Lilly and Project HOPE Partner to Improve Access to Care and Medicines
Adjacent to the informal, overcrowded settlement of Zandspruit on the edge of Johannesburg, South Africa, sits an increasingly busy clinic that is helping to reduce the burden of diabetes and hypertension. Known as the HOPE Centre, it’s just one recent example of how PQMD members Eli Lilly and Company and Project HOPE are working together to improve health for people living in communities with limited resources.
source: Project HOPE
Lilly and Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) began working together in 1959, one year after the humanitarian health organization was founded. Since then, Lilly and the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation have contributed about $80 million in cash and in-kind gifts, including product donations. These collaborations have included diabetes education and training programs, as well as disaster relief efforts and medical donations in China, Haiti, India, Indonesia and Japan.
Today in in South Africa, Lilly and its foundation are partnering with the HOPE Centre to improve health outcomes for diabetes and hypertension through clinical services, community screening efforts and peer education programs. It’s a unique model that, in addition to helping people on a daily basis manage their health, is collecting data that will help the South Africa government make future healthcare investment decisions.
In 2013, Lilly began sending employee volunteers to the HOPE Centre for two-week assignments where they can apply their expertise in diabetes education, pharmacy, nutrition, communications and other disciplines. Lilly volunteers have helped to improve the workflow of the clinic and pharmacy, create patient education materials and develop improved tools for collecting and analyzing community screening forms.
In Zandspruit, South Africa, and beyond, Lilly and Project HOPE continue to find new ways to confront diseases that disproportionately affect people living in poverty. And in doing so, they are providing hope and healing to more people around the world.
