Touch achieving real and lasting impact
Our inaugural program in Tanzania represents more than it may seem. Our 548 medical and paramedical students will have enorMOUs impact on the health and lives of the Tanzanian people once they graduate – but their real impact will be even greater.
These students are a microcosm of a broader movement. At Touch, we are fast becoming central to a new wave of thinking, which is focused on maximizing advances for global health. This wave is harnessing energies from a variety of sources, more of which are converging to tackle health crises now than at any other time in history.
In addition to traditional players in the field of international development (such as governments, intergovernmental bodies like the United Nations, and nongovernmental organizations) a group of corporate and private philanthropists, like Joan and Sandy Weill, have emerged and are radically altering the landscape of global health and development. Contributing significant financial resources as well as strategies, expertise, and innovative technologies honed in the for-profit world, corporate and private philanthropists are bringing new momentum to fighting some of the world's most critical problems.
Our work in Tanzania seems to be one of the first practical examples of how these forces can achieve results. Today’s headlines highlight the work of the new global philanthropy: the Gates Foundation and Warren Buffet’s support for them; the philanthropic initiative by Google’s founders; George Soros’ commitment to help eliminate poverty with his pledge to the Millennium Promise; the success of the Clinton Global Initiative in motivating people to tackle the world’s most difficult problems.
Not only are these initiatives attracting attention because of their magnitude, but also because of their innovative nature and commitment to meeting needs that have been overlooked in the past. The new wave of philanthropy is not just more, it’s different.
As the new and traditional forces of international philanthropy join together, exciting achievements have been made for global health, including increased treatment access, investments in medical research, and improved equipment and technologies. But while all of these advances are essential to alleviating health crises across the globe, without a sustainable source of highly trained human resources for health (HRH) who can put these new resources to use, the equation remains incomplete.
And that’s where we come in. By partnering with the rising forces of private philanthropy, we at Touch are ensuring that the HRH piece of the equation is addressed so that solutions can, and will, be achieved.
We believe that by developing local capacity to solve the crisis in HRH by producing and retaining skilled health workers in developing countries, we are initiating an organic process that will sustain itself, and the countries in which we work, long into the future.
In Tanzania, at the Bugando complex, we are providing funding and management resources to accelerate the development of a first class medical and teaching facility. By empowering Tanzania to produce the doctors and health workers it desperately needs, we are ensuring that at least one nation will be able to take advantage of the other exciting advances in global health, thus safeguarding the health of its citizens and its future development.
We are grateful for the support you give us, encouraging and enabling us to act.