This morning on the talk shows, former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush talked about making sure that charitable donations reach the people that need them and produce results. As I listened to them, I reflected on a series of conversations I had this week across America.
In Seattle I met with Allen Wilcox and John Beale of VillageReach, an organization that works on "last mile" delivery of vaccines and health services. Working with their government partners in the most remote corners of Mozambique, they've helped to increase immunization coverage and reduce costs at the same time. They accomplish this with some simple management changes - shifting tasks of health workers, implementing basic business practices, and tracking 9 key indicators. As if this isn't enough, they use Internet based software to track progress from anywhere (and everywhere). Not surprisingly, they're aiming to go national in Mozambique this year and to expand into other countries.
Back in Baltimore, I read a survey from Australia where the population overwhelmingly supported the idea of giving surplus H1N1 vaccine to a developing country when a colleague related a story of needless H1N1 vaccine wastage in the Maryland suburbs. It seems a local pediatrician received a shipment of 1400 doses of H1N1 vaccine that he never ordered. Not knowing what to do he called the Health Department, who replied that they don't have a standard operating procedure for taking back the vaccine. The pediatrician didn't have the refrigerator space to store the vaccine. The result: vaccine doses wasted by heat exposure and due to a lack of management systems and simple business processes.
At home in DC, my neighbor and I were discussing the crisis in Haiti. The international shipping concern where he works was looking for ways to help out in the shipment of relief goods. At the time we talked the US government had not yet figured out how to tap their offer.
Shipping conglomerates interested in helping but without a way to link in to relief efforts. Internet based management systems that improve vaccine delivery in rural Mozambique. People in rich countries willing to donate surplus vaccines while vaccines in the same countries spoil due to poor supply chain management.
These might be random, unconnected, chance conversations. Or maybe they're the threads of a tapestry of compassion, commerce, and care that are waiting to be woven. With the massive outpouring of charity in response to the Haitian earthquake crisis, maybe now is the time to weave it. Any weavers out there?