Delivering the Goods

One person can make a difference when it comes to global health.

Here’s a great paradox in global health.  We possess the tools and the knowledge to prevent, treat or cure most of the deadliest diseases known to humankind.  And yet millions die every year because the benefits of modern medicine fail to reach them.  What are the obstacles and how do we overcome them?

To answer these questions, we examined four health delivery systems around the world.  In the Gambia, we profiled an organization that supplies fleets of off-road motorcycles that allow health workers to reach the most remote villages. In Chad, we visited a camp for Sudanese refuges and witnessed the efforts of Doctors Without Borders to provide basic care. In Thailand we profiled Senator Mechai Viravaidya who recognized the threat of the HIV to his country. He mounted an extraordinary national campaign to promote the use of condoms, and spared millions from infection. And finally, we featured the life-saving programs of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC). Over the past four decades, BRAC has trained a corps of some 22,000 women as community health workers. Today, these women provide basic care to more than two thirds of the country’s families. Against overwhelming odds, these community-based programs are ‘delivering the goods’ to millions—and inspiring a new vision for the future of global health. 

This film is a one-hour episode for RX For Survival: A Global Health Challenge, a ground-breaking multi-media project produced by WGBH’s NOVA Science Unit and Vulcan Productions, Inc.

• Emmy© for Outstanding Informational Programming - Long Form (As producers and director on the series, we received individual Emmys.)