J&J - The right strategic partner makes all the difference
When the NGO I coach was in its early stages, it was looking for sponsors.
Saude Crianca has a model that aims to pull people from a life of misery into poverty. Its a critical distinction. Misery is life threatening. Poverty is a stable environment, where people may not have much but they have the basics needed to survive, to be stable.
Saude Crianca helps mothers from the favelas who have very sick children by providing them with a 2 year family action plan that covers healthcare across an inclusive, holistic model : medicine for the child, legal and psychiatric care for the family, food and provisions, housing improvements, and training in a profession.
One of the areas these families needed help with was bus fare. Bus fare!! At the end of the day, if the mothers cannot afford to come get help, then nothing happens!
But sponsoring bus fare isn't sexy. No sponsor wanted to be affiliated with that. Much nicer to be able to say you are sponsoring food, medicine or housing - all important, but bus fare was as critical.
Johnson and Johnson, in the healthcare sector, got it! They understood that Saude Crianca was building a model of social inclusion, a chain of assistance that when complete, takes the family from assistance to self reliance, to independence....to empowerment. Healthcare is a multidimensional issue.
And if bus fare breaks that chain, then nothing happens, and if bus fare completes that chain then it is as critical as all the other assistance.
So J&J stepped up. They stepped up because they are a strategic sponsor that gets the space in which Saude Crianca operates. So critical!
Many years later:
I visited Lagoa hospital in Rio de Janeiro. I met a mother from one of the favelas whose child was receiving chemotherapy. We asked her of all the services she receives from Saude Crianca, which had the most impact. She looked up at us and said "The bus fare. Without it, my child cannot get this care!"
Thank you Johnson & Johnson for having the vision and insight to see that.
It's what a strategic partnership is all about
Saude Crianca has a model that aims to pull people from a life of misery into poverty. Its a critical distinction. Misery is life threatening. Poverty is a stable environment, where people may not have much but they have the basics needed to survive, to be stable.
Saude Crianca helps mothers from the favelas who have very sick children by providing them with a 2 year family action plan that covers healthcare across an inclusive, holistic model : medicine for the child, legal and psychiatric care for the family, food and provisions, housing improvements, and training in a profession.
One of the areas these families needed help with was bus fare. Bus fare!! At the end of the day, if the mothers cannot afford to come get help, then nothing happens!
But sponsoring bus fare isn't sexy. No sponsor wanted to be affiliated with that. Much nicer to be able to say you are sponsoring food, medicine or housing - all important, but bus fare was as critical.
Johnson and Johnson, in the healthcare sector, got it! They understood that Saude Crianca was building a model of social inclusion, a chain of assistance that when complete, takes the family from assistance to self reliance, to independence....to empowerment. Healthcare is a multidimensional issue.
And if bus fare breaks that chain, then nothing happens, and if bus fare completes that chain then it is as critical as all the other assistance.
So J&J stepped up. They stepped up because they are a strategic sponsor that gets the space in which Saude Crianca operates. So critical!
Many years later:
I visited Lagoa hospital in Rio de Janeiro. I met a mother from one of the favelas whose child was receiving chemotherapy. We asked her of all the services she receives from Saude Crianca, which had the most impact. She looked up at us and said "The bus fare. Without it, my child cannot get this care!"
Thank you Johnson & Johnson for having the vision and insight to see that.
It's what a strategic partnership is all about
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