The healthcare delivery systems in Africa are a significant impediment to the improvement of health. Donors have developed protocols for addressing may of the most serious illnesses found in the developing world. However, most of these solutions require sophisticated, long-term treatment that is beyond the capabilities of the existing health resources to deliver. In other words, the donors provide deep, but narrow expertise, usually in a single disease or condition. Without the local capability to deliver these solutions, public health cannot improve in the populations most in need.
What we are doing is not complex in concept. We are creating sensible, practical, low cost ways to do relatively simple things the right way, the same way every time. It requires simple systems implemented with extensive training and continuous reinforcement.
We work closely with local governments. We try to improve upon existing systems rather than build our own and use local resources to the greatest possible extent. We have found many good ideas already distributed throughout the field of developing health; we are trying to consolidate them and make them work. Most importantly, we are not simply putting a completed system in place, but instead providing the organization and leadership to help local communities build such a system themselves.
We are not a humanitarian organization by design. We are an organization working with local governments and communities to design an effective primary healthcare delivery system and to train people to implement those systems. We expect our work will have a large humanitarian impact, but our focus is on the creation of an effective model. This is an important distinction we believe is essential to the lasting impact of our work.







