How a hard-hit Australian NFP innovated during this corona pandemic
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63% of NFPs globally have been negatively impacted due to travel restrictions at this time, as reported by The Voice of Charities Facing COVID-19 Worldwide. Halad to Health is one of them.
Founded in early 2019 by a handful of Australian university students, Halad to Health is now an International NFP closing the gap in global health inequality by providing free health education to some disadvantaged rural communities in Philippines, which is funded by their GAMSAT (Medical School Admissions Exam) tuition services.
In their first year of operating, they had taught over 4000 local students in Valencia City, Philippines, about important preventative, and life changing, health measures from personal hygiene, rabies and dengue fever to more taboo youth-related issues in teenage pregnancy and mental health. By the beginning of 2020, they had set up the foundations to teach thousands more and planned for major international growth.
But during this unprecedented COVID19 pandemic, travel and quarantine restrictions have virtually made their impactful work impossible…forcing them to change the way they could achieve their mission supporting the global response to this truly devastating health crisis.
Although they were hard hit, they took a gamble and put all their eggs in one basket. Within the first week of April, they quadrupled their GAMSAT tuition service capabilities, moved all teaching online and started a COVID19 campaign that saw proceeds from our tuition services going directly to frontline healthcare workers across the world.
They launched the COVID19 campaign and fortunately aspiring medical students responded with tremendous enthusiasm. First students from Melb, Syd and Qld… then Tassie, WA and even the UK were enrolling into their GAMSAT services. It was an overwhelming outpour of generosity, from aspiring health students worldwide to support frontline professionals they admired so much, to say the least.
In the month of April, they’ve had over 350+ students enroll in various GAMSAT tuition events as part of the COVID19 Campaign, who have collectively raised $8500AUD+ for frontline responders.
These funds will be distributed to Halad to Health’s various beneficiary hospitals in Australia and Philippines on International Nurses Day this May 12th The Alfred Hospital Emergency and ICU Department (Melbourne, Aus), -Valencia Sanitarium Hospital ICU Department (Valencia, Phil), and Mindanao Foundation (formerly German Doctors) Hospital (Valencia, Phil).
Frontliners Halad to Health is supporting at the Mindanao Foundation Hospital
As Halad to Health send their message of gratitude to the real heroes fighting on the frontlines for us during this crisis, they hope to inspire the NFP sector to continue doing our part and look for ways to adapt to the inevitable change ahead.
Join Halad to Health’s COVID19 Campaign by leaving your message of gratitude to health care workers across the world on their Facebook Page.
Eliza is Co-founder & Managing Director of Halad to Health. Her four years of global health development experience began with her volunteering as a medical aid student in the Philippines and representing Australia to study the most pressing public health issues in Indonesia with ACICIS (Australian Consortium for In Country Indonesian Studies). Before launching Halad, she studied both Biomedicine and Commerce across Australia, Sri Lanka, Italy and the USA, and completed her entrepreneurial fellowship at Monash University, Australia.
She has led girls in Australian high schools to launch their own projects through an entrepreneurial education program she started in 2018 and is dedicated to using her knowledge and entrepreneurial skills to create opportunities for others in closing the gap in global health and education inequalities.
For her commitment to making a social impact, Eliza was named one of Australia’s Young Achievers of the Year for Social Impact in 2018 and Monash Business School’s Future Global Leader in 2019.
