FIT's endowment fund

by Freundeskreis fur Internationale Tuberkulosehilfe

Project Report | Jun 10, 2026
Connecting Digital Innovation to Sustainable Care

By Tra Vu | Project Officer in Research & Communications

Training PASTB staff at the National Lung Hospital

Dear Friends,

We are proud to share how FIT’s work in streamlining tuberculosis (TB) care and support continues to generate measurable impact, all while we build long-term sustainability through the establishment of our endowment fund.

Your support is helping people affected by TB today, strengthening the financial and digital foundations that allow FIT to keep delivering lifesaving programs in the future.

Project Overview

FIT’s Endowment Fund is designed to create long-term financial stability for Friends for International TB Relief (FIT), ensuring that TB projects can continue without interruption. While building this sustainable funding base to reach our $100,000 USD goal, FIT continues to deliver impactful interventions to achieve the targets set at the 2023 UN High-Level Meeting on TB.

A highlight of our work in 2026 has been building the digital infrastructure needed to streamline the delivery of financial support to vulnerable people with TB. As part of the Re-imagining TB Care (RTC) initiative, FIT has championed the digitization of The Patient Support Foundation to End TB (PASTB), a charity fund founded in 2018 by the National Lung Hospital, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Since its inception, PASTB has domestically mobilized and distributed over 12.6 billion VND (~$478,096 USD) to protect people with TB from catastrophic health costs. The fund provides essential support packages to both uninsured people with TB and under-insured individuals needing social health insurance reimbursement via two core pathways:

Inpatient Support: Cash transfers of either 1,000,000 VND or 2,000,000 VND, dynamically assigned based on the location of the TB disease.
Outpatient Support: Cash transfers of up to 2,000,000 VND, strategically delivered during the critical 3rd month of treatment and upon successful completion of the full regimen.

Challenges

Operating a national fund of this scale without dedicated digital infrastructure presents massive systemic hurdles. For years, PASTB had to rely entirely on slow, paper-based application processes to function.

This manual setup created significant institutional bottlenecks: it elongated the time it took for emergency cash to reach people with TB, heavily strained administrative staff, and left the fund highly vulnerable to shifting regulatory terrains and unpredictable, time-limited external funding cycles. Relying on manual workflows meant that any delay in paperwork directly impacted a person with TB's ability to stay on their treatment regimen.

Successes

Despite these structural challenges, FIT successfully designed, evaluated, and launched a robust digital infrastructure for the PASTB website following People-Centered Design principles. This achievement was realized through a highly collaborative, iterative workflow:

Ideation and Development: FIT, PASTB, and the National Tuberculosis Program (NTP) co-designed the platform, creating a beta version that successfully digitized paper-based workflows.
Pilot 1 & Refinement: We deployed the beta version in 4 pilot provinces and conducted initial field interviews to refine the portal based on real user feedback.
Assessment & Pilot 2: Evaluation findings were shared directly with the NTP and PASTB to upgrade digital procedures. The modified website was then scaled up and piloted across 10 provinces, supported by a second round of evaluation interviews.
Handover: After analyzing the final round of user feedback and optimizing the system, FIT established a fully stable website and successfully transferred 100% of the digital operations over to PASTB for long-term national ownership.

FIT’s Results and Impact

The deployment of the new digital platform has drastically improved efficiency and provided immediate, tangible relief to people undergoing TB treatment:

554 applications successfully processed through the new digital pipeline.
449,593,500 VND (~$17,059 USD) in critical financial support safely delivered to people fighting TB.
A 28% reduction in the median days required to deliver financial support to people with TB over the year, getting resources to families faster when they need it most.

At the organizational level, establishing the Endowment Fund works hand-in-hand with these digital milestones. Consistent investment returns will reduce FIT's reliance on short-term funding, enabling us to scale up outreach to vulnerable populations, focus on core operational excellence, and navigate shifting health landscapes without interruption.

Looking Ahead

FIT remains deeply committed to expanding the reach of the PASTB website and ensuring that digital innovations translate directly to better treatment outcomes. Moving forward, building the Endowment Fund to our $100,000 USD target will provide the financial resilience required to sustain these digital advancements, protect our operations against funding cliffs, and ensure that no people with TB is left behind due to financial or technological barriers.

Thank you for supporting both immediate digital transformation and long-term financial stability in the global fight against TB.

Training PASTB collaborator in Quang Tri

Training PASTB collaborator in Son La

Person with TB receiving a cash support from PASTB

Links:

Permalink

Feb 12, 2026
Building Stability, Saving Lives: FIT's 2025 TB Impact Update

By Tra Vu | Project Officer in Research & Communications

Peer-support session in Hoc Mon, HCMC, Viet Nam

Dear Friends,

As we close 2025, we are proud to share how FIT’s work in tuberculosis (TB) detection, care, and research continues to generate measurable impact while we build long-term sustainability through the establishment of our endowment fund.

Your support is helping people affected by TB today, strengthening the financial foundation that allows FIT to keep delivering lifesaving programs in the future.

Project Overview

FIT’s Endowment Fund is designed to create long-term financial stability for Freundeskreis für Internationale Tuberkulosehilfe (FIT), ensuring that tuberculosis (TB) programs can continue without interruption. While building this sustainable funding base, FIT continues to deliver large-scale TB screening, diagnosis, care, and innovative research that addresses both the medical and social realities of TB.

In 2025, FIT combined direct health services with a major new research initiative, showing how immediate impact and long-term solutions can go hand in hand.

Challenges

2025 was an exceptionally difficult year for FIT. The organization faced the sudden loss of major projects and funding streams. These changes disrupted operations, created financial uncertainty, and required painful internal adjustments, including staff reductions and the loss of valuable institutional experience.

At the same time, Viet Nam underwent a major government restructuring. Provinces were consolidated, ministries merged, and the district administrative level, which is central to TB service delivery, was removed. This caused shifts in partners, unclear roles, and disruptions to established coordination systems. FIT had to adapt quickly to a rapidly changing external environment while managing internal transitions.

Successes

Despite all the headwinds, we were able to record notable gains towards the end of the year. The Global Fund PPM Model 5 project has restarted and recently issued a formal acknowledgment of the contribution that our work has made to national TB care and prevention. Our Start4All study overcame major challenges to successfully contribute to global diagnostic guidelines. TB REACH projects like INTEGRATE and ELIMINATE have been accepted as case studies by WHO, and the DISPATCH project has received more money twice. The RTC project has brought a series of First’s to our organization: the first Human-Centered Design process, our first hybrid implementation trial with the UPLIFT study, the first successfully executed sticker campaign. Last but not least, we cannot overstate the importance of the US CDC overall that singlehandedly supported more than half the people in this room with its ECLIPSE project and even the forlorn pediatric TB project.

We have also engaged many new partners and expanded old friendships over the past year. New partners that included Seoul National University, the Technical University Munich and SYCP; and old friends from the Karolinska Institutet, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and VNP+. We hosted leadership from the Stop TB Partnership and befriended best-selling author and Vlogger John Green. We welcomed dignitaries from Global Affairs Canada and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, and even a Baron of the UK’s House of Lords.

FIT’s Results and Impact

In 2025, FIT focused on maintaining essential TB services while continuing to contribute to the global scientific community and building capacity among Vietnamese communities and young professionals.

TB detection and diagnosis: FIT-supported programs conducted 60,393 chest X-rays and 11,718 diagnostic tests, helping identify people with TB earlier and connect them to treatment quickly to detect 1,975 people with TB
Our various AI and diagnostic as well as implementation and social science studies have contributed to 8 scientific publications and 10 abstracts in 2025
We supported capacity building in Vietnam’s communities and youth by supporting 5 current and former PhD students and sending a dozen of our colleagues to master’s and PhD programs, two of whom have decided to return and support us.

Since we began our work, we have supported 2.2 million people screened by X-ray to enable free testing using advanced molecular diagnostics, leading to the detection of over 45,000 persons with TB – many of those among the most vulnerable in our society, from mountainous regions of Lai Chau and remote islands of Cu Lao Cham and soon Con Dao, to the destitute urban poor and economic migrants of Hanoi and Saigon to the marginalized persons living with HIV and underserved older persons, women, and children.

At the organizational level, the Endowment Fund strengthens FIT’s stability and resilience, helping ensure that essential TB programs and innovations can continue despite changing funding landscapes.

Looking Ahead

FIT will continue expanding access to TB screening and care while producing evidence from our various trials and studies to inform future TB programs. Building the Endowment Fund remains a priority, providing a stable foundation to sustain impact, support innovation, and reach vulnerable populations in the years ahead.

Thank you for supporting both immediate health impacts and long-term change in the fight against TB.

Peer-support session in Binh Chanh, HCMC, Viet Nam

Training on PlusLife testing for active TB

Community TB screening in Quang Nam, Viet Nam

Community TB screening Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam

Links:

Permalink

Sep 10, 2025
Securing stability today for a stronger tomorrow

By Tra Vu | Project Officer in Research & Communications

Community screening in Can Tho, Viet Nam

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the most pressing public health challenges in Vietnam. Despite progress, an estimated 40% of TB cases continue to go undetected or untreated, leaving many families vulnerable and communities at risk. In addition, drug-resistant TB persists as a major concern, requiring complex and costly treatment. These challenges remind us why sustainable, long-term funding is critical for effective TB prevention and care.

With your support, our endowment fund is gradually taking shape as a stable financial foundation for Freundeskreis für Internationale Tuberkulosehilfe e.V. (FIT). Although we are still at the early stage of fundraising, each contribution brings us closer to building resilience against shifting donor priorities and funding cycles. Your generosity is helping us ensure that FIT can continue to:

Strengthen community-based TB screening and treatment for hard-to-reach populations,
Train and equip local health workers to improve diagnosis and care,
Integrate modern technologies into TB detection and monitoring, and
Contribute to global research and advocacy aimed at ending TB by 2035.

Every dollar invested in the endowment is more than a donation. It allows us to plan strategically, innovate confidently, and respond quickly to the evolving health needs of vulnerable communities.

We are deeply grateful for your trust and support in this journey. Together, we are not just fighting TB today, but also building the foundation for healthier generations to come.

Stay connected with us through our website, Facebook, or YouTube for stories and updates from our work on the ground.

With gratitude,

The FIT Team

People boarding a mobile X-ray truck in Can Tho

Community TB screening in Ho Chi Minh City

Providing chest X-rays for community members

A TB club meeting to share TB information in HCMC

Training session at Hanoi Lung Hospital

Links:

Permalink

1 2 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.