Living Goods, Charity of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jun 18th 2008 at 10:04AM

Living Goods has a unique model for doing good in the world. They have created a network of door-to-door Health Promoters in Uganda who sell essential health products at prices affordable to the poor in developing countries. This method combines the worlds of microfinance, franchising, and public health with an end goal of defeating diseases of poverty. Living Goods helps reduce illness and death through basic health interventions focusing on diseases that can be easily treated or prevented and yet can often prove fatal in underserved areas. These diseases include malaria and TV and the Health Promoters also help with basic family planning and reproductive health services to both lowering fertility and reduce the mortality rate for pregnant women and newborns. This method also empowers the Health Promoter who earns wages for her services. Living Goods hopes to recruit, train and deploy 4,000 agents in two target countries serving a total population of 4-5 million during their first five years. They also hope to replicate this model elsewhere and partner with other groups to export this model to to other countries including Tanzania, Mozambique, Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana and India.

Tags: charity of the day, living goods, LivingGoods, uganda