page_title: East Meets West (non-governmental organization)
section_title: Healthcare programs
hierarchical_section_title: East Meets West (non-governmental organization) / Programs / Healthcare programs
caption_attribution_description: English: East Meets West Clean Water Program
context_page_description: Thrive Networks, also known as East Meets West is an international non-governmental organization pioneering evidence-based programs and technologies in health, water and sanitation, and education for underserved populations in Asia and Africa. It was founded in 1988 by author and humanitarian Le Ly Hayslip, and is based in Oakland, California, USA.
  It operates in the fields of healthcare, education, and clean water and sanitation aiming to help people in Asia to achieve self-sufficiency.
  Among the key programs are: providing low-income children with education, clean water and medical care, surgery program to heal heart defects in children, scholarship program to improve educational outcomes, dental program, support for children with disabilities, and a clean water and sanitation program.
  In 2011, East Meets West invested over US$13 million on its programs. East Meets West has a four-star rating and was listed as one of the "10 Charities Expanding in a Hurry" on Charity Navigator.
  In 2014, EMW relaunched in the United States as Thrive Networks.
context_section_description: Through the healthcare programs, EMW provides direct assistance to individuals, supports families, trains medical staff and works to improve systemic capacity by developing and constructing improved medical facilities.
  The Breath of Life (BOL) neo-natal health program treats over 50,000 babies a year through appropriate technologies.  BOL provides custom-designed, low-cost equipment to hospitals, and targeted training to medical personnel, to save the lives of infants suffering from common newborn pathologies. To ensure sustainability, BOL works to strengthen linkages with local health authorities to involve them in integrating these technologies into the larger health system. EMW's neonatal health model was adapted and replicated to serve Laos, Cambodia, Timor Leste in 2008 and more recently in India, Myanmar and the Philippines. BOL formed a major partnership with GE Healthcare in 2011.
  The EMW Dental Program serves 15,000 Vietnamese children annually through its modern dental clinic, school dental trailer and rural outreach project that utilizes portable field equipment. The program recently treated its 100,000th patient.
  The Operation Healthy Heart program addresses the most common birth defect, congenital heart disease, by providing lifesaving cardiac surgery to critically ill children. In addition, EMW provides training to medical staff in numerous hospitals.
  EMW provides a comprehensive support system for the disabled through its Support Network for People with Disabilities (SN-PWD) and its INSPIRE Sports program. Many of these disabilities are caused by exposure to Agent Orange and dioxin, an issue EMW is addressing through a new campaign of healing for Agent Orange survivors.
  EMW builds key medical institutions that are a crucial link between our grassroots development programs and large-scale capacity building. In the past decade, with major support from the Atlantic Philanthropies, EMW has invested over $50 million in building large-scale hospitals in Vietnam.
  In 2015, Embrace, an organization founded at Stanford University in 2008 to treat newborns suffering from hypothermia, joins Thrive Networks’ healthcare programs. EMW/Thrive's health portfolio strategy and scope of work is refined to focus on newborn health.
caption: EMW Clean Water and Sanitation program, Vietnam
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