Ghana Medical Help

GMH Making Giant Leaps Heading into Eighth Year

The Season is Changing.  So Are We.

As GMH begins its eighth year of providing essential medical aid to rural Ghanaian communities, it’s anything but business as usual.

“This year is really going to put us to the test,” said GMH Founder and Executive Director, Kelly Hadfield. “The organization is undergoing a paradigm shift, from a local to a global mind-set.” She is referring to the NGO setting its sights on a future that includes nationwide and worldwide expansion.

“It’s not just about our programs anymore, although we’re extremely proud of their success. We have created a system to incubate other aid initiatives, grow them from grassroots to a gold standard level, and then facilitate their expansion and replication. We can help the next generation of NGOs develop their programs for a maximum impact.”

Hadfield and her colleagues at GMH are hoping that their three-phase model for creating gold standard aid programs will catch on with other non-profits and function as a blueprint for aspiring humanitarians. Only 21 years old herself when Hadfield started GMH, her path to operating a gold standard aid program was forged through years of research and a lot of learning experiences.

“There are so many people who, despite the best intentions, really have no idea where to begin when it comes to how to design and implement an effective intervention. Our Gold Standard Project Incubator is the formula for success that I wish I had when I was first starting out.”

 

The GMH Gold Standard Project Incubator involves three phases:

 

  • Phase I: Pilot and refine the project in the Upper Regions of Ghana through research, monitoring, and evaluation conducted in collaboration with community stakeholders, to create a gold standard project with maximum impact.
 
  • Phase II: Expand the project across Ghana to establish its impact and applicability across a larger geographic scale. Further refine the project design to adapt to specific local needs.
 
  • Phase III: ‘Package’ the project such that it can be easily replicated and introduced to parallel environments in other countries of need through existing local non-profit organizations or GMH affiliates.
 
 
From a personal project run out of her parents’ garage to a multinational charitable organization with activities on 4 continents, Hadfield teases: “Ghana Medical Help is only the beginning. Global Medical Help isn’t far on the horizon.”
 
As it was for Hadfield’s renowned uncle Col. Chris Hadfield – long-time GMH supporter, astronaut and former Commander of the International Space Station – it looks like not even the sky’s the limit to what this remarkable young woman and her organization can accomplish.
 
To support GMH, you can donate online by visiting www.ghanamedicalhelp.com/donate

Ghana Medical Help