The Problem – High Infant Mortality from Under-resourced hospitals

Zambia is a beautiful country located in Southern Africa. The main hospital system is run by the Ministry of Health with the best resourced hospitals located in the capital, Lusaka, and then supporting hospitals and clinics located throughout the various districts of the country.

Though the government and hospitals are staffed with highly-capable individuals doing their best there aren’t enough resources and training to cover all of the demands on the healthcare system. Most often district hospitals are unable to deal with difficult patients and refer them to the larger hospitals in the capital. This unfortunately results in under-resourced newborn wards that don’t have enough functioning equipment or trained staff to deal with all of the referrals coming.

Our Solution – More resources to District Hospitals

In partnership with World Vision International and Neonatal Rescue, the Ministry of Health has been implementing various programs to begin to turn the tide. One of their core initiatives is to reduce preventable neonatal mortality from birth asphyxia by providing more training and equipment to district hospitals which will also reduce the number of referrals coming to the central hospitals.

The program was launched in October of 2021 with our initial training of a core set of doctors and health professionals in Lusaka that came from all over the country from various district and central hospitals. Delivery of 20 ventilators soon followed. Over the coming 6 months we will provide further in-person, virtual, and video training to the first set of doctors and begin to support the training of second and third cohorts of doctors and healthcare professionals.