Don't you love it when you find someone who is out to change the world and is actually doing it--at scale! Young social entrepreneur Grace Garey noted that there are too many people in the world without access to healthcare so she decided to do something about it.
In just a few years of operation, Watsi, a crowdfunding site designed to fund medical care for impoverished people in the developing world one at a time, has helped 5,000 patients in 20 countries. Not a bad start!
Garey was motivated by a sobering statistic, she says. "1 billion people don't have to access to healthcare, and million more are pushed into poverty each year trying to pay for it."
"Our goal is to make healthcare a reality for every person on the planet. I really believe there are no missing resources in the world, only missing connections, and everything we work on at Watsi is meant to make those connections," she explained.
Garey has earned the credibility that got her into a coveted spot at Y Combinator, representing the first nonprofit to be admitted to the prestigious Silicon Valley startup incubator. Garey lived in Ghana and India and worked for years in the impact space before launching Watsi.
On Thursday, December 17, 2015 at 4:00 Eastern, Garey will join me here for a live discussion about her remarkable success and her grand vision for connecting every person on the planet to needed healthcare. Tune in here then to watch the interview live. Post questions in the comments below or tweet questions before the interview to @devindthorpe.
You can download an audio podcast here or subscribe via iTunes.
More about Watsi:
Watsi is a nonprofit website that lets anyone fund life-changing healthcare for people around the world.
Garey's bio:
Twitter: @gracegarey
Grace is obsessed with the idea that connecting people will change the world. Before she started working on Watsi, she studied post-conflict development in Ghana, lived in a hospital in India, did humanitarian advocacy in DC, and launched a student outreach program at Kiva that generated millions of dollars for entrepreneurs in its first year. Since Watsi launched, the organization has raised $5M from 15,000 donors to fund life-changing healthcare for 5,000 patients in 20 countries.
