Global pharmaceutical, communications and technology companies - including BT - have joined together with the UN, governments and NGOs to launch the One Million Community Health Workers, 1MCHW, campaign to use communications technology to deliver significantly better healthcare to sub-Saharan Africa’s rural poor.
Through ICT-enabled healthcare solutions, community health workers will give people in rural areas access to sophisticated medical resources where there is little or no access to the most fundamental aspects of modern medicine. As well as providing basic treatments and preventative care, health workers will embrace the power of digital connections to keep track of disease outbreaks and overall public health, and offer a vital link between under-served people and the primary health care system.
The campaign aims to train, equip and deploy one million community health workers by the end of 2015. With more health workers, empowered with communications technology, the campaign wants to deliver systematic rural coverage of community healthcare support in Africa and prevent the deaths of two million people each year.
The one million community healthcare workers, 1MCHW, campaign was launched at the Global Citizen Festival in New York in September. Attended by UN Secretary Ban ki-Moon, the Festival headline acts attracted an audience of 60,000 to Central Park.
The aim of the annual event is to highlight key issues such as global poverty, global health and partnerships, with the aim of ending global extreme poverty in 2030.
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