Health eVillages Continues Mission to Save Lives and Improve Global Health Outcomes

Health eVillages Continues Mission to Save Lives and Improve Global Health Outcomes

Date: May 4, 2021

Work to support vulnerable populations now in its 10^th year

Marlborough, Mass. – (May 4, 2021) – Health eVillages (HeV), now in its 10^th year, continues to move the needle on improving global health, while forging new partnerships in 2021 that expand access to high quality healthcare and services to support vulnerable populations.

Founded in 2011 by global healthcare activist, philanthropist and author, Donato Tramuto, HeV provides mobile medical and training resources to healthcare professionals working in underserved communities, including in Haiti, East Africa, and the United States and addresses healthcare and social challenges, including infant and maternal mortality, tropical diseases, preventive healthcare, human trafficking and social injustice.

The 2021 approved Grants program represents continued work with partners like the Lwala Community Alliance (Kenya), Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Italia, and St. Joseph’s College of Maine, to new initiatives with the Center for Grieving Children (Portland, ME), Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti, Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps  (Lancaster, MA), and Thistle Farms (Nashville, TN), Health eVillages continues to collaborate around the world to “Heal-the-Villages” and advance access to high quality healthcare while supporting programs that focus on creating communities of equality, respect  and compassion.

Since its founding in 2011, Health eVillages empowered healthcare providers by providing lifesaving digital tools including nearly 1000 tablets and iPads with 65,000+ important lifesaving medical apps and titles, subsequently delivering care to communities in 14 countries across 63 different project sites. These digital tools are used to diagnose and treat patients, to provide health education to patients and to train healthcare providers.

“Health eVillages was created after learning that one billion people will go to their graves in our lifetime due to never having seen a medical professional – six million are children who die each year because they have no access to a medical professional, clean water, or medications.  It was not in my DNA to stand by and do nothing,” Tramuto said. “Hence, Health eVillages was my response to address this issue by helping people gain access to high quality healthcare both here in the US and in some of the poorest and most remote regions of the world. I recognize we will not be able to reduce one billion to zero, but I’d like to think that together we are moving the needle.”

The list of new HeV funding partnerships in 2021 include:

Center for Grieving Children:

Since 1987, as the third children’s grief support program in the country, the Center for Grieving Children has grown from serving four families with 12 volunteers, to becoming a national leader in the field of grieving children. Offering services for free as long as they are needed, the Center’s mission is to provide loving support that encourages the safe expression of grief and loss, and foster an individual’s resilience and emotional wellbeing. The Intercultural program created healing communities for refugee and immigrant elementary and middle school-aged children who have resettled from home countries experiencing war, persecution and natural disaster.  Last year, the Center served 42 students in its Intercultural program with children representing 11 countries and eight languages.

The Center was forced to cancel large fundraising events due to COVID-19 experienced diminished contributions from corporate partners who were themselves financially impacted by the pandemic. Funding from HeV will help to keep the intercultural program in operation while the Center continues to operate now-virtual peer support groups, webinars and phone and email support services to some of Maine’s most vulnerable children.

Children’s Nutrition Program (CNP) of Haiti:

CNP of Haiti’s mission is to help raise a healthy generation of Haitian children, who in turn can raise Haiti from poverty. For more than 20 years, the organization has provided Haitian-led solutions to fight malnutrition and its underlying causes. Throughout its partnership with HeV, CNP will build the capacity and technical skills to develop a technology infrastructure that will help deliver improved outcomes for the children in this program and the communities served by CNP. This includes equipping healthcare providers with tablets that will ensure malnourished children receive a unified, higher standard of care. Equipping nutrition workers with tablets will help to ensure accurate data is collected from communities, as well as provide innovative ways to deliver educational content that is critical to preventing malnutrition.

Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps:

Founded in 1969, following the death of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, RFKCAC is a leader in child welfare and juvenile justice, operating a number of programs and services for at-risk youth and their families in Massachusetts. One of its most important programs is the Detention Diversion Advocacy Program, an alternative to court-ordered detention, providing young people with community-based support and supervision.  DDAP diverts minority youth from pre-trial detention and keeps them in their schools and communities.  Since the program’s inception in 2005, DDAP has served over 1,000 children. Almost all children referred and accepted into the program are youth of color.

Funding from HeV will support the implementation of a mentoring program that will focus on youth who are successfully competed the Detention Diversion Advocacy Program (DDAP), but who are at risk of not sustaining the significant gains made through their participation in that program. By design, DDAP is a short-term program in partnership with the juvenile courts in Hampden and Suffolk counties in Massachusetts, but many youth require additional long-term mentoring and support. This mentoring program will build on DDAP’s track record of success and address an identified gap in services by providing needed longer-term mentoring that can put these youth on a positive path forward. The funding will enable RFKCAC to establish the core if the mentoring program through the hiring of a full-time mentor.

Thistle Farms:

Human trafficking is a global issue where women suffering from dehumanizing poverty are the most vulnerable to trafficking in all its forms. The work of Thistle Farms Global focuses on communities of artisan survivors who are part of these vulnerable populations.  Thistle Farms’ activities are focused on what the organization knows will lead to lasting individual and community change, including returning 60 percent of retail profits to artisan survivors and providing ongoing product development and business support that will allow them to reach a broader retail market.

Through the partnership with HeV, Thistle Farms Global will be able to expand its Shared Trade program for women by tracking and documenting through annual surveys and reports how shared trade is making a difference in communities; honoring the craftsmanship of artisan survivors through Thistle Farms’ marketing channels; creating quarterly opportunities for Shared Trade partners to participate in collaborative learning through the Shared Trade Network, creating two new partnerships to create exclusive custom products for Thistle Farms customer, and hiring and expanding the Global Shared Trade programmatic team headquartered in Nashville, TN. 

HeV Operating Partners:

HeV operates with the generous support of four primary sponsors –Cherish Health, Promerica Health, Sharecare, and the Tramuto Foundation, with the support of its Board, individual contributors and in-kind donations from Skyscape.  Sharecare is partnering with The Institute for Integrative Aging (IIA) at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine, using Sharecare’s Well-Being Index to better understand the needs of older adults as they pertain to wellness, engagement, lifelong learning and residential living.

In addition to their sponsorship, Promerica Health is also distributing a post-COVID loneliness assessment. This survey will look at 1000 individuals across the country and examine the deep impact that COVID-19 has had on our social and emotional health.

“Health eVillages could not continue this critically important work both here in the United States and internationally without the generous contributions of our sponsors,” Tramuto said. “Their financial support allows Health eVillages to expand our efforts to better the lives of some of the most disenfranchised people in the world. Any success we have achieved would not be possible without their dedication to our mission to make the world more compassionate and fair.”

Health eVillages:

Since 2011, Health eVillages, a global non-profit organization, collaborates to advance healthcare access and to improve the quality of care by providing state-of-the-art mobile health technology including medical reference and clinical decision support tools, as well as other community-focused resources, to medical and public health professionals in the most challenging clinical environments around the world. Hev partners include Cherish Health, Promerica, Sharecare, the Tramuto Foundation, Skyscape, Global Impact,and more. You can find more information at http://www.healthevillages.org and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.