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3 Years In: What Happened, Why, and What's Next

2022-11-15 · announcement · John · 7:22 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Global development · mode: Announcements · tags: fundraising ask, self promotion, heavy topic

Formerly titled 3 Years In to Our Biggest Project: What Happened, Why, and What's Next.

Three years into the community's project with Partners In Health in Kono, Sierra Leone, John reports it is on pace to raise over $35 million: the Maternal Center of Excellence is under construction, supported clinics are growing, child and maternal mortality are falling, and PIH is expanding with new partners, because progress is never inevitable but made by health workers and supporters.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — What happened: the $35 million pace, the Kono crisis, and the plan for the Maternal Center of Excellence

00:00:58 — What's happening: construction, teaching, supported clinics, the Kayima well, falling mortality

  • ★★ John recalls that in 2019 they committed to help PIH raise $25 million over five years to break ground, unsure how, but Nerdfighteria should never be underestimated. — 00:00:58 · Partners In Health, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ John reports that despite supply-chain challenges the Maternal Center of Excellence has begun construction, though it is a long way from finished. — 00:00:58 · Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★ John says Koidu Government Hospital is already becoming a teaching hospital: its first cohort of nurses and midwives recently finished rotations there, opening those careers to more people in the region. — 00:00:58 · Koidu Government Hospital
  • ★★ Having blown past the initial goal, the project has expanded to support several primary health care clinics in the region, including one in Kayima. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ John says Kayima had a huge outbreak of diarrhoeal illness this year (2022), one of the leading causes of death for children under five. — 00:01:27 · child mortality
  • ★★ Finding that neither the clinic nor the town had regular clean water, the PIH team drilled a well that now supplies both. — 00:01:56 · Partners In Health
  • ★★★ John says part of what makes PIH special is that it responds both to acute health crises and to their chronic underlying causes. — 00:01:56 · Partners In Health

00:02:26 — Why: progress is not inevitable; health workers and donors make it happen

  • ★★★ John says child mortality at the hospital has fallen by over half in just the last two years. — 00:02:26 · child mortality, Koidu Government Hospital
  • ★★ John says unsexy but critical system work, such as efficient warehousing and climate-controlled medicine storage, has improved the availability of everything from medicines to surgical gloves. — 00:02:26
  • ★★ John says maternal mortality is declining too, though it is still hundreds of times too high. — 00:02:26 · maternal death
  • ★★★ John says progress is never inevitable: this is happening because of the extraordinary commitment of Sierra Leone's health workers and because of supporters. — 00:02:55 · progress, Sierra Leone
  • ★★ John says thousands donate monthly at pih.org/hankandjohn, thousands more have given once, and around a hundred Nerdfighters give $2,000 to $100,000 a year so every dollar is matched. — 00:02:55 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★ John points to an unlisted video in the doobly-doo, which, wearing a suit, he renames the video info, for a full financial breakdown. (playful) — 00:02:55 · doobly-doo

00:03:24 — Socks and coffee as revenue: the Awesome Coffee Club's new light roast

  • ★★ John says the other really important revenue source for the project is socks and coffee. — 00:03:24 · Awesome Socks Club, Awesome Coffee Club
  • ★★★ John announces that starting today the Awesome Coffee Club offers a light roast, Calypso; its coffee is sent to your house and 100% of profits go to charity. — 00:03:24 · Awesome Coffee Club
  • ★ The roasts are named after butterflies of Sierra Leone: the classic medium-dark Octavia and the new light roast Calypso. — 00:03:24 · Awesome Coffee Club, Sierra Leone
  • ★★★ John says the most efficient way to donate is pih.org/hankandjohn, but if viewers buy socks and coffee anyway, why not for charity. — 00:03:53 · Partners In Health

00:04:22 — What's next: PIH's record, expansion to a neighbouring district, rising clinic use, falling maternal deaths

  • ★★ John says PIH has long fought for equity in health care: it proved multidrug-resistant tuberculosis treatable in poor communities and helped lead the push for antiretroviral therapy for people with HIV. — 00:04:22 · Partners In Health, tuberculosis, global health
  • ★★★ John says the project's biggest hope was that work in one region of one country could prove maternal and child mortality can be radically reduced everywhere and inspire other partners, which is starting to happen. — 00:04:22 · maternal death, child mortality
  • ★★★ John announces that PIH now works with Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health and the World Bank to strengthen the health system in Kailahun District, just south of Kono. — 00:04:52 · Partners In Health, Sierra Leone
  • ★★ Jon Lascher (quoted): PIH's Jon Lascher wrote to John that the community, now a shared community, has paved the way for more partners to join and for PIH to expand its work. — 00:04:52 · Nerdfighteria, Partners In Health
  • ★★ John says a stronger health system earns more trust and use: Sewafe's primary health centre saw 4,700 visits in 2019 and, as said, 4,700 in 2020. — 00:05:21
    • a number in question (doubtful): "4700" — check against the recording
  • ★★ John says over 95% of PIH Sierra Leone's employees are Sierra Leonean and live where they work, so they saw that the clinic lacked the staff, space, stuff and systems for good care. — 00:05:21 · Partners In Health, Sierra Leone
  • ★★★ John says that in 2021, after PIH began supporting it, the Sewafe clinic saw over 20,000 patients, a 500% increase on the year before. — 00:05:50 · Partners In Health
  • ★★ John says the clinic may see even more patients as it grows stronger, making this a critical time; they hope support will increase too. (hedged) — 00:05:50
  • ★★★ John says that when the project began three years ago 1 in 17 Sierra Leonean women could expect to die in pregnancy or childbirth; today it is fewer than 1 in 20, still much too high but real progress. — 00:06:19 · maternal death, Sierra Leone · also in: The Tea

00:06:49 — Closing ask and sign-off

  • ★★★ John says we can choose a world where maternal and child deaths are rare, and he really believes the community is helping bring it about. — 00:06:49 · maternal death, child mortality, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ John says even viewers who can't donate help: their attention and advocacy draw attention to the maternal and child mortality crises, which brings in big funding partners. — 00:06:49 · maternal death, child mortality

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Maternal Center of Excellence · maternal death · Partners In Health · Sierra Leone

Also: People: Jon Lascher

Projects: Awesome Coffee Club

Organizations: Koidu Government Hospital · Ministry of Health and Sanitation (Sierra Leone) · World Bank

Terms: doobly-doo

Concepts: antiretroviral therapy · butterfly · Caesarean section · child mortality · diarrhea · HIV/AIDS · primary health care · progress · tuberculosis

Places: Kailahun District · Kayima · Kono District · Sewafe

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