Healthy Learners developed a deceptively simple solution: bringing healthcare to students by training and equipping teachers to be frontline community health workers. In Zambia the majority of government health programs focus on under-five and adult populations, leaving children ages 5-16 vulnerable and susceptible to curable conditions. Healthy Learners identified that teachers could serve as School Health Workers (SHWs) with training and monitoring.

PSF invested in the Healthy Learners because of the organization’s unique ability to scale through an integrated model with the Zambian government. Healthy Learners now reaches nearly 850,000 students, twice the amount of students it had when PSF first supported the organization in 2022. Healthy Learners continues to grow exponentially and provide an immediate impact on the health of students at a low ongoing cost of $1.51 per student per year.

Founded by Ignicious Bulongo and Lonnie Hackett, Healthy Learners is an organization that is built on data and technology, and is designed with and for students. Healthy Learners’ highly-scalable model is allowing it to expand across all schools in Zambia, starting in Lusaka and moving out to more rural districts. Healthy Learners was built in partnership with government to improve children’s health. To date, it has achieved a 38% reduction in student morbidity, 52% reduction in stunting, 48% increase in Vitamin A and deworming coverage, and 22% increase in student knowledge of health topics. The organization serves 850,000 students in 500+ government schools and has trained over 4,500 school health workers.

Healthy Learners is looking to expand its model outside of Zambia to scale its impact.

• Lipman Family Prize

• Kirby Impact Prize