Serge-Alain Wandji, Co-Founder, President and CEO of DiaspoCare
Founding a Medical Organization to Provide Healthcare to Friends and Family in Africa
On Tuesday, April 27th, Serge-Alain Wandji spoke about DiaspoCare and its efforts to provide healthcare for friends and families in Africa. Serge-Alain started off with a bit about himself. He is originally from Cameroon and left for Canada to study at 18 years old. He then came to the US as a postdoctoral scientist and conducted research at Cornell. Serge-Alain has a background in biomedical sciences and technology management. He has worked for Cargill and Children's Minnesota among others. During his time working for Cargill, he spent time working on understanding how to leverage the strengths of Cargill to help the folks in Africa. Serge-Alain then spoke about the African diaspora’s attempts in trying to support their families medical fees. The African diaspora sent around $48 billion to families in Africa last year. The majority of the money is sent back through Western Union and Moneygram; however, there is no accountability on how the money is spent. Serge-Alain shared a bit about his family as an example. His mother has a medical condition, but there are other family obligations and expenses that the money ends up going to. Serge-Alain knows the funds will be going to other expenses and that his mother is not getting the medicine that she needs. This is a similar situation for many families in Africa. Serge-Alain then figured out that a direct payment to a pharmacist would insure that families receive their medicine, and families won't have to worry about spending their remittance on healthcare. Serge-Alain then started his digital platform DiaspoCare to create a system that pays pharmacists directly. DiaspoCare enables diaspora members to scale their help, and help as many people as possible, which is a big step in healthcare inclusion. Additionally, with a monthly payment of around $100, he could fund many family members’ medicine. DiaspoCare works by having the African diaspora enlist as many family members as they can. When family members need medicine, they can then go to participating pharmacists, and the pharmacist will enter the prescription on DiaspoCare's system. The diaspora will then receive a notification on their mobile devices that their family members’ prescription is ready to pick up at the nearest participating pharmacy. The diaspora can then pay for the medicine on their mobile device. The pharmacist will receive a notification that the payment is on the way, and the family member will receive an SNS message with a unique code to read to the pharmacist to receive the medicine. Serge-Alain highlighted that DiaspoCare system is faster than Western Union and Moneygram. Also, when money is sent through Western Union and Moneygram, most of the funds disappear on the way back home because a family member who goes to Western Union and Moneygram might spend some money on the way back. DiaspoCare also strives to solve the UN identified problem of an annual 100 million people falling into poverty due to unaffordable healthcare. DiaspoCare is also partners with the largest healthcare insurance company in Kenya, Jubilee Healthcare, to get more Africans insurance so their basic healthcare costs are covered. Serge-Alain ended with asking the EPAM Rotarians to consider partnering with DiaspoCare.
Announcements:
The Fat Pants fundraiser is on August 15th. Irene thanked the members who are volunteering to help out in the planning and executioning. She is also asking for some additional members to work on the raffle, logistics, registration, and day of the event. Fat Pants.
Aaron Orwick, Craig, and Dave are planning the next Swallowship on May 13th at Fat Pants. Please RSVP to aaronorwick@hotmail.com if you would like to stop by!
George Esbensen announced the MnFORE Golf event at Bearpath will be on May 24th. Proceeds will go to the Minnesota Firefighter Initiative (MnFIRE) that supports firefighters who are facing cancer, cardiac, or emotional trauma. It will provide relief to all firefighters, many who are volunteers. Register here:
Praf requested that all members complete the survey sent to their emails
Spotlight: Lyndon Moquist
Lyndon Moquist has been a manager and broker at Edina Realty for 20 years, and before that he was a realtor, selling for 12 years. At age 30, he started his career in realty, and then met his wife a few months later. Lyndon has two daughters; his older daughter is a registered dietician, and his youngest is graduating from St. Thomas. Lyndon had high praise for his team at Edina Realty and loves working there.
Happy Fives
PG had two happy fives. PG fundraised for the EP Community Foundation for his birthday a week ago, and was happy to have raised $2200. PG was also happy to announce he has a new grandchild; his son recently had a baby boy!
Irene put in $10 and was happy to recognize Tim Conners for helping put up boards, the day after the shooting of Daunte Wright and hours before the curfew, for a business on Lake Street that Irene and Tim are mentoring.
Julane was happy to remember the words of his good friend who is passing away: “Surely, Goodness, and Mercy were his three girl friends, and Surely, Goodness, and Mercy followed him all the days of his life.”
Jennifer had two happy fives. She was happy to get her second COVID vaccine. Jennifer was also happy that her oldest daughter just got engaged!