Walk With Me

When I started working with refugees, I was shocked to learn that less than 5% of all funds raised globally help with education and healthcare combined. I decided to make those my top priority. As a Tying Vines Inc. board member, I launched projects under the title: Walk With Me.

This project title had a unique meaning; I wanted to build a network of partners who would walk with me on the journey to help refugees, providing assistance in specific areas of expertise. In 2015 we launched a small medical clinic in Jordan, serving a remote area of approximately 30,000 refugees.

Shortly before the launch of our second medical clinic in Lebanon, I met Brian de Francesca, Chief Executive Officer at Ver2 Digital Medicine. Brian is one of those smart, Johns Hopkins education experts who specializes in digitalization and connectivity to improve healthcare. He joined me and a small group of doctors on a trip to the Beqaa Valley to assess healthcare needs of refugees. The healthcare need in the camps was overwhelming. We called our small team, Real Sustainable Impact, and we began to dream of a way to bring more efficient and more effective care to refugees in remote areas. It was there the vision to connect 700 refugee camps world-wide was born.

As we’ve grown from one small clinic, to more than 15 projects in six countries, it’s incredibly apparent that we need help. Often, access to resources and lab work can be a huge issue in the isolated areas where we work. We need simple tools that connect us to the world, especially for remote war-torn areas.

I think it’s pretty clear when we talk about the needs of refugees, an IT system isn’t anything that comes to mind. For those of us who work on the front-lines, we know that many other things take priority, like safe drinking water, shelter, and food. However, it’s incredibly apparent to me that simple IT systems will allow us to exponentially improve the quality of healthcare for refugees.

Our clinic might staff a general practitioner, but with the Iryo and Ver2 partnerships, we can now link patients with specialized care in almost any area. This transforms on-the-ground care, while keeping costs low, and facilitating opportunities for medical professionals and education experts to help from anywhere in the world; an incredible way to walk with us on the journey.

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