Young Entrepreneur Award winner Dr Sara Saeed from DoctHERs and Lifebuoy take collective action by partnering up to improve healthcare access in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD – Lifebuoy and doctHERs have agreed to work together for the improvement of healthcare across Pakistan, the two companies have announced.
The partnership between Lifebuoy and doctHERs will enable increased outreach of quality healthcare by educating new mothers about simple disease prevention measures such as regular hand-washing with soap. The collaboration aims to reduce the spread of neo-natal infections and the risks of diarrhoea and pneumonia in infants.
Dr Sara Saeed, cofounder, doctHERs, said “doctHERs envisions to reach out to over 5000 communities devoid of quality healthcare. This effort aims at reaching marginalised communities to and create a quality change in the present healthcare system of Pakistan.”
“The Young Entrepreneurs Award and our partnership with Lifebuoy will bring us closer to our ultimate vision of touching 8 million lives across the country.”
DoctHERs has recently won the third ‘HRH The Prince of Wales Young Sustainability Entrepreneur Prize’, awarded by Unilever and the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership earlier this year.
Shazia Syed, Chairperson and CEO, Unilever Pakistan Limited, congratulated doctHERs on their success at the Young Entrepreneur Awards and said she was delighted by their passion and determination for improving healthcare, which has brought accolades for Pakistan.
“The partnership between Lifebuoy and doctHERs is a means of supporting their initiative to bring qualified female doctors back into the workforce. This ambition aims to help the underserved population that are otherwise deprived of quality healthcare.”
Lifebuoy will also facilitate the increased reach of doctHERs’ clinics into far-flung areas of the country. Lifebuoy is committed to saving lives through hand-washing and hygiene education in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s women-led healthcare startup, doctHers, aims to mobilise Pakistan’s non-practising female doctors as a means of providing sustainable access to primary and secondary healthcare in rural communities from the comfort of their homes through video consultation.
Since May 2015, doctHERs has directly impacted 15,000 lives through clinical services, 100,000 lives indirectly through community outreach and, now employs fifteen doctors, five nurses and five specialists.
The Young Entrepreneurs Awards are part of Unilever’s efforts to support the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and celebrate inspirational entrepreneurs aged 35 and under who have developed a product, service or application that tackles some of the world’s biggest sustainability challenges. In 2015, 927 entrepreneurs entered the awards from 99 countries.