Gideon Abako and Timothy Kavuma are building AI tools designed with frontline health workers to strengthen crisis response in refugee settlements and disaster zones
In humanitarian health systems, delays in data, shortages of skilled workers, and fragmented service delivery cost lives. Gideon Abako and Timothy Kavuma saw this reality up close during their GHC fellowships and refused to accept it as inevitable.
Both alumni became increasingly frustrated by the gap between what frontline health workers needed and what existing digital tools could deliver. Together, they co-founded the International Foundation for Recovery and Development (IFRD) and began building an AI-powered solution designed specifically for crisis-affected settings: technology that could strengthen decision-making, support overstretched health workers, and ultimately save lives.
Their innovation gained serious traction in 2024 when IFRD was selected for Elrha’s Humanitarian Innovation Fund, one of the most competitive global platforms for early-stage humanitarian technologies. The recognition enables them to test and scale their AI solution across refugee settlements and disaster-prone regions, improving the timeliness, accuracy, and coordination of health responses.
What makes their approach distinctive is the process behind it. Timothy and Gideon built their AI tool with frontline workers, not just for them. They understand that technology in humanitarian settings must strengthen rather than replace human capacity, especially in low-resourced systems facing overlapping crises. Their model has drawn coverage across the humanitarian sector precisely because it keeps equity at the center of technological innovation.
Both credit GHC with sharpening the leadership practices that now define their work: grounding systems change in community voice, collaborating across sectors, and maintaining focus on the people most affected by crisis. These aren’t abstract principles. They show up in every design decision, every partnership conversation, every choice about how the technology functions in real emergency settings.
Timothy and Gideon envision a future where health workers in humanitarian emergencies have real-time, AI-driven tools that help them anticipate risk, allocate resources, and deliver care more effectively. For them, this work represents more than innovation. It’s about ensuring that when the next crisis hits, the people responding on the ground have what they actually need to save lives.