A letter from Last Mile Health’s leadership team
On behalf of the entire Last Mile Health team, we are honored to announce that we have secured a new $40 million gift from MacKenzie Scott.
It’s difficult to express how much this news means for our team, the communities we serve, and the broader community health movement. Quite simply, it offers a powerful dose of hope after a very challenging year.
This gift is a testament to the dedication and hard work of the people who bring our mission to life every day. This starts with the 23,000 community health workers we supported over the past year, who go as far as it takes for their patients each and every day. And it includes our team of more than 200 staff, who tirelessly deliver high-quality programming and ensure that our operations run seamlessly. Their resilience through an exceptionally difficult year — and their unwavering commitment to improving the lives of those living at the last mile — inspire us.
It also includes the patients we are privileged to serve alongside our government partners. What began in remote communities in Liberia, where distance made access to primary healthcare impossible for too many, has now grown to reach 37 million people across Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, and Sierra Leone. The leadership of our frontline providers and the trust of the patients we care for remain at the heart of everything we do.
And critically, this recognition extends to the distinguished partners who make this work possible. From the Ministries of Health we are honored to walk beside, to the visionary funders who power our work and offer invaluable insights, to the coalition of peers striving to reshape norms and systems for the better: this achievement belongs to all of us.
Together, our community has shown that this work is not only possible, but transformative — and that it must be sustained amidst global headwinds. As we look toward 2026 and beyond, we do so with deep conviction that community-based primary care is a solution whose time has come.
This has been one of the most challenging years in global health, and its ripple effects will continue to disproportionately impact rural communities in the years ahead. This new grant arrives at a pivotal moment. It strengthens our ability to meet this moment and sustain our work into the future, enabling us to honor our commitment to ensure access to healthcare for 56 million people by 2028 and support a continent-wide shift in how African governments scale equitable primary healthcare to hundreds of millions of families.
We hope you’ll join us in celebrating this shared win — and in continuing the work ahead. Onward.
With gratitude,
Last Mile Health’s Leadership Council
Dalitso Baloyi, Nan Chen, Courtney Evans Henke, Meggan Ireland, Lisha McCormick, Divya Nair, James Nardella, Sarah Parish, Mallika Raghavan, Katelyn Reinert, Brittney Varpilah, Carlos Velázquez, Barbara Willett, Naa Adorkor Yawson, and Abraham Zerihun
