Freedom from Hunger Receives Best Practices in Global Health Award

June 15, 2011 - PRLog -- Freedom from Hunger’s President, Chris Dunford, is honored to receive the 2011 Best Practices in Global Health Award.  The Global Health Council is the world's largest membership alliance committed to saving lives by improving health throughout the world.  Their membership is comprised of health-care professionals and organizations, which include non-governmental organizations, foundations, corporations, government agencies and academic institutions that work to ensure global health for all.

The Council’s award recognizes a program that effectively demonstrates the link between health, poverty and development and celebrates and highlights the efforts of individuals in the field dedicated to improving the health of disadvantaged and disenfranchised populations.  Recipients are selected for their ability to exhibit measurable results, as well as the capacity and expertise to share, inspire and extend best practices for improving health.

“I am deeply honored to accept this prestigious award.  It is welcomed recognition of the work of Freedom from Hunger over the past two decades, especially our Microfinance and Health Protection initiative since 2006,” said Chris Dunford.

The award will be presented in Washington, D.C. on June 16 at a special awards ceremony during the Global Health Council's 38th Annual International Conference.  Accepting the award on behalf of Chris Dunford will be Marcia Metcalfe, Director of Microfinance and Health; Cassie Chandler, Technical Advisor; and Myka Reinsch, former Director of Microfinance and Health when the initiative began in 2006.

Marcia Metcalfe commented, “This award is wonderful recognition from the global health sector of the work that has been done under the leadership of Chris Dunford over the past decade to combine the strengths of two sectors—health and microfinance—to improve the health and lives of the poor.  Our experiences with our MFI partners around the world have demonstrated the power of this combination to extend low-cost interventions that improve health behaviors and access to affordable and reliable health services for financially vulnerable families.  This recognition from the Global Health Council is further affirmation of our commitment to continue to build partnerships around the world between MFIs and health market innovators.”

With this award, Freedom from Hunger continues to be recognized as a leader in microfinance and health programs and recently received InterAction's Best Practices and Innovations award for Health and Microfinance: Leveraging the Strengths of Two Sectors to Improve Food Security, which honors those who promote information-sharing on effective program approaches and improve practice standards by boosting the efficiency and impacts of field programs.

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Freedom from Hunger is a nonprofit international development organization that brings innovative and sustainable self-help solutions to the fight against chronic hunger and poverty. Our staff works with 132 local partner organizations in 19 countries to deliver microfinance, education and health protection services to more than 3.2 million women and families in Africa, Asia and Latin America. www.freedomfromhunger.org.