My name is Maria, a co-founder at Ba Nga Afayo Initiative Uganda (BaNgaAfayo), a nonprofit organization in Uganda. In the last 3 years I have lost 2 babies, one was stillborn and the other died shortly after birth after being admitted in NICU at a hospital in our Capital Kampala, Four (4) hours away from our remote district. Imagine you just delivered your newborn baby and after five days in to the world and your baby is already struggling to transition to life outside the womb, but you happened to be in a place that did not have the equipment to keep your baby alive.

I grew up thinking that every pregnant women delivered a healthy baby and that was it until I delivered a stillborn child myself, it was heartbreaking losing my baby before it came to the world, before I could hold it in my arms and look at its lovely face as a mother the pain can’t be explained.

After all that I went through, I felt the need to build a maternity home where I would have control over the services offered to pregnant mothers and their preterm and newborn babies, a dream which I shared with the team at BaNgaAfayo so that we can do something about this injustice. Our hope is that this maternity home will be the first step to offer a place of hope, a place to have support through the labor process, access to medications and treatments that mothers might not be able to afford, and a place with equipment that can sustain life for newborns entering the world.

Frankly, I never want to witness another baby die just because they didn’t have a piece of equipment that could have saved their life. This facility will be designed and built to meet the needs of expectant mothers in our remote village in Kayunga District in a way that is cost-effective.

Your support will help us reach our goal of not seeing any child or mother die from preventable illnesses by putting up a facility with equipment and well trained health workers to save both mothers and babies lives.