Living Goods collaborates closely with the Uganda Ministry of Health and has built strong partnerships at all levels of the Ministry. In Uganda, as elsewhere in Africa, public health facilities are widely overburdened and under-funded. Living Goods’ approach represents an opportunity to build a sustainable solution to the vexing ‘last mile’ problem in a way that complements and coordinates with the public system. Living Goods provides an attractive solution to government health systems that have struggled with high attrition and costs associated with volunteer community health worker programs.

The Living Goods system provides several important benefits to public health systems. Our agents are trained to quickly identify and refer cases they are unable to treat themselves to the public system, thereby providing an important link between the community and health system. Living Goods agents also help mobilize their communities for immunization campaigns and other public health priorities. Providing effective village-based prevention and first-line treatment for simple high-frequency diseases also reduces the work burden, wait time, and stock outs at public health centers, thus allowing limited government health funds to be spent on challenging secondary care and on providing faster service to those who need it most.