Partners In Health maternal health project in Liberia funded by DFTBA profit (2019)
project history · status: completed · last event: outcome (2025-05-13) · last mentioned: 2026-02-24
In February 2019 Hank pledged most of DFTBA.com's after-tax profit to Partners In Health for maternal health work in Liberia. By April John was visiting Sierra Leone with Partners In Health, and the brothers said long-term support for Sierra Leone's health care would be the biggest project the channel had taken on.
Parts: John asks viewers to sign up for the new newsletter about the Sierra Leone project (2019) · John asks viewers for title ideas for the Partners In Health Sierra Leone project and Hank's sequel (2019)
Told alongside: John asks viewers to donate to Partners In Health at pih.org/hankandjohn (2019) · John (with Hank): follow the PIH Sierra Leone project for five years with video, photo and audio updates (2019) · John: at current monthly donation rates, the PIH Sierra Leone project will raise over $15 million in five years (2020) · Maternal Center of Excellence: the brothers' Partners In Health project in Sierra Leone (2019) · Nerdfighteria revenue (Pizzamas royalties, Life's Library proceeds) redirected to charity (2018) · John asks viewers to get Sarah's book You Are an Artist (2019) · John: Partners In Health will break ground on the Maternal Center of Excellence in spring 2021 (2020) · You Are an Artist: Sarah Urist Green's book (2019)
About: DFTBA Records, Partners In Health, Liberia, maternal death
| date | event | what | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-02-22 | proposed | With big goals for maternal health in Liberia with Partners In Health, Hank says DFTBA will give the vast majority of its after-tax profit to PIH for that project, with more information soon. | I Don't Want The Same Things Anymore 00:02:56 |
| 2019-04-05 | milestone | Hank says John is in Sierra Leone with Partners In Health, seeing how individuals and the whole community might help make life easier there, especially for pregnant people and babies. | TOO MANY MILKS 00:00:31 |
| 2019-04-09 | announced | In coming months and years John and Hank will focus on long-term support for Sierra Leone's health care system, by far the channel's biggest project: intimidating, but the need is immediate and critical. | The Only Psychiatric Hospital in Sierra Leone 00:05:30 |
| 2019-04-23 | milestone | Nerdfighteria's project with Partners In Health Sierra Leone will provide ongoing funding to improve the health care system there, because long-term problems need long-term solutions. | untitled 00:02:55 |
| 2019-10-22 | launched | John says about $25 million is needed over five years; with their $6.5 million and several big PIH donations they are over halfway, but still need a little over a million dollars a year. | Why We're Donating $6,500,000 00:05:44 |
| 2019-11-26 | milestone | John says over 3,000 viewers have joined the brothers in donating to strengthen Sierra Leone's healthcare system, and they are grateful and excited to watch the progress. | old fashioned parts video 00:02:08 |
| 2020-01-07 | milestone | John's biggest 2020 goal was to finish raising the $20 million Partners In Health needs to break ground on the Maternal Center of Excellence, which will greatly improve care for women and children in Sierra Leone. · also in: Looking Back at My 2020 Goals | Endings · Beginnings 00:00:48 |
| 2020-07-21 | milestone | John explains that the brothers are helping Partners In Health and Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health in a multi-year project to strengthen the healthcare system, focused on maternal mortality. | Somebody Once Asked . . . 00:01:28 |
| 2020-11-17 | milestone | John recalls that a year ago they announced a project supporting PIH and Sierra Leone's government in radically reducing maternal mortality, raising $25 million over five years to strengthen Kono's health system. | Our Biggest Project Yet: A One Year Update 00:00:00 |
| 2021-04-20 | milestone | Next week (week of 26 April 2021) Partners In Health and the Sierra Leonean government will officially break ground on the Maternal Center of Excellence and the expansion of Koidu Government Hospital, a huge step against maternal mortality. | Breaking Ground!!! 00:00:00 |
| 2022-11-15 | milestone | John says the community, working with Partners In Health, is now on pace to raise over $35 million in the first five years of the project to radically reduce maternal mortality in Sierra Leone. | 3 Years In: What Happened, Why, and What's Next 00:00:00 |
| 2025-05-13 | outcome | John says the facility would not exist without Nerdfighteria, which raised the literal majority of the funds needed. | I Have the BEST News 00:03:33 |
| 2026-02-24 | looked back | John says taking that risk has already paid off on a level none of their previous risks ever could. | Risk Is a Privilege 00:04:52 |
What is said about it
13 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).
- 2019-04-05 · TOO MANY MILKS — announcement: Hank says all of his and John's after-tax DFTBA profits will go to charity, probably to help do a project with Partners In Health. (hedged) — 00:01:15
- 2019-04-23 · untitled — ask: John asks viewers to suggest in the comments a title for the Partners In Health Sierra Leone project, or for Hank's sequel. — 00:02:55
- 2019-10-01 · Why Are Poor Countries Poor? — announcement: John says the brothers will make a big announcement later this month (October 2019) about working with Partners In Health Sierra Leone, and first considers why Sierra Leone is so poor. — 00:00:00
- 2019-10-01 · Why Are Poor Countries Poor? — announcement: The description says Hank and John have worked for a year and a half on a big, long-term project with PIH Sierra Leone, to be announced later this month (October 2019). — video description
- 2019-10-22 · Why We're Donating $6,500,000 — John: Answering 'Why Sierra Leone?', John says the Ministry of Health is committed to systemic change and PIH's deep connections in Kono let it help make that change. — 00:05:04
- 2019-10-22 · Why We're Donating $6,500,000 — John says that by locating the project in the world's epicentre of maternal death, PIH hopes to show that radically reducing maternal mortality in poor communities is a global imperative, not a pipe dream. — 00:05:13
- 2019-10-22 · Why We're Donating $6,500,000 — John says that just as PIH led the charge on treating HIV and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, it aims to show that strengthening health systems in poor communities is possible, necessary and replicable. — 00:05:26
- 2019-10-22 · Why We're Donating $6,500,000 — announcement: John says generous Nerdfighters have built a matching fund of $120,000 per year, so every dollar donated is matched up to that amount, and thanks the matching donors. — 00:06:13
- 2019-11-26 · old fashioned parts video — announcement: John says this year's (2019) P4A fundraising is entirely separate from the brothers' project with Partners In Health Sierra Leone announced a couple of months ago. — 00:02:01
- 2020-01-07 · Endings · Beginnings — John says they still need to raise a few million dollars, which he realizes is a lot of money. — 00:01:13
- 2020-07-21 · Somebody Once Asked . . . — John: The emergency department is running again; PIH has been deeply involved in contact tracing and screening across Sierra Leone, and cases are down 18% from their peak. — 00:01:56
- 2022-01-04 · After 15 Years on YouTube, THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING THING — John: In 2019 John's family made a long-term commitment to support Partners In Health's effort to radically reduce maternal mortality in Kono District, Sierra Leone. — 00:00:00
- 2026-04-14 · Babies. Babies. Babies. — John says mothers and children who could have died now survive every week in Kono, and the community has played a small but significant role. — 00:03:24