52% of the world cannot access essential health services. That’s 3.7 billion people. reach52 is a tech social enterprise working relentlessly to connect with those who lack accessible and affordable health services. Innovations in Healthcare sat down with Logan Ansell, Vice President, Partnerships at reach52, to discuss reach52’s journey and goals for the future.
reach52 is driven by the enormous gap in accessible health services, particularly in low and middle-income countries. Powered by their ‘offline-first’ reach52 access platform, their networks of community agents and public-private sector partnerships are delivering health services in the markets others don’t reach. 95% of these agents are female, utilizing a community outreach approach. They provide a range of services focusing on health promotion engagement and events, community health screening, community health worker upscaling, and referrals to care.
reach52's current projects
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In Cambodia, reach52 is working in partnership with Sanofi and Medtronic LABS, focusing on Noncommunicable Diseases. Their chronic disease management approach focuses particularly on diabetes.
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reach52 has a series of projects in cooperation with Johnson & Johnson, with the mutual goal of upscaling one million community health workers by 2030. This project works with existing government community health workers to provide both in-person and remote training and upscaling opportunities.
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reach52 is expanding their range of offerings in noncommunicable diseases, maternal and child health, and COVID-19 support. They also look forward to working in the space of mental health.
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In Kenya, reach52 is working in partnership with Bayer on a malnutrition screening project that will uptrain and recruit training on sixteen hundred community health workers in rural and remote communities.
Challenges faced by reach52
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It has been quite challenging to recruit top talent for reach52, given the tight labor market across the globe. People are the organization. Bringing in people who align with the mission and values of reach52, and are passionate about engaging rural populations that lack access to health, has always been of great importance.
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Fundraising continues to be a challenge for reach52. Bringing on investors and aligning them with reach52’s vision and unique model is another challenge.
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As an organization at a smaller scale with limited resources, bringing on government partners has been a key challenge. reach52 works to align with publicly funded health systems and growth partners to support their strategies and aims with reach52’s work.
reach52’s future goals
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reach52 is working to align with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, particularly 3 (good health and wellbeing), 5 (gender equality), and 8 (decent work and economic growth), in order to support the goals of Universal Health Coverage by 2030.
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reach52 has an organizational target of impacting and engaging three hundred million rural people who lack access to health services, by 2030.
“It may be cliché, but you really need to be passionate about doing this work. It becomes challenging, as while working in a health space things move extraordinarily slow. You need to be incredibly patient and temper your expectations. There are always going to be setbacks as things don’t always move in a linear path and you need to make peace with that.” -Logan Ansell, Vice President Partnerships, reach52
To access the full interview with Logan Ansell, visit our YouTube page. Learn more about their impactful work on our website.