Last Mile Health is an organization built on the belief that no one should die because they live too far away from a doctor. The organization operates in remote, hard-to-reach areas, where people can live hours or even days away from the nearest health center. Last Mile Health brings care directly to the doorsteps of people living in last mile communities by investing in local community members as community health workers. Last Mile Health invests in community health workers as professionals, ensuring they have the appropriate skills, supervision, supplies, and salary to provide high-quality primary health services to their neighbors. Last Mile Health also partners with governments to ensure community health workers are integrated into the national health system.           

Founded in Liberia, Last Mile Health’s work was critical to the country’s Ebola response efforts. Following the epidemic, the organization partnered with the government to launch the country’s first national community health worker program, leveraging results from their community-based work. Today, the organization has fully scaled this program across Liberia and launched partnerships with three additional governments to invest in community health workers and strengthen health systems.

For the estimated two billion people living outside of the reach of essential healthcare globally, this cost-effective intervention is lifechanging and lifesaving.

With about $1 million in grants and loans from PSF, Last Mile Health was able to quickly and effectively respond to the Ebola epidemic in Liberia by ensuring community health workers were safe and supported, and providing technical assistance to the national response. Due to the effectiveness of this work during the crisis, Last Mile Health became the primary partner to the Liberian government to design and launch a national community health worker program - which has improved access to care for rural and remote patients, and strengthened the surveillance system for future disease threats. During the Ebola crisis, Last Mile Health needed to act quickly and benefitted from the nimble support from the Pershing Square Foundation.

The Foundation also supported Last Mile Health at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to prepare Liberia for the pandemic. Importantly, community health workers were able to keep essential health services going during the COVID-19 response – a testament to the Pershing Square Foundation’s support.

The Pershing Square Foundation supported Last Mile Health at a key inflection point in their work. With PSF’s support, Last Mile Health trained thousands of health workers to respond to the Ebola epidemic. After the epidemic was over, Last Mile Health partnered with the Government of Liberia to design and launch the National Community Health Program in July 2016, which now employs 5,000 community health workers to serve every rural and remote community in the country.

In 2017, Last Mile Health was recognized for this work with a Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship and won the TED Prize. Co-founder Dr. Raj Panjabi was named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People and one of Fortune’s World’s 50 Greatest Leaders.  

Since PSF’s support began in 2014 with a grant for early scaling, Last Mile Health has become a leader in bringing quality healthcare to the most remote corners of Africa. Last Mile Health’s work began as a pilot program in Liberia and has expanded to support four countries in Africa under the leadership of current CEO, Lisha McCormick. Now, more than 14,500 Community Health Workers provide healthcare services to over 16 million people in rural and remote communities in Liberia, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, and Malawi.

• Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship

• TED Prize