Sen. Kerry’s daughter tackles global health

>>> 50 years after the peace corps was founded by john f. kennedy another massachusetts family has created a new peace corps of sorts, the global health conversation service corps that is sending young talented medical professionals to assist and educate physicians in the countries that need them most. dr. vanessa kerry , the daughter of john kerry , and the founder of the global health corps. i was at september and heard you speak and heard about this and was so impressed and wanted to have a chance to talk to you about it publicly. tell me what your goals are and what you're hoping to achieve?

>> thank you for having me on the show. it's -- i know there's a lot going on in the world and i feel, you know, very hopeful that we're part of the solution. there is a shortage -- drastic shortage of over 2.4 million doctors, nurses and mid wives in over 57 countries around the world and what that translates into is a classroom in mali with over 2,000 students, one teacher, one black board, 100-degree heat, can't hear the lesson in the back of the room, they're hungry and have a huge appetite to learn and to be a part of their health care provided for their country. my colleagues and i started a non-profit partnering with the peace corps to send doctors and nurses abroad as medical educators to build a pipeline to hopefully create a new generation of doctors and nurses who can continue to build up the health system and to be able to sort of ensure that there's good health in countries for the future. what's really important, too, is that we're going to be providing loan repayments so that financial debt or -- it's not a barrier to service and people can represent this country and, you know, be a part of this bigger solution.

>> what kind of in uny are we talking about? are you dependent on the peace corps and grants? how do you raise money with this project?

>> we're privileged to be partnering with the peace corp corps. they have an amazing ability to put people into a countries in a culturally sensitive way efficiently and we're excited to be a part of that. we are partnering with the mass general hospital center for global health acting as a coordinating center with us and do medical and nursing education . but we are a non-profit and we are going to be reliant on private philanthropy and grants to beabe a -- to be able to make this commitment to loan repayment and uphold part of our promise to the government. we're also partially funded so that pepfar, you know, has this training goal of 140,000 health care workers.

>> targeting aids --

>> exactly.

>> primarily subsaharan africa and around the world.

>> around the world. the goal for hiv , there is a u.n. report that came out that is really saying hiv is -- it's not, you know, overcoming hiv is not just a dream. it's really going to become a reality if we continue on the investments and efforts we've been making.

>> well, at this point, how many health care professionals do you think you can afford to send into the field?

>> so we've actually committed to sending 30 to 36 doctors and nurses abroad. so about 12 into each country. we're starting three countries. malawi, tanzania and uganda. it's not a question of how many we can afford, how many should we send in the first year and really do we think to begin to make sort of -- really see on the ground taking care of patients and making a real difference to the places they're working and we as the non-profit of global service corps have committed to raising the funds to be able to do that. we need people's help. we'll encourage people to go to our website and to make a contribution and to be a part of this mission with us. this is -- it's going to have to be a collective effort.

>> it's exciting. we have to follow up and maybe travel with you at some point.

>> we would love that. come join us.

>> thank you very much. vanessa kerry , a real privilege.

>> thank you.