Success Story: Possible
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Success Story: Possible


Possible is a non-profit health care company that delivers high-quality, low-cost healthcare to the world's poor, and is one of The Life You Can Save's recommended charities. This month's Success Story gives you a glimpse into the life changing health care services Possible provides through community clinics in rural Nepal. To read this story in full and to learn more about Possible's cost-effective and high-quality health services, visit www.possiblehealth.org.

By Possible

Before she turned one, Priyanka Bhul fell forward into a cooking fire in her home. She stopped her fall with her right hand, and as a result, developed severe burns. Had Priyanka lived with access to a health care system, she would have immediately been sent to a hospital for burn treatment. Instead, Priyanka suffered immense pain, her burn went untreated, and it developed into a contracture – a painful and restrictive tightening of the skin around her hand. Every day for 11 years she lived in pain and was unable to study, write, or eat the way she had hoped.

One day, after over 4,000 days with this painful, treatable condition preventing her from pursuing her dream of becoming a teacher, Priyanka visited Possible’s hospital in rural Nepal. Because she was enrolled in their crowdfunding program, Possible published her story on Watsi, and 24 donors from around the world funded her surgery in 3 days. Just 25 days after her treatment was crowdfunded, she received a life-changing surgery that loosened the skin on her hand. Now Priyanka is busy literally re-writing her future, pursuing her dream to become a teacher.

“Priyanka’s story proves you can deliver complex care to people in rural, isolated places. And it shows crowdfunding is much more than a new funding source. The transparency crowdfunding demands led us to develop the first national referral care network of its kind in Nepal. No matter how good a rural healthcare system is, some patients will need referral outside of that system. Now we have a method to do that, and this model can be replicated around the world.”

− Dr. Duncan Maru, Co-Founder & Chief Programs Officer

Possible is pioneering a new approach called “durable healthcare” that brings together the best of private, public, and philanthropic models. Since 2008, Possible has treated over 167,000 patients in rural Nepal with a high-quality, low-cost health care system that integrates government hospitals, clinics, community health workers, and referral care. Possible pursues long-term durability by employing and training local health care providers as well as non-clinical staff. Within Nepal, their staff is 98% Nepali. It’s the model most adept at providing equitable health care to the poor in the places where such health care is hardest to find.

To learn more about how you can contribute to Possible's mission, visit www.possiblehealth.org


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About the author:

Claire Knowlton

Claire Knowlton, President of the Board for The Life You Can Save, is an independent auditor of not-for-profit organizations in the United States. She shares her Los Angeles apartment with a physicist, a fluffy cat, and a window garden.

The views expressed in blog posts are those of the author, and not necessarily those of Peter Singer or The Life You Can Save.