13/10/2026
For billions of people around the world, the face of healthcare is female.
In many families, when a loved one falls ill, it is the women that suspend their lives to care for the patient. That single act of love or necessity due to expectations, has an economic outcome to it.
The women that care for sick relatives, will suspend their studies, business or work, taking paid or unpaid leave to be at the hospital bedside, or nurse the patient at home.
In many instances, the men will continue their economic activities to provide, while the female caregivers fall behind economically.
While sickness and its outcomes are individual, having a patient in the family comes with economic, financial and well-being repercussions.
One of the factors that determine how fast women can get back to their livelihoods, hinges on early detection, treatment and aftercare support.
The hypothesis is this: If a disease is caught early, treatment commences immediately and aftercare support is available, early diagnosis can save lives. The result is that the sooner a patient recovers, the faster the female caregivers can get back to school, work or business.
A key component of early diagnosis is affordability. Some families just cannot afford healthcare. They sell property, livestock or forgo education and other needs, to cover care.
Usually at that stage, it may be too late.
At Manje Health, when we design intervention for our users, we look at healthcare both as an economic and gender issue.
That way, we can ensure that for the 300 million people sending $900 billion back home to various regions including Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Balkans or the Middle East, to support relatives, that every dollar sent for healthcare becomes a clinical outcome - a diagnostic lab test, a prescription filled, surgery or follow-up consultation.
Current money transfer channels were built for commerce and not for healthcare. We are changing that.
