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Category: News

Kakuma Refugee Camp Maternal and Neonatal Health

Newsletter October| November 2025

Following 12 years of work in Tanzania, and after transferring the Training Clinic to the Ministry of Health and Midwives at Amana Regional Referral Hospital, we began to identify other areas in need of assistance with Neonatal Resuscitation training and Maternal Obstetric Emergencies Training.

Chase and I will be travelling to Kakuma Refugee Camp, located in the Northwest of Kenya (with Refugees from Sudan, Somalia, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and the Central African Republic) in October/November to assist in providing care for pregnant and labouring women.

Along the way, we will be teaching obstetric emergencies and neonatal resuscitation using the Champion Air Resuscitation Program, which we developed together. With over 12 years of experience working in a busy labor ward in Tanzania, where we handled 50-100 births per day, we have gained valuable insights into managing high-volume obstetric care in low-resource settings.

Our focus will be on neonatal resuscitation, an essential area for improving survival rates of newborns, especially in cases where respiratory issues or distress arise. The Champion Air Resuscitation Program is designed to be simple, effective, and adaptable to settings with limited resources, which is ideal for Kakuma. By training local healthcare providers, midwives, and community health workers in neonatal resuscitation techniques, we aim to improve the care of newborns in the camp.

Additionally, we will provide training in obstetric emergencies—covering critical situations such as postpartum haemorrhage, eclampsia, and obstructed labour These are areas where there are significant capacity gaps in the camp, and strengthening the skills of health workers in managing these emergencies can save lives.

One of our primary goals is knowledge transfer and capacity building. We don’t just want to provide direct care; we want to empower local healthcare providers with the skills to handle obstetric and neonatal emergencies independently. This kind of sustainable approach is key to improving maternal and newborn health outcomes over the long term.

Our work will have several potential impacts on Kakuma:

  • Improved neonatal care by teaching effective resuscitation techniques, which can dramatically reduce neonatal mortality, especially in situations where births take place outside of health facilities.
  • Stronger emergency care capabilities by enhancing the skills of healthcare workers to manage critical obstetric emergencies.
  • Training community health workers and traditional birth attendants (TBAs) will help bridge the gap between home births and facility-based care. This is essential in a camp where a significant number of women still deliver at home.
  • Our background working in Tanzania’s labour wards means we bring a high level of cultural sensitivity

In Summary:

To maximize the impact of our work, we hope to find and empower many midwife and health care workers- by finding Champion leaders –local midwives and health workers actively involved in the training, so they can feel more confident and empowered to implement what they’ve learned and pass on the training to others

Chase and I are excited about this opportunity to share our knowledge and experience and make a positive impact on maternal and neonatal health in Kakuma Refugee Camp.

Warmest Regards

Dr. Jan & Dr. Chase

SHINE with Midwife Vision
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SHINE with Midwife Vision

Survival Happiness Interventions Nurturing Education 

The SHINE program represents a focus not just on survival – but meaningful survival – along with joy, skilled interventions, with a nurturing caring attitude towards the mother’s, babies and each other as colleagues, with the cornerstone being education. 

The key to change is education – measured and focused with all the other elements that create a caring wholistic approach. 

Why? 

To prevent Mothers and babies dying from the top 5 leading morbid conditions of labour and delivery. 

The focus is on training Midwives with skills in prevention and skilled timely action in these emergencies in order to save mothers and babies.  

Blood pressure cuffs to tackle hypertensive disorders in pregnancy

Why do women die? 

Women die as a result of complications during and following pregnancy and childbirth. Most of these complications develop during pregnancy and most are preventable or treatable. 

Mothers 

  1. Post-Partum Hemorrhage – PPH  
  1. Pre-eclampsia/Eclampsia (Hypertensive Disorders) 
  1. Placental Abruption (usually caused from pre-eclampsia – Eclampisa) 
  1. Sepsis (Infections) Including unsafe abortion 
  1. Prolonged and Obstructed Labour  

Newborns 

  1. Champion Resuscitation Program  

This program will be training Nurse midwives, at the Midwife Vision Training Clinic located inside the campus of Amana Regional Referral Hospital. The aim then is to extend to the peripheral clinics that carry out Antenatal care and deliver women in the community. They refer to the hospital and often have delays, difficulty in transfer that delays care leading to poor maternal and neonatal outcomes. 

Providing essential equipment for the SHINE program

With a final goal training push elsewhere in regional areas in Tanzania and Sub-Saharan Africa.  

Midwifes are the key. They conduct the majority of deliveries in Tanzania. They are at the front line of emergency care every day. 

This allows Midwives at Amana Regional Referral Hospital to “SHINE” as the leaders in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Sub-Saharan Africa.  Providing gold-standard training and education in maternal and child health; but also allows the Mothers and Babies to “shine” through survival of health and happiness.  

Practical Midwife Vision Training Stations  

  • PPH – Bimanual Compression – Insert Uterine Balloon 
  • Manual Removal of Placenta 
  • Breast Feeding  
  • Shoulder Dystocia 
  • Breech  
  • Perineal repair  
  • Neonatal Champion Resuscitation -– Warm Dry Stimulate – Air Air Air  
Sister Chacky teaching a colleague to resuscitate a simulated baby

Equipment 

  • Postpartum Uterus Trainer x 2  
  • Breastfeeding simulator x 2  
  • Mama Natalie Birthing Simulator  
  • Perineal repair model with suture material,  
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Midwife Vision Documentary

Hear about some exciting news with Midwife Vision and the process of making a documentary to raise funds

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Our Staff at Midwife Vision

Hear about our Staff at Midwife Vision and say goodbye to Michael, our operations Manager

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COVID-19 & Midwife Vision

See what’s been happening in the wake of COVID-19 with Midwife Vision in Tanzania

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Grants & Fundraising

Get an update on the latest fundraising and successful grants for Midwife Vision and where these funds went!

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A lot more needs to be done to protect mothers’ lives

This is a great article providing insight into health care in Tanzania, and the challenges facing the midwives at Amana hospital. It dates back to 2016, when Jan and Chase had just started their journey with Midwifevision.

https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/magazine/soundliving/A-lot-more-needs-to-be-done-to-protect-mothers–lives/1843780-2868494-15bgj68/index.html

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Knit4Charities

Do you have knitted goods you were hoping to donate to us?

As you know, we are no longer able to accept the beautiful knitted goods we have been receiving on behalf of the mothers and babies in Tanzania.

This is so unfortunate, as they are truly appreciated, and we will greatly miss seeing the wonderful creations you have all made with such love and care.

As we don’t want to see any item go to waste, we are pleased to advise that any donations we were unable to send to Tanzania, will be sent to the wonderful team at Knit4Charities.  This is a great association of dedicated knitters, crocheters, sewers and other crafters, who give warm clothing and comforting items such as blankets and toys to needy people throughout our Country. So if you already have knitted goods you were hoping to donate, or wish to continue knitting for a good cause, then we recommend joining the team at Knit4Charities and carrying on the torch!

Thanks again for your generosity and please stay safe.

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Morning Tea – Update

Thank you to all our wonderful supporters

who planned to join us on the 20th March for our Morning Tea.

It was incredibly disappointing to have to cancel this event, as we so wanted to celebrate with you all

… and devour those scones and jam!

However, we of all people know how important it is to stay healthy and safe.

So instead, we shall look forward to seeing you all when we get the all clear from the powers that be.

In the meantime, thank you again for your support and please stay healthy!

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COVID-19 Update

To our supporters, donators and followers,

This is an unprecedented time for the world. Coronavirus has changed the tides in how many companies, charities and institutions are conducting their operations. Our Teams scheduled trip to Tanzania this April has been postponed until further notice as COVID-19 has now entered Tanzania. We are keeping in close contact with our in-country team and wish them good health, safety and success until we return. We have been preparing a statement regarding donations and now seems even more appropriate to release it. Unfortunately we are announcing that Midwife Vision is no longer able to sustain the non-monetary donations, including medical equipment and also clothes, knitted or otherwise. Basically, the costs of freight of our last shipment cost over $10,000AUD in freight costs, tax and fees.

This means that the monetary donations we receive cannot keep up with the shipping for these items which is not fair on mothers and babies who require critical medical equipment like birth kits. In addition to this, the presence COVID-19 means the docks and harbours in Tanzania where our donations received are now closed and quarantined, meaning our equipment would not reach mothers and babies. This change will be in place for Midwife Vision for at least 18 months if not indefinitely. It’s a very sad day for Midwife Vision which started with the Knitters program and which was the hallmark of the “special touches” we provide in the care we give to mothers and babies. BUT, there is good news! There is an organisation in New Zealand called Little Sprouts who would be happy to receive these knitted donations (http://littlesproutsnz.org/).

In Australia the Knitting-and website lists charities in Australia that accept knitted donations (https://www.knitting-and.com/crafts-and-needlework/knitting/charities/).  Kogo also focus on Knitted goods in Australia for needy people (http://www.kogo.org.au/).

Of course we can’t be more grateful to knitters like yourself who have put your love, sweat and tears into such beautiful gifts for mothers and babies half a world away. To re-iterate, from now on Midwife Vision is only able to accept monetary donations. If you need more information on how to do this please do not hesitate to contact us, otherwise, best wishes and thanks again for your generosity and thoughtfulness.

Much love and healthy wishes from all of us at Midwife Vision Global