innovative chain of 'health stores' bring quality medicines and business opportunities to Kenyans

Image: The HealthStore Foundation

Hey everyone, it's great to be back! My phone line and DSL service was own of commission for a week, so it's been a little while since I've been able to share stories with you. Here's a great one:

The HealthStore Foundation is the brainchild of Scott Hillstrom, a Minnesota lawyer and entrepreneur. He conceived his unique hybrid of for-profit franchise and non-profit humanitarian effort when he learned how an inefficient and sometimes corrupt governmental system made it difficult to obtain affordable and effective medicines from knowledgeable staff. He hit upon the franchise model because it would incorporate a system that thoroughly trains pharmacy owners, and holds every franchise accountable to strict guidelines of quality and effectiveness in order to stay open.


While the HealthStore Foundations chain of pharmacy/clinics CFW Shops (Child and Family Wellness Shops) are for-profit businesses for local entrepreneurs, no one is turned away. Rather, those who can pay do, and the difference is covered by these small profits and additional funds donated by the Foundation. 


To date, CFW shops have treated hundreds of thousands of people, saving lives from preventable diseases such as malaria and respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses. They also offer advice and tools in order to prevent disease. 

In-Home Companion Services helps senior citizens, the disabled, and otherwise homebound adults become involved in their community

Image: Doing Good

As a story by National Geographic indicated, it seems that one of the most important factors in living a long, healthy life, is that people stay involved in their communities. In-Home Companion Services helps people to do just that. It's fully staffed by volunteers, and provides a variety of outside activities such as entertainment, current event discussions, and pursuing their hobbies and interests, all focused on interacting with others in their community.


What this wonderful group is doing is of especial importance to me personally: I feel that one of the major ways that Americans and many other communities fail in kindness and justice, is to pay enough respect and attention to the elderly in our communities. These are the people in most need of love and attention and are yet  the most neglected, while we owe them the most: almost every thing we enjoy and rely on is there because of those who came before us: our farms, our laws, our music, our science, our art and literature, our roads... our entire history! 


For more about In-Home Companion Services, check out their website at http://www.inhomeservices.org/index.html

Image: Wikipedia

The four characteristics of humanism are curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race. 
- E.M. Forster

Dentist travels the world 7 times in 16 years, providing free dental care

Image: WFC Courier.com

Dr. Thomas Strub is addicted: he finds that providing free dental care all over the world, on his own and with Global Dental Relief, a source of such joy and fulfillment that he's hooked. Over the years, working with such humanitarian efforts such as Habitat for Humanity and GDR, Dr. Strub has helped bring health and happiness to hundreds of people in Honduras, Panama, Jamaica, and the Ladakh region of the Himalayas. 

Doctor Liza provides free medical care for the homeless in Russia

Image: The Moscow News

In addition to bringing help and healing to the approximately 80,000 people living on the streets of the capital, Elizaveta Glinka brings public attention to the plight of the homeless through her nonprofit organization Spravedlivaya Pomosh (Fair Aid).


Read more about her story here: http://www.mn.ru/society/20100830/188014689.html and visit her website http://doctorliza.ru/, where she writes movingly, sharing stories of the people she helps every day.

Petition to free Sakineh from death by stoning receives over 300,000 signatures, and counting

Image: FreeSakineh.org

For about five years, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has been imprisoned and under penalty of painful death by stoning, for charges of 'having illicit relationships,' adultury, and the murder of her husband. Her initial confession of having been involved in an affair with a man was recanted, as she was being whipped at the time, giving her confession under duress. No witnesses came forward to support the accusations against Sakineh, and her children have rallied behind her, risking their own safety.

Worldwide, there is a great outcry against the unjust treatment of Sakineh by the Iranian government; human rights groups, world leaders, and people from all walks of life are joining in the protest. As I sit here writing, I see dozens of signatures added to the tally on http://freesakineh.org/. You can join by signing the petition too, and by sharing Sakineh's story with others.

New hope for liver disease patients: scientists grow new liver cells in the lab for the first time

Image: Nature.com

For the first time after 40 years of trying, scientists are able to grow liver cells by reprogramming skin cells. Diagnoses of liver disease are especially frightening for patients, since it is the fifth largest cause of death in the US and even higher in other countries, and there is such a shortage of donor livers available for transplant. With this breakthrough, scientists are closer than ever to finding new, effective treatments for patients.

The results of this clinical study were published September 1st, 2010, in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.