Welcome to our last edition of 2023!

We are approaching the end of 2023 and it has been an insightful year, full of new opportunities and learnings for us at D-tree. In our last newsletter of the year, we are covering a major milestone in Zanzibar, two new partnerships and our engagements at conferences. 

One of this year’s big milestones took place on 16 December, last Saturday, when the Government of Zanzibar announced the transition of the current cadre of community health volunteers to professional community health workers. We are so proud of this achievement, which builds on 10 years of D-tree’s partnership with the Zanzibar Government to strengthen the community health system and support community health workers. Community health workers save millions of lives each year across the globe and deserve to be properly skilled, supervised, salaried and equipped with the tools to do their work. The Government’s commitment represents not only a win for community health in Zanzibar but for the proCHW movement everywhere.

We have also entered into exciting new partnerships with On Call Africa in Zambia to demonstrate how a digitally enabled, well-coordinated community health system can support community health workers to deliver quality care to those who need it most. In Zanzibar, we have joined forces with Reach Digital Health to introduce their groundbreaking, direct-to-client solution to allow pregnant mothers and other priority clients to interact with a chatbot and obtain reliable, timely information that addresses their needs throughout their health journey.

Since September, we have been to five conferences – we joined panel discussions, presented abstracts and met with others to discuss how we can accelerate progress in 2024 so that everyone can access the healthcare they need and deserve. So, we are certainly ending this year with a quarter full of achievements to celebrate and build on in 2024.

Best wishes for the new year!

What's new at D-tree

From volunteers to workers: The Zanzibar Government takes steps to professionalize their community health workforce

Last week marked a historic milestone for the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar as they announced the transition of the current cadre of community health volunteers to professional community health workers. This shift represents a profound step toward enhancing the impact and recognition of these vital contributors to the health sector. Read all about it here.

New partnership: D-tree and Reach unite to improve maternal health

We have entered a partnership with Reach Digital Health, an organization that has spearheaded the development and expansion of the MomConnect platform in collaboration with the Government of South Africa. We see an opportunity to bring this approach to Zanzibar to engage individuals in their health by introducing an app for pregnant women so they always have health advice, right at their fingertips. Stay tuned for more and get in touch if you want to partner with us on this.

New partnership: D-tree joins On Call Africa to maximize access to healthcare

On Call Africa is a close partner of the Ministry of Health in Zambia, working to train community health workers so that they are fit to provide a wide range of basic healthcare services – from malaria and infectious diseases to maternal and child health. On 15 December, D-tree officially joined the project as the digital partner to equip the community health workers with a digital solution that can support them as they deliver crucial health services in communities. Read more here.

What we are reading

Reports, videos and news that recently caught our attention.

The promise of global access

Progress and innovation do not reach everyone, and especially people in lower-income countries are excluded. This article highlights how private partnerships can improve this.

Harnessing the power of digital health for universal health coverage The Transform Health Coalition writes brilliantly about how digital health needs to be a core part of universal health coverage -- no longer as an add-on, but fully integrated. More here.

Join our team!

D-tree continues to grow! We are on the lookout for new members of our team that share our values to support key areas of operations, growth, and programs. Check all current job opportunities here!