Dear friends,
As we move forward in this pandemic, in the midst of all the bad news, there is one thing that gives me hope every day. It is the goodness in humanity and the deepest desire in people’s hearts to do good.
This year, at Health4theWorld our community grew to 122 countries. This global movement works tirelessly to save more lives during this ongoing pandemic every day.
As we look back at this year, I would like to share how some hopeful solutions helped in spite of all the odds and saved lives. Many areas of the world which we serve lack health resources. As we did our best to help, we also learned from people around the world. The resilience of the human spirit to overcome obstacles was never more apparent.
The work continues now with the Omicron variant. We will do our best to help with COVID-19 humanitarian aid in US and around the world and reliable health awareness which empowers more people to fight the pandemic. We will be holding live online information and Q & A sessions about Omicron with leading health experts from US and South Africa in January which will be announced soon.
I love reading “Book of Joy” with my daughter. We will miss Desmond Tutu. One of my favorite quotations by him is “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” We can together spread hope and help people around the world during this time.
Thanks for supporting this mission & to continue supporting, please donate using this link. This year, 95% of the expenses went towards Health4theworld programs. We also welcome volunteers as we are completely volunteer-driven. I am grateful to our Co-Founders Dr. Bill Dillon & Dr. Ankur Bharija, our wonderful team, chapters, donors, our colleagues, friends and the global community.
Hope you and your family stay safe. Wishing you a Happy, Joyous, and Healthy New Year!
2021 In Numbers
Health4theworld Academy Channel Views
Live Education Session Audience
Countries in our Global Community
Oxygen Concentrators Donated
Pulse Oximeters Donated
Countries sent PPE Donations
PPE Shortage and Hopeful Solutions
3D Printing at Health4theworld
Oxygen Shortage and Hopeful Solutions
Every human deserves to have access to lifesaving oxygen when they get sick with COVID.
Problem
Writing this makes me emotional! We weren’t expecting this. In April, we got news from hospitals in India that they were running out of oxygen due to the Delta surge. The rural sites transferred the patients to urban centers but even the advanced urban hospitals were running out of oxygen. We were speechless and heartbroken.
Hopeful solution:
With the help of many US physician colleagues, donors, and team members, we sent 110 oxygen concentrators to 32 urban and rural medical sites in India in 12 states. The first shipment was sent within a week.
The question was what about the people in the villages who didn’t have access to hospitals? To help them in collaboration with rural nonprofits, we donated 1,250 pulse oximeters. The villagers were trained to use pulse oximeters and report to their nearest health centers when oxygen saturation dropped.
This would not have been possible without the tireless 24/7 efforts from our dedicated community and physician colleagues here in the US and India, NGO partners on the ground, and partners at International Association for Human Values (IAHV). More about the initiative here in our June update.
Oxygen concentrators being shipped to India in early May.
COVID patient receives care at home (oxygen concentrators, pulse oximeters and face shields, sent to partnering NGO CanSupport) in outskirts of New Delhi
Donated Oxygen Concentrators being used by a rural critical access hospital near Chiplun, Maharashtra
Donated Oxygen Concentrator being used by a hospital in Lucknow
Donated Oxygen Concentrator being used by a hospital in Coimbatore
NGO Sangwari, distributing pulse oximeters (sent by H4TW) door to door and educating villagers from poor and marginalized communities in remote Chhattisgarh
A family receives supplies for home, including a home kit with masks, a pulse oximeter, thermometer, soaps, hand sanitizers, and basic medicines.
Health Misinformation and Hopeful Solutions
Problem:
COVID misinformation and vaccine awareness was a dominant problem around the world as well. Apart from public awareness, onsite medical education stopped in many countries, online education of health care professionals was needed.
Solution:
As a solution, Health4theworld COVID center interviewed experts and physicians from the frontlines to provide first-hand reliable information with scientific evidence as it was evolving. This also included physicians with diverse backgrounds from many different countries and topics such as pediatric manifestations of COVID, & sessions in Spanish as well.
Thanks to Health4theworld chapters in close to 60 academic hospitals and institutions who volunteered to teach. We did over 52 live grand rounds weekly this year in medicine, radiology and multiple subspecialties in medicine. A total of 11,929 people from 122 countries attended these live sessions. We also did interventional radiology weekly education with Road2IR.
The teaching sessions are uploaded on Health4theworld Academy and Health4theworld Academy YouTube channel, available at no cost to anyone. This year, the YouTube channel alone had 223,473 views.
Haiti Earthquake and Humanitarian Aid
Problem:
On August 4th, 2021, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit Haiti. More than 12,200 were injured. The hospital in Port Au Prince got patients from the south with pediatric and adult orthopedic emergencies. They were facing shortages of X-ray films, PPE etc. This hit in the middle of the pandemic.
Hopeful solution:
We quickly arranged funds, suppliers and sent X-ray films and PPE to the hospital within less than a week. These were immediately used for earthquake victims. We were in constant touch with the Chief of the hospital with evolving needs and assistance.
Many thanks to the donors, chapters and team members who helped with this mission.
Vaccine Volunteering and Awareness
To help support and manage high-volume vaccination sites and community clinics, our team worked to create a vaccination volunteering sign-up database so that people who would like to volunteer could help.
We are utilizing social media campaigns to share accurate information on vaccines and address hesitancy in the US and abroad in partnership with local NGOs and academic sites.
Global Community
This year, our community grew to colleagues in 122 countries. We also have close to 60 chapters in academic institutions and hospitals globally.
Donating by Check?
Recipient: Health4TheWorld
Mail to: P.O. Box 1232 Palo Alto, CA 94302
Please include your email when you send a check!
The Internal Revenue Service recognizes Health4TheWorld (H4TW) as a Section 501(c)(3) public charity. Gifts to H4TW are tax deductible in the US. Our Federal Tax ID/ EIN # is 81-4405671.
Using Donor Advised Funds?
Donor Advised Funds allow donors to make a charitable contribution, receive an immediate tax deduction, and then recommend grants from the fund over time.
Clients of Fidelity Charitable, Schwab Charitable, and BNY Mellon can easily make a designation through the DAF Direct page which can be accessed here or by clicking the button below.
Health4theworld USA’s tax I.D. number is 81-4405671.
Media Highlights
- Serving the Future and Expanding healthcare Worldwide. KMAX-TV. CBS Broadcasting, Inc. February 24th, 2021.
- UCSF doctor helping COVID-19 patients and health providers globally. KTVU. Fox TV Stations. February 24th, 2021
- Indian American doctor Bhavya Rehani to start Health4theWorld in 110 countries. YourStory, May 17th, 2021.
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