At the risk of interrupting our usual debates about religion and food...
Lee Thorn founded the Jhai foundation many years ago. He's struggled with it alone and with help, as
a personal mission. He's accomplished some great things, and the organization seems to be on a
positive trajectory.
Now, he's trying to "give it away" - to find partners who will take it over and carry it forward. I
strongly suspect that one or two of those people might be on this list.
Here's a portion of his last missive. There are links that will lead you to further knowledge about
what they've done and what they're intending.
Best,
chris
--- Begin forwarded text ---
I have news and two ways to partner with us. This message is relatively short, but is also
particularly dense. Most importantly and as you know we work for mothers and children like these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm9CEhx5yqw
*News*
1. The San Francisco Chronicle "Newsmaker" piece on Jhai came out today:
*Pedal powered-PC project expands*
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/20/BAQT1898F0.DTL&plckFindCommentKey=CommentKey:8f9c494d-959b-4b89-b9cf-e51e331b8432
We are up-and-running with new JhaiPCs in Laos with an off-grid high school computer lab since 5/08
in Phonsavath and a telemedicine project (1st stage) in Phon Kham.
2. A couple of days ago a more detailed article on the McKinsey Healthcare site appeared about our
partner Neurosynaptic's efforts in India.
*Advancing rural telemedicine: An interview with Sameer Sawarkar*
http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com/health_care/advancing-rural-telemedicine-an-interview-with-sameer-sawarkar
What is different about Sameer's main Indian project as compared to Jhai's projects elsewhere, is
that this Indian project is led by World Health Partners (WHP) www.worldhealthpartners.org and uses
a private ownership model for sustainability designed specifically for India. We are are a junior
partner there and I am greatly impressed by WHP's huge intelligence in this project. In Vietnam and
elsewhere we will be using a Jhai-designed sustainability model developed first in Laos 11 years ago
and improved over the years in collaboration with many parties, but most importantly Neurosynaptic
and World Health Partners.
3. What is not covered in either article is our new efforts to layer telemedicine with public health
surveillance. More on this later.
*Partnering*
1. Nothing happens without money. We need individual donors, corporate donors and institutional
donors to help us in least developed countries. Least developed countries have by definition little
money, less developed infrastructure and often lots of hunger and illness. Individual donors who
can sponsor in places like these are key for us, since they can help stabilize our organization as
we transition to younger leadership. Please contact me about giving.
2. In each new country we prefer to partner on the ground with the government and/or with a leading
ngo that has experience in ICT and health in the best cases. We certainly prefer experienced
organizations that are ICT-savvy and work in the health sector or integrated rural development
sector. We can bring our international experience and equipment set to the table, but local
experience is key - not only in government relations, but also and especially in fundraising as well
as in local implementation. In Viet Nam, for example, we have partnered with East Meets West
Foundation www.eastmeetswest.org , a very large ngo with over 20 years of experience in the country.
It helped that I knew the organization well. We appreciate that you vet us and we will vet you.
Please contact me if you are interested in this kind of project.
*An old African Proverb*
I just heard yesterday that the UN is saying, now, that hunger has increased 11% this last year
world wide and has now reached 1.02 BILLION people. This amounts to one in six people on Earth.
This must be met structurally, not primarily in terms of (actually expensive) hand-outs. There is an
old African Proverb:
"We know a man by his deeds."
Many of you have followed this list for years and all of you are on this list by your own choice.
You know we do effective solutions at low cost using 'best practices' technology. What does
telemedicine have to do with hunger? Everything. What does advanced (albeit low cost) technology
have to do with hunger? Hunger robs people of their productivity and their health. Hungry babies
get sick and die and the whole family mourns and loses productivity. We are all humans. We know
what these things do to families. Take a leap of faith and support us NOW. There is no better time.
