23 April 2009
To our friends and colleagues in franchising:
As many of you know, Sid Feltenstein, Steve Greenbaum, Jim Amos and I have been involved for several years now with CFWclinics, an exciting endeavor to use Business Format Franchising to bring high quality medicine and healthcare to the poor in Sub-Saharan Africa. There are currently 85 CFW clinics in Africa serving over 500,000 people per year.
In principle, CFW is just like any other franchise system. Each of our clinics is owned by a local franchisee. We have an active Franchise Advisory Council, hold annual conventions, provide national and regional training, have local field support and have developed extensive manuals and support material for our franchisees to use. Each of our franchisees has had extensive experience as a nurse and spends up to three weeks training at the home office in Nairobi or at one of our regional facilities. We have an active research and development program looking at ways to improve our system performance and the profitability of our franchise owners.
NOT YOUR AVERAGE FRANCHISE SYSTEM
But in some ways we are quite different than most franchise systems you know. Most of our clinics do not have electricity or running water. Our customers are poor and often cannot afford to pay our franchisees for the medical services and life-saving products they need. But, our franchisees do not turn them away. Many of our patients come to us with malaria or tuberculosis or HIV/AIDS or many of the other diseases that are common in Africa. Unfortunately, many in the communities we serve die before they come to us because the drugs they receive from other clinics may be counterfeit or substandard or they were misdiagnosed. Our patients come to us because they know our nurses will examine them, treat them and provide them with the authentic drugs they need.
Our franchisees come from the local community and pay a franchise fee of $500 that often represents their life savings or the proceeds they received from the sale of livestock or other possessions. Just like franchisees everywhere, our franchisees make a sizeable investment into their businesses. We finance the balance of the $6,000 investment needed to open each clinic through low interest loans provided on favorable terms or we provide our franchisees with grants for a portion of their investment. We pay for their lodging and living expenses while they are in training and most importantly, our franchisees earn their livelihood as owners of their own businesses.
PLANS FOR EXPANSION
We are growing rapidly and have added seventeen new franchisees over the past few months. Today we have 85 franchisees in Kenya and Rwanda. CFW is considered the leading example of how Business Format Franchising can be used to reduce needless suffering and death in the developing world. Many of the world's leading not-for-profit organizations are studying our methods and learning from our experience. For those of you unfamiliar with CFW, go to http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/321/video.html to view the PBS broadcast of its show NOW, which won an Emmy Award for its profile of the CFW franchise system.
Our plans are to begin adding new clinics in Kenya and Rwanda and to expand throughout Sub-Saharan Africa with the hope of growing to over 400 franchisee-owned locations over the next few years.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Our work in Africa is just beginning. Now we are turning to you as a member of the franchise community to help us continue this important life-saving work. Business Format Franchising has given you the opportunity to achieve your dreams and now we hope through your generosity to use Business Format Franchising to save lives.
CFW is a subsidiary of The HealthStore Foundation, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation led by franchise and other industry leaders. In the past year we were pleased to announce that Dr Gunther L Faber, former director of the International Division of GlaxoSmithKline plc and VP Sub Saharan Africa joined us as CEO. Most recently, Matt Shay, the President of the IFA joined Sid, Steve, Jim and me as a member of the Board of Directors. Since we were founded we have served over 2,000,000 children and their families. Franchising is saving lives and you can be part of this important mission. Here's how you can help.
DONATE TO SMALL BUSINESS LOAN POOL FOR NEW CLINICS
To achieve our goal of providing life saving medical care and prescription drugs throughout Sub-Saharan Africa we are establishing a small business loan pool to finance the further expansion of the CFW franchise system. Your donation will be combined with others to provide low cost loans to our franchisees under very favorable and extended payment terms. As the loans are repaid, the proceeds will be returned to the fund and then recycled as loans and grants to fund further franchisee development. The investment required to open one of our clinics is $6,000.00. This includes the cost for site development, equipment, furniture, fixtures, inventory, training and our franchisees' living and travel expenses while they attend their training.
Each donation in the amount of $5,000 will allow us to fund one new clinic. In recognition of your generous gift we will acknowledge you as a life-saving leader in franchising by sending you a plaque that you can proudly display in your offices. Contributions of less than $5,000 will be included in the loan pool to invest in inventory, equipment and other essentials our franchisees require as we grow the franchise system.
DONATE TO PAY FOR PATIENT CARE
You can also participate by paying for the medical care and drugs our patients require but can't afford. Throughout the world 30,000 children die each day because they don't have access to life saving medicine. In Sub-Saharan Africa half of the medicine sold is either substandard or counterfeit. As a franchisor, we ensure that the drugs provided by our franchisees are both authentic and of high quality and most importantly, medicine is provided to our patients only after they have been examined by one of our franchisees or their nursing staff. The average cost of treating our patients and providing them with the medication they need is approximately $1.50--less than what you spent this morning for a cup of coffee. No parent should have to watch their children suffer or die because they don't have $1.50.
Each donation of $500 will help deliver life saving care to more than 300 children and their parents. Your donation to The HealthStore Foundation is tax deductable.
For Sid, Steve, Jim, Matt and me, our work in Africa has changed our lives. We appreciate your support. More important, the children and families we serve thank you.
Thank you,
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