The Sania Nishtar Health Fund (SNHF) has been set up to fight medical impoverishment. Its objective is to sustain and fund Heartfile Health Financing, the mHealth-based social protection system, which enables doctors/hospitals to seek financial help for destitute patients in an expedient and transparent manner. These patients would otherwise be at risk of spending catastrophically on healthcare, incurring huge debt, being pushed further into poverty, or even foregoing healthcare altogether. The program is a featured commitment of the Clinton Global Initiative, and is in partnership with the mHealth Alliance of the UN Foundation, and the World Economic Forum’s International Partnership for Innovative Healthcare Delivery (IPIHD). SNHF was launched at an event hosted by the Rockefeller Foundation in New York on September 20, 2011 in the margins of the United Nations Summit on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs). It was created with the establishing gift of the First Global Innovation Award, which Sania Nishtar received from the Rockefeller Foundation in July, 2011.

 

Launching of Sania Nishtar Health Fund: press release, video and images shown at the event

 

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Since its creation, a number of events have been launched in its support. Leaders have come together in support of this system under the banner of the Heartfile Leaders Network. Networks are being launched in different cities around the world.

The Washington Launch of the Network was held on June 11, 2012 at the Aspen Institute, View here.

The London Launch was held at the House of Lords on July 11, 2012. View here.

“…I have been involved in health philanthropies in Pakistan since mid 1980s. The benefits of donating through the Sania Nishtar Health Fund and Heartfile Health Financing are unprecedented. As a donor our Trustees can track the donation real time, right down to the level of the recipient patient, the identity card number and personal contact details. We are notified through SMS every time our contribution is disbursed for the treatment of a needy person….If we wish to we can earmark donations based on gender, age, disease or geography. Our Trust is assigned an individual web-based donation page, where we can generate a report any time of the day; we thus know that transparency is unprecedented as only the true deserving are served, who otherwise would have to go without the critical medical attention. The SNHF and the system that supports it has the unique distinction of connecting donors with patients served. Literally we get the feeling that our Trust is giving money directly to the individual directly.”
Haamid Jaffer,
Sulaimaniyah Trust, Karachi
Platinum Donor