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Notes from the Field: Bicycle Ambulances in Malawi
Back in February, VillageReach purchased bicycle ambulances for a number of communities in rural Malawi. Before they had these bicycles, community members would often resort to making homemade stretchers to carry their loved ones to the nearest health facility. Needless to say, the communities are very excited to have the new bicycle ambulances. In June, [...]
VillageReach rated as top charity by GiveWell!
We are excited to annouce that VillageReach has been rated as a top charity by GiveWell. GiveWell is an independent, nonprofit charity evaluator- founded by two ex-hedge-fund analysts, GiveWell brings a metrics-based business mentality to the table with their rigorous and thorough analysis of charities.
It is incredibly refreshing to be asked about more than just our overhead [...]
Global Health Funding
Interesting article today in the Seattle Times! Even in the eight years since VillageReach was established, it’s been amazing to see how global health funding has fundamentally changed- we blogged before about GAVI and The Optimize Project, two enormous initiatives that would never have happened without the “balance of power shift” mentioned in this [...]
Measuring Impact of Social Investing
As a recent MBA graduate, I joined VillageReach for the summer tasked with evaluating our models and frameworks to further reach scalability and create sustainable business opportunities.Throughout business school, I was taught the importance of proving that financial profitability and measurable metrics are essential for making business decisions. Shouldn’t this common standard be used to measure [...]
Why is a Social Enterprise required in the VillageReach Model?
We all know that operation of any health center requires a variety of external inputs- energy, transport/logistics (delivery services), and communications systems to name a few. In wealthy countries, these services would normally be provided by the commercial sector. In focusing efforts on the “last mile,” however, any and all of these commercial services are [...]
The Innovation Pile-Up: Key Players
So who is paying attention to medical distribution systems and more specifically to the innovation pile-up we highlighted in the last post?
There are 4 main categories of players: Governments, NGOs, multi-lateral organizations (WHO, UNICEF) and public-private alliances. While there are many, many important and interesting stakeholders in the field, the most interesting evolution over the last decade has [...]
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