Healthy Entrepreneurs

An efficient last-mile distribution system for basic health in Sub-Saharan Africa /

Healthy Entrepreneurs (‘HE’) engages thousands of rural community health workers in a sustainable business that allows them to improve access to health information and products in their communities while generating income for themselves and their families. Today, more than 600 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa are living without basic health knowledge and products. Through HE community health workers are recruited and trained to provide vital health information, products and medicines to families in their communities. These ‘community health entrepreneurs (’CHE’s) are backed by a highly professionalised supply chain that ensures their ability to regularly deliver high-quality and affordable products to their customers at the last mile. Through HE’s support, CHEs are empowered to substantially increase their skills, income and impact. To date, there are more than 4,000 active CHEs who serve around 1.2 million families in 5 African countries. After 18 years of intensive experience in the global distribution of food and generic medicines, Joost van Engen founded HE in 2011. With support from FASE, the social enterprise successfully raised growth capital to strongly scale its organisation and impact in Uganda and Kenya.