About Us  //  Our Philosophy: Equal Health for All

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We recognize that the health of the poor is inextricably linked to social and economic inequalities that promote vicious cycles of disease, poverty and violence. By developing, implementing and advocating for comprehensive, community-based healthcare for the poor we aim to tackle these inequalities. Our aim is to promote virtuous social cycles:

Direct delivery of healthcare services will be our chief priority. We will seek and serve the poorest rural communities. Our commitment to them will be assessed based on long-term engagement – measured over decades, not years. Improved health outcomes among the poor will be the yardstick by which we judge our success.

No person will be considered “untreatable” and no condition “too complex to treat.” We will remain critical of prevailing paradigms – such as cost-effectiveness – in public health. We will treat all patients with dignity and respect, caring for them as if they were members of our own families. Care for complex, chronic illnesses such as HIV, depression and heart disease will be as aggressively pursued as treatment for acute conditions like malaria and obstetric emergencies.

Building on a pillar of healthcare, we will listen to the poor retell their experiences – their struggles, their truths. We will strive to learn about their competing survival needs. Through home visits, narratives, and participatory methods we will collectively uncover the roots of their maladies.

Working along side the poor, we will design and implement comprehensive, pro-poor models of healthcare. Community health workers will feature at the forefront of our efforts. They will receive fair compensation for their commitment to serve and accompany the destitute sick.

Economic barriers to care will be abolished. User fees will be eliminated and our interventions will address poverty and its associated maladies of malnutrition, limited transportation and illiteracy.

We will seek to demonstrate the effectiveness of our models through quantitative and qualitative research. Employing participatory ethnographic, epidemiologic and operations research, we will compulsively document and disseminate the findings of our work in the scientific and popular literature.

Effective healthcare models will be expanded through direct implementation as well as advocacy for similar programs and policies globally.

Health is a human right and should be enshrined as a collective good. The public sector is well positioned to deliver sustainable healthcare to the poorest populations. We will work closely with the public health sector to adopt and disseminate effective models of care.

Health cannot be achieved without advancing other social and economic rights. We will integrate our healthcare services with broader efforts to achieve social justice. This will include building socio-medical centers engaged in promoting access to education, employment and agricultural assistance.