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  • >> JOHN: Good morning, Hank. It's Tuesday.

  • So over the next five years, our families are donating six-and-a-half million dollars to Partners In Health Sierra Leone.

  • Also, we need your help, but more on that in a moment.

  • When I was in Sierra Leone earlier this year, I spent a day with a community health worker named Ruth,

  • who works for Partners In Health making house calls to people living with serious illnesses like tuberculosis or HIV.

  • Ruth makes sure her patients are able to take their medications and refers them to a clinic if they need further care

  • and also she can help identify high-risk pregnancies, which is critical in Sierra Leone

  • because it has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world.

  • One in seventeen women in Sierra Leone will die in pregnancy or childbirth.

  • One in seventeen.

  • Like many people, Ruth's education was interrupted by the Sierra Leonean Civil War, which lasted from 1991 to 2002.

  • During those years, she also contracted HIV, and she nearly died before access to antiretroviral therapy allowed her

  • to recover her health and in turn to find a job with PIH where she can care for her family and serve her community.

  • Today, Ruth is paid a living wage by Sierra Leonean standards, but she is far from well off.

  • And at one point, Sarah and I were walking away to visit some other PIH employees when I happened

  • to glance back and see Ruth slip the equivalent of $2 to one of her patients,

  • a mother who was struggling to feed her kids a second meal that day.

  • The family was also being enrolled in a nutritional support program run by PIH,

  • but Ruth wanted to make sure that they could eat THAT day.

  • And I want to be clear about this: It required far more sacrifice and compassion for Ruth

  • to make that donation than it does for our family to make this one.

  • But we're talking about our gift publicly today in the hopes of bringing attention to the many healthcare workers like Ruth

  • who need to be supported by more robust systems in order to address the maternal and child mortality crises in Sierra Leone.

  • And I do mean crises. This is an emergency.

  • Ten percent of Sierra Leonean children do not live to see their fifth birthday,

  • and 3000 women in Sierra Leone will die in pregnancy or childbirth this year.

  • They will die of hemorrhaging, that any well-stocked hospital could easily address.

  • They die because there is no electricity to keep the lights on during nighttime deliveries

  • or to keep blood for transfusions refrigerated.

  • Or they die because there is no running water, which makes it difficult to sanitize tools and prevent infection.

  • They die for want of medications or for want of surgical gloves.

  • Or they will die because they need a C-section, and in Sierra Leone,

  • needing a Caesarean section is often a life-threatening emergency.

  • A woman delivering at home or at a local clinic who needs a C-section will usually find that there is no ambulance

  • to take her to the hospital, and so her best chance will be a long ride, dying on the back of a motorbike.

  • This is an emergency. But because it is an emergency that has unfolded over many years, it doesn't receive much attention.

  • Also, the solution isn't simple? Like it isn't ambulances, or clean water, or electricity, or more healthcare workers.

  • It's ambulances AND clean water AND electricity AND more healthcare workers AND much else.

  • Systemic, long-term problems demand systemic, long-term solutions.

  • And that's what Partners In Health is really good at. Working with them over the last 10 years,

  • our community has seen their success at helping to build healthcare systems in impoverished communities from Haiti to Rwanda.

  • And now in partnership with the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Health, they are crafting a plan to strengthen

  • every facet of the healthcare system, beginning in the Kono District.

  • That means hiring far more community health workers like Ruth, who can make house calls

  • to people with high-risk pregnancies and those living with chronic illnesses.

  • It means strengthening primary care centers so that they can become safe places to deliver babies and receive basic care.

  • And it also means the building and support of a Maternal Center of Excellence at Koidu Government Hospital,

  • which will have a NICU and more operating rooms for C-sections

  • and also serve as a teaching hospital that can train the next generation of Sierra Leonean healthcare workers.

  • Ninety-six percent of PIH Sierra Leone's employees are Sierra Leonean, and I have seen what they've been able

  • to accomplish through their commitment to their patients, even with extremely limited resources.

  • Hank and I are not experts, but we have spent the last several years learning from lots of experts.

  • And in that process, we've come to understand that lasting change happens best through deep, ongoing, lasting partnerships.

  • Which is why we're making a long-term commitment to PIH Sierra Leone, not just with our money but also with our attention.

  • We're committed to following the successes and challenges of this project over the next five years and hopefully beyond

  • through video and photo and audio updates, and also through interviews with Sierra Leonean healthcare workers.

  • Okay, so before we get to the money part of this, there's one more thing I want to discuss.

  • I'm often asked, "Why Sierra Leone?"

  • And to me, there are many answers to that question.

  • The Ministry of Health in Sierra Leone is committed to making systemic change,

  • and PIH's deep connections in Kono allow it to help make that change.

  • But also by locating this project in the world's epicenter of maternal death,

  • Partners In Health hopes to show that radically reducing maternal mortality in poor communities is not like some pipe dream.

  • It's a global imperative.

  • And just as PIH has led the charge to expand access to treatment for HIV and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis,

  • with this project, they aim to show the world that strengthening healthcare systems

  • in impoverished communities isn't just possible. It's necessary and can be replicated around the world.

  • Alright, the money. So to staff, support, and supply the Maternal Center of Excellence, primary care centers,

  • and a broader network of community health workers in Kono over the next five years,

  • we need to raise about 25 million dollars in total.

  • The good news is that we are already over halfway there.

  • In addition to our 6.5 million dollars, Partners In Health has secured several big donations.

  • But we still need to raise a little over a million dollars per year, which I realize is a lot of money.

  • Generous folks from within Nerdfighteria have already come together to build a matching fund of $120,000 per year.

  • So every dollar you donate will be matched up to that amount. Thank you so much to our matching donors.

  • If you can donate $5 a month or $10 a month or even more, it will make a HUGE difference.

  • You can donate right now at pih.org/hankandjohn.

  • Partners In Health is known for its efficiency and effectiveness, and I have seen how much a few dollars can mean in Kono.

  • Ruth's donation showed me that.

  • Also, your donation now can have a lasting impact because when moms don't die in childbirth,

  • their kids are more likely to go to school, less likely to be malnourished, and more likely to live a healthy life into adulthood.

  • In the months since I've returned from Sierra Leone, I have often thought of Ruth and what might have happened

  • if she hadn't gotten access to antiretroviral therapy. Not just the children who would've been robbed of a mother,

  • but also the community that would've been robbed of a generous and deeply committed advocate.

  • It is unacceptable that thousands of women will die in childbirth in Sierra Leone this year

  • and that thousands more people will die of illnesses we know are treatable, from typhoid to tuberculosis.

  • That is unacceptable, and we don't have to accept it.

  • So I really hope you will consider joining us in donating at pih.org/hankandjohn.

  • And finally, having asked you for money, I need to ask you for something else as well:

  • your attention, the most valuable commodity of all.

  • Even if you can't donate, please know that paying attention to the big, structural challenges of poverty really matters

  • because we only address the injustices we see.

  • So thank you for being here and for your attention.

  • Again, the link to donate is pih.org/hankandjohn.

  • Hank, I'll see you on Friday.

  • P.S. So many people over the last year-and-a-half have helped us get to this moment, and I am grateful to all of them,

  • but I especially want to thank Andrew, John, Ruth, and Dr. Barrie at PIH

  • and also Niki Hua and Rosianna Halse Rojas on our side of things.

  • Also, huge thanks to the Life's Library community and our extraordinarily generous matching donors.

  • If you are in a position to donate $2,000 or more to this project and would like to learn more about joining the matching team,

  • you can email me at sparksflyup (at) gmail (dot) com.

  • I will be in comments to answer your questions. Thank you. pih.org/hankandjohn.

  • Or pih.org/johnandhank also works.

>> JOHN: Good morning, Hank. It's Tuesday.

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