Nonprofit Launches $100 Million Plan to Support Local Health Workers

New charitable project raises $100 million in 10 countries We want to invest $, primarily in Africa, by 2030 to support 200,000 community health workers who will act as critical bridges to treatment for those with limited access to healthcare.

The Skoll Foundation and the & Johnson Foundation announced Monday that they have donated a total of $25 million to the initiative. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which oversees the project, made a matching donation, and he hopes to raise another $50 million.

The investment is aimed at empowering frontline workers, who experts say are vital to combating his COVID-19, Ebola and HIV outbreaks.

"What I Learned About Community Health Workers." Professor Francisca Mutapi of the University of Edinburgh helped lead a multi-year project to treat neglected tropical diseases in several African countries. "They are very popular. They are very effective. They are very cost effective." At the time, Mutapi described how community health workers negotiated treatment for parasitic infections in young children who did not belong to a religious group. She accepts clinical medicine.

"She went to the river to continue her day job. She noticed that one of her community children was complaining about her stomachache. said Mutapi.

The woman approached the child's grandmother for permission to take the child to the clinic, who diagnosed the child with bilharzia and began treatment. Without the intervention of women, it would not have happened, according to Mutapi. He said there was evidence that people with disabilities can effectively provide low-cost care. ''

The current numbers of these workers are not well documented, but in 2017 the African Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that the continent could reach its health targets. estimated that he needed 2 million people. Many of these workers are women and unpaid, but the Global Fund advocates giving them some sort of salary.

It's hard to think of a better set of people than you want to pay, when you think about it both in terms of what you do," said Peter Sands, executive director of the fund.

Established in 2002, the Global Fund raises international funds to eradicate treatable infectious diseases. In addition to his regular three-year grants to countries, these new charitable contributions will be rolled out through the Catalytic Fund to facilitate spending on some of the best practices and program designs.

Last Mile Health is part of the Africa Frontline First health initiative and since 2016 has worked with the Liberian government to expand and strengthen community health programs.

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, former Liberian President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf convened Last Her Mile Health and other organizations to work on the response.

"We were all watching a moment of déjà vu that reminded us of years ago when Liberia was hit by this tragic Ebola epidemic." Like us, the tide turned when we turned to communities.”

Along with other organizations dedicated to public health funding, research and policy, they We set out to design initiatives to expand community health programs and take advantage of the attention the pandemic brought to the need for disease surveillance.

The Catalytic Fund is the result. “I think the pandemic has shed light on the critical role of these health care workers,” said Lauren Moore, Johnson's Global His Community His President of Impact.

Skoll Foundation CEO Don Gips stressed that these workers could provide early warning and benefit people around the world.

"Not only is it a way to provide health care in Africa, but it is also a way to uncover the next wave of diseases that could threaten people around the world," Ambassador to South Africa.

Last Mile Health reported that in 2017 he received a significant donation from the Skoll Foundation, as well as significant donations from TED's Audacious Project and another funding organization, Co-Impact. increase. The organization's co-founder, Raj Panjabi, currently works for the Biden administration.

"What charities have realized about Last Mile Health is that by actively managing community health worker programs, they are only taking direct action on this issue. Rather, our innovations are being adopted in a variety of areas, said James Nardella, the organization's Chief Program Officer:

SUNY's Fox and other Experts say linking the work of community health workers to the country's health system is a priority, and ensuring sustainable funding for their programs is a priority.

The Global Fund said it would support countries in their proposed plans to expand community health care workers over the next year.

Chen says there is no silver bullet to the sustainability problem.

"Part of the work that an organization like Last Mile Health has to do is sit in that discomfort with our partners until we slowly squeeze out a solution here." and to wrestle with donors," Chen said.

Mutapi said that ultimately the government would have to fund the program itself, and that experience with health workers in regions such as Zimbabwe and Liberia has

"I actually lived on the inaccessible Scottish islands," she said. Community health worker innovation is something that "can really be exported to far-flung western communities because of the connections between providers and providers. Local communities are critically important for compliance and access."

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