A New Shipment of Life-Saving Warmth Reaches Uganda

In Sudan, Embrace Global's infant warmers are now written into the national newborn care training manual. In Zambia, the Ministry of Health is including them in the sixth edition of the country's neonatal transport standards. Uganda is next. 

Embrace Global is partnering with BAMA to deliver 541 infant warmers

across the Greater Masaka and Rwenzori regions of Uganda, placed according to BAMA's own needs assessment across its network of 92 health facilities and 41 government ambulances, positioned at each point where a newborn is most likely to lose the fight against cold: delivery rooms, theatres, newborn care units, and ambulances. 

Arriving as health systems in the region work to recover from a recent Ebola outbreak, the shipment gets warmers to babies now while building the evidence base for national scale-up. Uganda's neonatal mortality rate stood at 26.6 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2024 [SOURCE]. Healthcare providers will be trained in device setup, safe handling, and reporting, folded into BAMA's existing mentorship visits. 

BAMA team with the Embrace Baby Warmer

"BAMA has the relationships and the expertise in Uganda. We're bringing the training and equipment to match it. We've watched this exact path work in Sudan and Zambia. That's the kind of scale that lasts," said Melody Westen, CEO of Embrace Global. 

"BAMA has spent twenty years building trusted partnerships with the communities and health workers across Masaka and recently in Rwenzori and Busoga regions. The partnership with Embrace Global lets us bring that trust to something concrete: a warmer in the delivery room, in the theatre, in the ambulance, wherever a newborn need one; with device deployment embedded into ongoing BAMA-supported government-led newborn care improvement initiatives. We have a long way to go before every facility in our network is covered, but this is the kind of collaboration that gets us there," said Dr. Daniel Murokora, Executive Director, BAMA Foundation.  

"In the NICU, every second matters. We care for babies small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, fighting battles they should never have to face so early in life. Access to essential thermal care, oxygen, CPAP, trained staff, and quality newborn care gives these tiny fighters a real chance to survive and thrive. The most emotional moment for us is seeing a mother finally carry her baby home healthy after days or weeks of uncertainty. That is why strengthening neonatal care is so important," said Justine, a midwife with BAMA. 

With 150 warmers now moving into Masaka and Rwenzori, and 364 more identified as necessary to fully saturate BAMA's network, this is a first shipment, not a finished project. 

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