Routine distributions of medicines to communities at the last mile in Mozambique have always been challenging due to long distances and poor road conditions. To make matters worse, January often brings heavy rains that flood rivers and wash away roads. On certain occasions, health workers from rural clinics may have to travel over roads with deep craters or mud to reach the district warehouse to avoid stock-outs at their health center.
Read full storyOriginally posted on Medium.com
I started working in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) four years ago when VillageReach was approached with an opportunity–to improve the availability of vaccines and essential medicines in rural Equateur province.
I never back down from a challenge, and this one couldn’t be more difficult given the forest density, the river running through the province, and lack of roads. What roads there were would get washed away or become mud pistes for Land Cruisers during the rainy season.
In countries like DRC, supply chains are designed with the environment in mind and drones looked promising for vaccine distribution given these conditions. After months of building the case for testing drones, the plan to perform a series of demonstration flights was approved.
Read full storyOriginally posted on the OpenLMIS website.
The OpenLMIS initiative is proud to announce the latest release of our software, OpenLMIS version 3.6. This release incorporates valuable feedback from OpenLMIS users, implementers, and global supply chain management experts. Our newest features aim to improve user experience, and specifically simplify processes related to ordering commodities and collating data for decision-making. 3.6 is a major accomplishment for the Initiative and a milestone for public health supply chain stakeholders globally.
Read full storyTransporting vaccines, essential and generic medicines and family planning products in separate shipments when they are all going to the same health facility is an inefficient use of precious resources. An integrated system for delivering products to the last mile has been developed and implemented by the Next Generation of Supply Chain initiative (NGCA) in DRC’s Equateur province. This report details how the integrated distribution contributed to improved product availability, overall cost savings and more time for health workers to spend delivering immunizations and other health services.
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Jean Louis Esanzo in his clinic
Jean Louis Esanzo, is the Superintendent Nurse at the Konongo Health Center, in the Mankanza health district of Equateur province, DRC. Konongo Health Center supplies vaccines and essential medicines for many surrounding villages. However, the only way to get vaccines to Konongo from the provincial warehouse is by boat on the Congo River. This means long journeys and high transportation costs the health center could not afford, which led to frequent vaccine stock outs in the past.
Read full storyHelena José Virgílio, José Maria, and Pedro Terezanane represent hundreds of heroes who, come rain or come shine, guarantee the availability of medicines and other medical commodities in health centers. As a result, patients countrywide have access to the medicines they need. In addition to being the day-to-day heroes who ensure the availability of medicines in the health centers, they share the same expectations for the introduction of the Last Mile Supply Chain program.
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Kelliter Chizinga conducting her pharmacy practicum training. Photo Credit: Hope Ngwira
Pharmaceutical management is something that Kelliter Chizinga had always wanted to study and pursue as a career. In November 2016, Chizinga’s passion for being of service to the community motivated her to enroll at the Malawi College of Health Sciences in Lilongwe in a two-year pharmacy assistant certificate program that aimed to train and deploy 650 pharmacy assistants across Malawi by 2020.
Read full storyReposted from OpenLMIS
The latest release of the OpenLMIS software, version 3.5, is a major accomplishment for the Initiative and a milestone for public health supply chain stakeholders globally. 3.5 is the sixth major release since the re architecture and represents how implementers continue to obtain value from the community.
Read full storyTo transform health care delivery in far-reaching areas of Mozambique, it takes creativity, thinking outside of the box, resilience and strong commitment. It also requires a team approach and a lot of early buy-in. Engaging with a wide variety of stakeholders and being inclusive of a range of voices from the start is paramount to the work that we do at VillageReach, and particularly with a new and evolving technology like drones.
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Dauda Majanbu is trying to solve a complicated problem: delivering family planning supplies to rural health centers in Nigeria. It’s a problem that requires collaboration while also expertly managing resources and expectations. As the lead for the Family Planning Access for Women project at VillageReach, Dauda works with the government and partners to strengthen last mile distribution systems for contraceptive, maternal and neonatal health commodities in two Nigerian states.
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