Partners In Health, Doctors Without Borders
Partners in Health is an NGO formed in 1987 and centered in Boston that is primarily related to promoting healthcare throughout the world and of poor and marginalized people. They attempt to raise the standard of healthcare in some of the world's poorest regions through research, service and training. They often work with local and international groups to “providing people access to modern medicine, strengthening public health systems, and addressing the root social and economic causes of poor health and disease: lack of access to clean water, healthy food, stable housing, education and economic opportunity”. They work with these communities in the long term to bring modern medicine to places that otherwise would not have it, claiming to work in solidarity rather than charity. The organization is run primarily through a Board of Trustees, Officers and the various country directors.
The model of care is headlined by their commitment to serving the people of poor nations and those who have been marginalized, but also centers on training physicians, nurses and other health care workers in these areas, advocating for the people and researching how to improve both the quality of care and methods of advocacy. This goes along with their five fundamental principles, which are: access to primary healthcare, free healthcare and education for the poor, community partnerships, addressing basic social and economic needs and serving the poor through the public sector.1
The organization currently works in Haiti, Lesotho, Malawi, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, the United States, the Dominican Republic, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Guatemala, and Burundi It is facing a wide variety of issues in these locations, ranging from the AIDS epidemic to tuberculosis to womens and childrens health to securing food and clean water.1 One specific project was during the ebola outbreak of 2014, the organization committed to sending over 200 clinicians and supported 21 facilities while also hiring 2,000 residents. They intended to not only alleviate the issue, but stay to ensure that the medical infrastructure was in solid shape.
Another major healthcare NGO is Doctors Without Borders (or Medicines Sans Frontiers in French). The organization is French and was founded in 1971 by 13 physicians who disagreed with the methods of the Red Cross (ICRC) and believed both that the right to medical treatment transcended national borders and that they had a right to speak out against potentially abusive host governments. Their first mission was a 1972 earthquake relief effort in Nicaragua, with other major missions taking place in Lebanon, Afghanistan and Chechnya. More recent major efforts have been to reduce the effects of famine and help found Drugs for Neglected Diseases (DNDi) that aids with diseases such as AIDs, tuberculosis and malaria. As of now, the organization works in nearly 80 countries. The organization prides itself on several principles, those being medical ethics, independence and impartiality, bearing witness and accountability.
They have several different types of projects. The first of these is the Emergency Response, which involves deploying in a number of hours and setting up a basic medical infrastructure, with an example being after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. They also have more specialists and logistics centers that carry huge amounts of equipment and supplies that can be ready for staff at a moments notice. This is access to healthcare, which is a central type of project for more slowly unfolding disasters that unfold over decades of disease or deteriorating healthcare systems, and help ensure that people can get whatever medical treatment they need. Examples are dealing with AIDs, tuberculosis and ignored tropical illnesses. Long term care goes along with this and focuses on setting up the infrastructure to deal with a problem in the long term, while also providing help in certain regions for decades at a time. Advocacy for affected groups and research on ways to better treatment are also extremely significant. The final type of project is mobile treatment, which is done to ensure that medical treatment can be had by people over large and isolated areas and not just those in the center of the issue. An example of this is in 2012, where over 18 days 4,534 people in the Central African Republic were screened for sleeping illness. Volunteers travelled around the area, raised awareness and made sure people new free treatment was available before helping the population.
1 "Partners In Health." Devex. Accessed July 08, 2018. https://www.devex.com/organizations/partners-in-health-44595
2 "Our Mission at PIH®." Partners In Health. Accessed July 08, 2018. https://www.pih.org/pages/our-mission
3 "Governance." Partners In Health. Accessed July 08, 2018. https://www.pih.org/pages/governance
4 "We Go: PIH in West Africa." Partners In Health. Accessed July 08, 2018. https://www.pih.org/article/we-go-west-africa.
5 Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Doctors Without Borders." Encyclopædia Britannica. October 24, 2014. Accessed July 08, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Doctors-Without-Borders.
6 "Principles | Doctors Without Borders - USA." MSF USA. Accessed July 08, 2018. https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/who-we-are/principles.
7 "Types of Projects | Doctors Without Borders - USA." MSF USA. Accessed July 08, 2018. https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/who-we-are/how-we-work/types-projects.
Partners in Health is an NGO formed in 1987 and centered in Boston that is primarily related to promoting healthcare throughout the world and of poor and marginalized people. They attempt to raise the standard of healthcare in some of the world's poorest regions through research, service and training. They often work with local and international groups to “providing people access to modern medicine, strengthening public health systems, and addressing the root social and economic causes of poor health and disease: lack of access to clean water, healthy food, stable housing, education and economic opportunity”. They work with these communities in the long term to bring modern medicine to places that otherwise would not have it, claiming to work in solidarity rather than charity. The organization is run primarily through a Board of Trustees, Officers and the various country directors.
The model of care is headlined by their commitment to serving the people of poor nations and those who have been marginalized, but also centers on training physicians, nurses and other health care workers in these areas, advocating for the people and researching how to improve both the quality of care and methods of advocacy. This goes along with their five fundamental principles, which are: access to primary healthcare, free healthcare and education for the poor, community partnerships, addressing basic social and economic needs and serving the poor through the public sector.1
The organization currently works in Haiti, Lesotho, Malawi, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, the United States, the Dominican Republic, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Guatemala, and Burundi It is facing a wide variety of issues in these locations, ranging from the AIDS epidemic to tuberculosis to womens and childrens health to securing food and clean water.1 One specific project was during the ebola outbreak of 2014, the organization committed to sending over 200 clinicians and supported 21 facilities while also hiring 2,000 residents. They intended to not only alleviate the issue, but stay to ensure that the medical infrastructure was in solid shape.
Another major healthcare NGO is Doctors Without Borders (or Medicines Sans Frontiers in French). The organization is French and was founded in 1971 by 13 physicians who disagreed with the methods of the Red Cross (ICRC) and believed both that the right to medical treatment transcended national borders and that they had a right to speak out against potentially abusive host governments. Their first mission was a 1972 earthquake relief effort in Nicaragua, with other major missions taking place in Lebanon, Afghanistan and Chechnya. More recent major efforts have been to reduce the effects of famine and help found Drugs for Neglected Diseases (DNDi) that aids with diseases such as AIDs, tuberculosis and malaria. As of now, the organization works in nearly 80 countries. The organization prides itself on several principles, those being medical ethics, independence and impartiality, bearing witness and accountability.
They have several different types of projects. The first of these is the Emergency Response, which involves deploying in a number of hours and setting up a basic medical infrastructure, with an example being after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. They also have more specialists and logistics centers that carry huge amounts of equipment and supplies that can be ready for staff at a moments notice. This is access to healthcare, which is a central type of project for more slowly unfolding disasters that unfold over decades of disease or deteriorating healthcare systems, and help ensure that people can get whatever medical treatment they need. Examples are dealing with AIDs, tuberculosis and ignored tropical illnesses. Long term care goes along with this and focuses on setting up the infrastructure to deal with a problem in the long term, while also providing help in certain regions for decades at a time. Advocacy for affected groups and research on ways to better treatment are also extremely significant. The final type of project is mobile treatment, which is done to ensure that medical treatment can be had by people over large and isolated areas and not just those in the center of the issue. An example of this is in 2012, where over 18 days 4,534 people in the Central African Republic were screened for sleeping illness. Volunteers travelled around the area, raised awareness and made sure people new free treatment was available before helping the population.
1 "Partners In Health." Devex. Accessed July 08, 2018. https://www.devex.com/organizations/partners-in-health-44595
2 "Our Mission at PIH®." Partners In Health. Accessed July 08, 2018. https://www.pih.org/pages/our-mission
3 "Governance." Partners In Health. Accessed July 08, 2018. https://www.pih.org/pages/governance
4 "We Go: PIH in West Africa." Partners In Health. Accessed July 08, 2018. https://www.pih.org/article/we-go-west-africa.
5 Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Doctors Without Borders." Encyclopædia Britannica. October 24, 2014. Accessed July 08, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Doctors-Without-Borders.
6 "Principles | Doctors Without Borders - USA." MSF USA. Accessed July 08, 2018. https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/who-we-are/principles.
7 "Types of Projects | Doctors Without Borders - USA." MSF USA. Accessed July 08, 2018. https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/who-we-are/how-we-work/types-projects.
BRAC
The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) is an NGO founded in 1972 by ex Shell Oil executive Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972 and is a body that focuses on development in many of the poorer regions of the world, especially in Asia and Africa. It was formed when Abed was disgusted by the death and poverty in Bangladesh, and he left his work life and sold his London apartment to fund the organization. The culture was one of long term aims and learning seeing what techniques and employees worked best to help the communities that they worked in. Overall, it reaches 138 million people and aims to empower people and communities that are victim to poverty, disease, social injustice and illiteracy with its budget of half a billion dollars.
The organization primarily works through providing microloans and creating self employment opportunities for those in poverty, while also working through economic and social programs. It has created millions of jobs and overall is responsible for educating another several million, with 1.8 million currently enrolled in 66,000 schools. Overall, in its time the organization has been described as the “fastest growing NGO in the world--and one of the most business like” by The Economist. Ultimately this is accomplished through a five step approach that starts with constantly measuring and modifying its solutions in order to maximise their effectiveness. They also engage the community to develop ideas together and not force outside ideas on them, recognize the various limits that are placed on women (via government, religious and social mechanisms), developed a holistic approach in Bangladesh that has undergone many iterations and finally by specifically designing programs that can be increased exponentially to serve the population as a whole.1
The organization has, however, not gained a high level of recognition in the West. This is in no small part due to the more remote locations in which it operates. Further, the organizations approach is rather complicated and cannot be simply summed up, regardless of its effectiveness. To aid with this, BRAC UK and BRAC USA were launched in 2007, which not only has brought attention to the groups but has allowed for huge scale ups due to fundraising (as well as the aforementioned awareness).1
Overall, BRAC’s methods have proved extremely effective everywhere it has worked, and combined with the size it has actually gained the ranking as the top NGO in the world in 2016, and it has maintained that to this point. It topped out over 500 organizations, including well renown ones such as the Danish Refugee Council, Wikimedia Foundation, Partners in Health, the International Committee on the Red Cross, and more.
1 Korngold, Alice. "BRAC Is The Largest Global Anti-Poverty Organization, And It's A Secret." Fast Company. July 30, 2012. Accessed July 09, 2018. https://www.fastcompany.com/1753519/brac-largest-global-anti-poverty-organization-and-its-secret.
2 "BRAC Ranked Number One NGO in the World." BRAC. Accessed July 09, 2018. http://www.brac.net/latest-news/item/978-brac-ranked-number-one-ngo-in-the-world.
The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) is an NGO founded in 1972 by ex Shell Oil executive Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972 and is a body that focuses on development in many of the poorer regions of the world, especially in Asia and Africa. It was formed when Abed was disgusted by the death and poverty in Bangladesh, and he left his work life and sold his London apartment to fund the organization. The culture was one of long term aims and learning seeing what techniques and employees worked best to help the communities that they worked in. Overall, it reaches 138 million people and aims to empower people and communities that are victim to poverty, disease, social injustice and illiteracy with its budget of half a billion dollars.
The organization primarily works through providing microloans and creating self employment opportunities for those in poverty, while also working through economic and social programs. It has created millions of jobs and overall is responsible for educating another several million, with 1.8 million currently enrolled in 66,000 schools. Overall, in its time the organization has been described as the “fastest growing NGO in the world--and one of the most business like” by The Economist. Ultimately this is accomplished through a five step approach that starts with constantly measuring and modifying its solutions in order to maximise their effectiveness. They also engage the community to develop ideas together and not force outside ideas on them, recognize the various limits that are placed on women (via government, religious and social mechanisms), developed a holistic approach in Bangladesh that has undergone many iterations and finally by specifically designing programs that can be increased exponentially to serve the population as a whole.1
The organization has, however, not gained a high level of recognition in the West. This is in no small part due to the more remote locations in which it operates. Further, the organizations approach is rather complicated and cannot be simply summed up, regardless of its effectiveness. To aid with this, BRAC UK and BRAC USA were launched in 2007, which not only has brought attention to the groups but has allowed for huge scale ups due to fundraising (as well as the aforementioned awareness).1
Overall, BRAC’s methods have proved extremely effective everywhere it has worked, and combined with the size it has actually gained the ranking as the top NGO in the world in 2016, and it has maintained that to this point. It topped out over 500 organizations, including well renown ones such as the Danish Refugee Council, Wikimedia Foundation, Partners in Health, the International Committee on the Red Cross, and more.
1 Korngold, Alice. "BRAC Is The Largest Global Anti-Poverty Organization, And It's A Secret." Fast Company. July 30, 2012. Accessed July 09, 2018. https://www.fastcompany.com/1753519/brac-largest-global-anti-poverty-organization-and-its-secret.
2 "BRAC Ranked Number One NGO in the World." BRAC. Accessed July 09, 2018. http://www.brac.net/latest-news/item/978-brac-ranked-number-one-ngo-in-the-world.