Watsi
 | |
| Founded | 2012 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Chase Adams, Jesse Cooke |
| Type | 501(c)3 |
| Focus | Humanitarianism, Health care |
| Location |
|
Area served | Developing countries |
| Services | Funding medical treatment |
| Method | Crowd funding |
Key people | Grace Garey, Jon Skaggs, Mary Everette Cann, Dr. Mitul Kapadia, Dinkar Jain, Paul Graham |
| Website | watsi |
Watsi is a nonprofit healthcare crowdsourcing platform that enables individual donors to directly fund medical care for individuals in developing countries without access to affordable medical care.[1][2][3] Watsi is the first nonprofit funded by seed accelerator Y Combinator, and plans to become financially sustainable within three years of launch. Operating and administrative costs are separately funded by donations, business partners, and licensing fees, so all proceeds are used for medical treatments. Medical partners include Nyaya Health, Dr. Rick Hodes, Wuqu' Kawoq, Children's Surgical Centre, CURE International, African Mission Healthcare Foundation, Hope for West Africa, Project Muso, Lwala Community Alliance, Living Hope Haiti, Floating Doctors, Burma Border Projects, Partner for Surgery, International Care Ministries, The Kellermann Foundation, and World Altering Medicine.[4] The medical partner identifies a patient that needs low-cost, high-impact medical care and submits the profile to Watsi. If the profile meets the criteria, Watsi accepts it and guarantees the medical partner that they will cover the cost of providing care to that patient. Watsi posts the profile online, donors browse the profile and fund it, and the medical partner provides care to the patient once the patient reaches his or her funding goal. After the treatment is provided, the medical partner sends Watsi an update about the outcome of the treatment. After receiving the update, Watsi sends it to the donors who supported that patient and transfer the funds via PayPal to the medical partner’s bank account to cover the cost of the treatment.[5]
Founding vision
Watsi was founded after Chase Adams' experience in Costa Rica where he met a woman raising funds to pay for her son's medical treatment:
I was sitting in the back of a bus in a small village in Costa Rica called Watsi. A woman in tattered clothing was standing in the aisle in front. She was holding a red folder and speaking to the passengers near her. I thought she must be selling stickers or skin creams.
A few minutes later I looked up and found she was making her way down the aisle toward me. She was holding a plastic bag, and although she had only passed a few passengers, the bag was bursting with money. I couldn’t believe it. In my year and a half in the Peace Corps, I had never seen a bus salesperson earn so much.
When she reached me, I still had no idea what she was selling. Then the man next to me asked to see the red folder she was holding.
The instant she opened the folder everything came together. There was a photograph on one side and a document on the other. The photograph showed a young boy with an incision across the width of his stomach. The document described his medical condition. The young boy was her son.
In that moment I had what can only be described as an epiphany. If I could somehow connect this woman with my friends and family back home, she would have the money to pay for her son’s medical treatment within the day.[6]
References
- ^ "First Global Crowdfunding Website for Medical Treatments Opens to Public". Watsi. FundRaising Success. 23 August 2012. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
- ^ Empson, Rip (30 August 2012). "Watsi Is Using Crowdfunding To Treat The 1B+ Worldwide Without Access To Medical Care". TechCrunch. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
- ^ Devin Coldewey, Devin (27 August 2012). "Watsi: A Kickstarter for third-world medical care". NBCNews.com. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
- ^ "Watsi Transparency Document". Watsi. Google Drive. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
- ^ LaPorte, Nicole (13 April 2013). "Medical Care, Aided by the Crowd". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
- ^ "Watsi - About Us: Story". Watsi. Retrieved 5 May 2013.