Globally, almost half a billion people lack access to basic health care. In 2019, 5.3 million children died before their fifth birthday, and over 300,000 women did not survive pregnancy or childbirth. To address the delay that drives this injustice, a committed group of Malians and Americans came together and founded Muso. They saw first-hand the health inequity problems that patients faced every day.

Muso works to cure delay by collaborating with governments and communities to identify and map barriers, and as a result, design, test, and deploy community-based health systems. These systems aim to deliver care, with speed, to all patients who need it, when they need it.

In Muso’s Proactive Care model, the role of their Community Health Workers is to actively search for patients door-to-door to connect them to life-saving services early. They provide care in the home, and evacuate the most ill patients to government health centres that have been redesigned to give patients care with no out-of-pocket fees.

Muso currently serves 350,000 patients in Mali, and their Community Health Workers have connected patients to life-saving care through more than 6.5 million home visits over the past decade. Their research shows that Proactive Care communities have achieved a ten-fold increase in access to care, as well as sustaining the lowest child mortality rates in Sub-Saharan Africa.

With the aim to make rapid, universal health care a worldwide story, Muso combines the locally-led Proactive Care delivery with rigorous research, advocacy, and technical assistance. Their approach is tested with academic and government partners. They provide technical support to governments and other implementers who wish to adopt their strategies, and aim to share their results across the global community to advance the common goal of ending child and maternal mortality. Muso strives to carry out their rigorous, evidence-based work with ongoing feedback loops, led by the communities most affected.