Caring For The Most People. Making The Biggest Impact.

Early on, the LifeNet team set its sites on solving the daunting health care issues that have existed in Africa for generations. With obstacles at so many levels—training, supplies, distribution, etc.—the problem seemed insurmountable, until the team posed a fairly simple question: “How do we improve the lives of the most people in Africa?” The answer was to focus on the aspects of the African health system that currently work but have the potential to work better. The next step was to take a closer look at the landscape. What the team found was that 80% of the people in Africa live on about 20% of the land. And, just as important, 80% of the deaths are caused by 20% of the problems. This revelation was the team’s “a-ha” moment. With this knowledge, they knew that they could have the biggest impact by focusing first on the few regions where the majority of people lived and second on the few problems that were most devastating, in other words, by working to cure the most common causes of deaths in urban and peri-urban settings. By partnering with clinics that were already having an impact in their region, and helping them to improve capacity, quality of care and inventory of critical pharmaceuticals, early successes were achieved. This philosophy continues to fuel the LifeNet strategy. Today, the organization is exploring new regions in which to expand its partner network, sharing their expertise everywhere they find partners who can benefit from what LifeNet has to offer.