We’re thrilled to announce important new partnerships in Malawi that will help our core work to support frontline health system capacity. In New York today we announced our collaboration with the Barr Foundation and the University of Washington Global Medicines Program in launching a new program to increase healthcare access through improvements in the public health supply chain. We will be working closely with the Malawi College of Health Sciences to train and deploy pharmacy staff, increase supply chain capacity, and improve data management and reporting of logistics data. During the course of the program, 150 pharmacy assistants will be trained and deployed in rural health facilities serving a population of approximately 4.5 million.
The Innovation Working Group (IWG) and the mHealth Alliance also announced today that VillageReach has been selected as 2012 grant winner to improve women’s and children’s health using mobile technology. The grant will be used to expand service for our pilot program applying innovative uses of information technology to expand the reach of health services for mothers and children in rural communities.
Both of these initiatives will help us build on the close partnership we have developed with the Malawi Ministry of Health since we first began our work in the country in 2008.