transforming lives one surgery, one medical treatment at a time. Since 1978 Mercy Ships has performed services valued at more than $1 billion, impacting more than 2.35 million people directly during more than 575 port visits in 54 developing nations and 18 developed nations . . . and still counting!
Basic Needs is an international development organization that was founded in 2000 by Chris Underhill after an initial encounter with tortured and caged mentally ill people within a hospital compound in Africa. Mental health is hugely under-resourced and neglected as a health issue and therefore BasicNeeds works to bring about a lasting change in the lives of mentally ill people around the world.
The vision is that the basic needs of all people with mental illness and epilepsy throughout the world are met and their basic rights are recognized and respected. The mission is to enable people with mental illness or epilepsy and their families to live and work successfully in their communities by combining health, socio-economic and community orientated solutions with changes in policy, practice and resource allocation.
Marie Stopes International exists to bring quality family planning and reproductive healthcare to the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. They’ve been delivering family planning, safe abortion, and maternal health services for over 35 years. Millions of women worldwide turn to us for help each year, whether in limiting the size of their families, or avoiding dangerous complications in pregnancy or unsafe abortion.
Their work is underpinned by a passionate commitment to save and improve women’s lives. For families living in extreme poverty, these are life and death issues. With operations in 37 countries, the organization is one of the largest international family planning organizations in the world.
In particular they work with women and men in remote rural areas and in urban slums whose poor access to family planning and reproductive health care only exacerbates their poverty and vulnerability. The mission is to give people a choice: the choice of when and whether to have children, the choice of what type of family planning methods to use, and the choice of where and how to get them.
In 2012, 13.6 million women using a method of family planning provided by Marie Stopes International. The services include: family planning, safe abortion (where abortion is permitted), post-abortion care, maternal and child health care, diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, and HIV/AIDS prevention.
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