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| Hope Through Healing Hands | |
|---|---|
| Name | Hope Through Healing Hands |
| Formation | 2006 |
| Type | Nonprofit |
| Headquarters | Washington, D.C. |
| Region served | Global |
| Leader title | CEO |
| Leader name | Russell G. Johnston |
Hope Through Healing Hands is an international health-focused nonprofit founded in 2006 that supports humanitarian medical programs and capacity-building initiatives in low-resource settings. The organization operates through partnerships with faith-based institutions, academic centers, and international agencies to deliver clinical services, training, and emergency response. Its activities span maternal and child health, surgical care, infectious disease, and chronic disease management across Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
The organization was established in 2006 by leaders associated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and medical professionals linked to Brigham Young University and Intermountain Healthcare to address gaps highlighted by humanitarian crises such as the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami and the 2005 Kashmir earthquake. Early programs involved collaborations with World Health Organization country offices and non-governmental groups like Doctors Without Borders and Mercy Ships to deploy medical teams to Haiti, Nepal, and Kenya. Key milestones include establishing a training partnership with Johns Hopkins University in 2010, launching a maternal health initiative aligned with United Nations Millennium Development Goals targets, and responding to the 2014–2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa alongside partners such as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and International Medical Corps.
The stated mission emphasizes strengthening health systems and delivering direct clinical care in underserved communities, aligning programmatic priorities with frameworks like the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria priorities. Programs include surgical capacity-building initiatives modeled on protocols from World Health Organization surgical safety checklists, maternal-newborn health projects that incorporate training curricula from American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and noncommunicable disease screening inspired by World Heart Federation guidance. Educational programs have partnered with academic medical centers such as Harvard Medical School, University of Washington School of Medicine, and Mayo Clinic to deliver continuing medical education and telemedicine collaborations with Partners In Health and Mercy Corps-affiliated clinics.
The organization is governed by a board of directors composed of medical leaders, business executives, and faith community representatives, reflecting ties to institutions such as Brigham Young University, Intermountain Healthcare, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Executive leadership has engaged advisors with backgrounds from World Health Organization, United Nations Children's Fund, and academic hospitals like Children's Hospital Boston and Cleveland Clinic. Governance documents reference compliance with regulatory bodies including the Internal Revenue Service and standards promoted by Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance.
Funding sources include individual donors, faith-based giving networks, philanthropic foundations such as Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation, and grants from bilateral agencies like United States Agency for International Development and multilateral institutions including World Bank. Corporate partnerships have involved entities like Johnson & Johnson and GE Healthcare for equipment donations. Financial reporting indicates expenditures for program services, administrative costs, and fundraising in filings to the Internal Revenue Service and disclosure to watchdogs like GuideStar; audits have been completed by accounting firms with experience serving nonprofits and international NGOs.
Impact assessments reference metrics employed by World Health Organization and United Nations monitoring frameworks, reporting outcomes such as reductions in maternal mortality in project districts, surgical volume increases, and training of local health workers. External evaluations have been conducted with research partners at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine using methodologies aligned with Randomized Controlled Trial adaptations for implementation science and Difference-in-Differences analyses. Program evaluations have been presented at conferences hosted by American Public Health Association and published in journals indexed by databases such as PubMed.
The organization has formal partnerships with faith-based groups like The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints humanitarian services, academic institutions including Brigham Young University, Harvard Medical School, and Johns Hopkins University, and international NGOs such as Partners In Health and International Medical Corps. Multilateral collaborations have included projects funded through United Nations Children's Fund and thematic alignment with World Health Organization initiatives. Corporate collaborators have included GE Healthcare and Johnson & Johnson, while philanthropic relationships have connected the organization with foundations including Gates Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation.
Critiques have focused on perceived ties to faith institutions such as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and debates over the role of religious organizations in humanitarian health delivery, echoing discussions similar to those involving Catholic Relief Services and World Vision. Evaluators have raised methodological questions about attribution of outcomes in complex humanitarian settings, a challenge shared with groups like Doctors Without Borders and International Rescue Committee. Questions about transparency and overhead ratios have been addressed publicly in reports to GuideStar and Charity Navigator; donors and watchdogs have compared practices against standards advocated by Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance.
Category:Health charities Category:Organizations established in 2006