Meet Karungi Winnie - A Living Goods Success Story
Like many expectant mothers living in remote villages across Uganda, Karungi Winnie once faced the elevated risks of pregnancy without access to essential prenatal care. Thanks to Living Goods’ community health program, Karungi and her daughter now enjoy regular check-ins and reliable, affordable health services.
As an expectant mother in a remote Ugandan village, Karungi Winnie once lacked access to reliable health services and, like many other expectant mothers of her village, faced an elevated risk of severe complications during pregnancy and labor.
Karungi found the prenatal care she needed when Living Goods began to provide free medical training and services to her village. Living Goods’ Community Health Worker (CHW) program equips members of the local community with the digital tools, training, medication, supervision and compensation necessary to provide first-line support to pregnant women and children below five years.
When we met Karungi during our visit to her village earlier this year, she shared how Community Health Workers would regularly check in with her throughout her pregnancy and provide free prenatal care. With the help of the nutritional advice, prenatal supplements and regular health checks she received through Living Goods, Karungi Winnie delivered a happy, healthy baby girl.
More than 3 million children die annually from treatable conditions like pneumonia, diarrhea, and malaria because of geographical inaccessibility, poor supply chains, insufficient follow-ups and referrals, and low-quality drugs. One in three families loses a child before his or her fifth birthday and more than half the world’s population does not have access to basic health care.
Karungi is just one of many mothers who have benefited from community health programs, which play a fundamental role in delivering universal healthcare, by offering a more cost-effective and impactful alternative to facility-based care.
Your support for Living Goods can help ensure that other vulnerable mothers and children receive access to the essential medical services they need and deserve.
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More about Living Goods
Living Goods supports and trains local community health workers in Burkina Faso, Kenya and Uganda, the majority of whom are women, to deliver lifesaving medicines, health education, diagnoses, and health products to millions of people who need them. They focus especially on preventing and treating the leading causes of child deaths.
The problem: a shortage of frontline health workers and inadequate distribution of health products and knowledge
Half of the world lacks access to essential health care. [1] Many health care systems — particularly in developing countries — are chronically under-funded, under-stocked, and understaffed. On average, there are 2.3 health workers per 1,000 people in Africa, compared to 24:1,000 in the United States.
The solution: community health workers
Living Goods aims to transform the way health care is delivered by addressing two fundamental barriers in sub-Saharan Africa: the significant shortage of frontline health workers and the inadequate distribution of health products and knowledge. Supporting community health workers (CHWs) to provide reliable and affordable health care – along with essential medicines and products to the doorsteps of millions – saves and improves lives.
