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Global Health Media Project (GHMP) is a small Vermont-based nonprofit. We create high-quality teaching videos to help health workers and community members, especially in low-resource settings, learn information and skills that can improve health care and save lives. GHMP has created over 200 unique live-action videos covering topics such as newborn care, childbirth, breastfeeding, nutrition, and family planning. For each subject area, a series of videos is created for health workers and a companion set for the general public. The 50 videos for the general public support self-care.
Videos for the general public, that help them care for themselves and their families, are a critical part of our mission to improve health outcomes and save lives around the globe. Self-care plays a particularly important role when access to health providers is limited, due to location, distance, or closures of facilities (such as during the Covid pandemic). Some examples from our work include: i) a video on warning signs in newborns. This video shows actual newborns with the various warning signs that mean a baby has severe illness. It helps mothers and caregivers recognize these key signs to bring their baby for care in time to save their life; ii) our breastfeeding series helps show new mothers exactly how to breastfeed and what to do if they face problems in the crucial early days with their newborn; iii) videos on contraceptive methods such as Depo SubQ, which shows a woman giving herself the injection at home to demonstrate how to use the device.
All of our videos are available online. People in low-resource settings can view them on our website and YouTube at no charge if they have internet access. If people are located in more remote areas where the internet is not available, the videos can be shared or downloaded to their phones when they do have access so that they can be watched offline. Many organizations working with hard-to-reach populations bring our videos with them to teach, distribute to local facilities (schools and clinics), and share with local groups. Community health workers also use our videos to teach people in many hard-to-reach communities.
To improve access to our self-care videos, we created an app—Birth & Beyond—that includes our complete set of self-care videos in 30 languages. We developed and released this app during 2020. It enables people whose access to health care was limited by Covid be better able to care for themselves and their families. We have also created an app with our self-care videos on family planning for women and partners called Learn Family Planning. (A similar app called Practice Family Planning is available for health workers.)
Viewership is one key way we measure reach: views on YouTube now exceed 850 million, and have averaged 500,000 views per day over the past year. Every week our videos are watched in nearly every country in the world.
Video downloads are another key measure of our reach. Our videos have been downloaded by more than 7,000 organizations: UN groups, teaching institutions, Ministries of Health, and NGOs large and small. Many of these organizations use our videos in large international or national programs, with each program in turn reaching substantial numbers of health workers and people.
A third way we measure reach is through the demand for narrations in local languages. Our live-action videos have been narrated in over 50 languages. Narration requires significant time and resources and is often undertaken after an organization has established the value of our videos in training and education. Impact is more difficult to measure directly, but the fact that our films are the go-to teaching videos for many organizations in the field of maternal and child health is a strong endorsement of their value. They are used widely in programs by organizations such as WHO, MSF, UNICEF, Save the Children and by hospitals and universities in most countries.
GHMP videos are well-known and used worldwide. Although we design and develop our videos primarily for low-resource settings, many are used extensively in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. If we measure our success in terms of reach and viewership, the region that stands out is South Asia (India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan are among our top five countries) due to the combination of population, internet availability, and widespread use of smartphones.
The premise of our work on family planning is that there is a large unmet need for practical and reliable information among young people, especially in low-resource settings. With trustworthy information that is easy to understand and follow, women and their partners are more likely to choose a method that suits their own needs and lifestyle choices. We utilize two key approaches to promote and encourage the use of our videos by key populations. One is to make our videos widely available and easily accessible through the internet and apps. A second is to identify and collaborate with organizations who are focused on the delivery of family planning information and services.
With overarching commitments to flexibility in our work, and greater wellbeing for our employees, we want to ensure PSI is positioned for success with a global and holistic view of talent. Under our new “work from (almost) anywhere,” or “WFAA” philosophy, we are making the necessary investments to be an employer of record in more than half of U.S. states, and consider the U.S. as one single labor market for salary purposes. Globally, we recognize the need to compete for talent everywhere; we maintain a talent center in Nairobi and a mini-hub in Abidjan. PSI also already works with our Dutch-based European partner, PSI Europe, and we’re creating a virtual talent center in the UK.
PSI is firmly committed to the meaningful engagement of young people in our work. As signatories of the Global Consensus Statement on Meaningful Adolescent & Youth Engagement, PSI affirms that young people have a fundamental right to actively and meaningfully engage in all matters that affect their lives. PSI’s commitments aim to serve and partner with diverse young people from 10-24 years, and we have prioritized ethics and integrity in our approach. Read more about our commitments to the three core principles of respect, justice and Do No Harm in the Commitment to Ethics in Youth-Powered Design. And read more about how we are bringing our words to action in our ICPD+25 commitment, Elevating Youth Voices, Building Youth Skills for Health Design.
PSI works to ensure that its operations and supply chains are free from slavery and human trafficking. Read more about this commitment in our policy statement, endorsed by the PSI Board of Directors.
Since 2017, PSI has been a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact, a commitment to align strategies and operations with universal principles of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption. Read about PSI’s commitment to the UN Global Compact here.
The health of PSI’s consumers is inextricably linked to the health of our planet. That’s why we’ve joined the Climate Accountability in Development as part of our commitment to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030. Read about our commitment to environmental sustainability.
PSI does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, marital status, genetic information, disability, protected veteran status or any other classification protected by applicable federal, state or local law. Read our full affirmative action and equal employment opportunity policy here.
PSI is committed to establishing and maintaining a work environment that fosters harmonious, productive working relationships and encourages mutual respect among team members. Read our policy against discrimination and harassment here.
PSI is committed to serving all health consumers with respect, and strives for the highest standards of ethical behavior. PSI is dedicated to complying with the letter and spirit of all laws, regulations and contractual obligations to which it is subject, and to ensuring that all funds with which it is entrusted are used to achieve maximum impact on its programs. PSI provides exceptionally strong financial, operational and program management systems to ensure rigorous internal controls are in place to prevent and detect fraud, waste and abuse and ensure compliance with the highest standards. Essential to this commitment is protecting the safety and well-being of our program consumers, including the most vulnerable, such as women and children. PSI maintains zero tolerance for child abuse, sexual abuse, or exploitative acts or threats by our employees, consultants, volunteers or anyone associated with the delivery of our programs and services, and takes seriously all complaints of misconduct brought to our attention.
PSI affirms its commitment to diversity and believes that when people feel respected and included they can be more honest, collaborative and successful. We believe that everyone deserves respect and equal treatment regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, cultural background or religious beliefs. Read our commitment to diversity and inclusion here. Plus, we’ve signed the CREED Pledge for Racial and Ethnic Equity. Learn more.
PSI affirms gender equality is a universal human right and the achievement of it is essential to PSI’s mission. Read about our commitment to gender equality here.
From ministries of health to regulatory bodies and purchasers, we partner with private and public sector players to provide seamless health services to consumers – no matter their entry point to care.
Across 40+ countries, we scale digital solutions that make it easier for people to take ownership of their own health, and health systems to use resources efficiently and increase health impact.
We support health systems in shaping the policy and regulatory environment for self-care interventions and ensuring self-care is included as an essential part of healthcare services.
