I am so inspired by what I read in the New York Times yesterday. The ‘Avon Ladies’ of Africa details efforts by Living Goods to sell health-promoting items like sanitary pads, soap, de-worming pills, iodized salt, condoms, nutritionally fortified foods, kits for clean delivery of babies, malaria treatments, bed nets, high-efficiency cookstoves, solar lamps and cellphone chargers.
The women essentially become their village doctors.
This seems like a very effective way to promote local ownership of these health-improvement initiatives and create sustainability. When I sourced my Clean Birth Kits through AYZH, they recommended that women pay something for the kits. I am still unsure if this will be possible but it is a goal to strive for: people taking ownership of their health by contributing to the cost of things like Clean BIrth Kits, medicines, etc…
Here’s more about the Living Goods program:
[The women] get two weeks’ training in basic health care — preventive measures, and also how to diagnose and cure the most common diseases: malaria, childhood pneumonia, diarrhea. They learn when to refer a patient to the health clinic. Then they spend two weeks in the field. They first follow a working sales representative. Then they go back to their communities and go door to door asking questions about each family’s health…
…Sales reps now use texting to log their sales and track inventory. Most customers have a phone, too — or their neighbor does — so Living Goods can target them with direct messages — promotions and sales, but also health messages. Someone who buys malaria medicine, for example, will get a text a day later that says “you may be feeling better, but please take ALL your medicine.” Pregnant women get health advice.
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