Infants’ Health Foundation

Mothers and children are invaluable to their families, communities, societies, and economies, and the loss of even one life robs these families and communities of their potential, however, worldwide, approximately 830 women die needlessly every day and 85 percent of deaths among children and young adolescents occurred in the first five years of life, accounting for 5.3 million deaths, of which 2.5 million (47 percent) occur in the first month of life, 1.5 million (29 percent) at age 1–11 months, and 1.3 million (25 percent) at age 1−4 years. These are mainly from pregnancy and childbirth preventable, and treatable diseases and conditions like pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, and malnutrition. 99% of all these maternal neonatal mortality deaths occur in developing countries like Uganda and are higher in women and infants living in rural areas and among poorer communities and families.

In Uganda, where our story begins, more than 85% of Uganda’s total population of 48 million people are residing in rural areas, and more than 80% of these are living out of the reach of health care and are living on less than $1 per day yet a round trip visit to a local health facility can cost $2-$10 US Dollar. Based on UNICEF’s current report on Maternal & Newborn Health in Uganda - in rural areas of Uganda over 5 kilometers from the nearest health facility, women rarely receive preconception care before pregnancy, pregnant women rarely receive the recommended 8 antenatal visits, many women are unable to deliver in a health facility, new mothers and newborns do not receive the required 6 postnatal checks, early life checkups, and vaccinations yet the services are available for free at government health facilities. This is mainly due to ignorance, difficulty, and expense in transportation since people have to go to health facilities to seek help. This gap has led to higher infant and mother mortality and morbidity in Uganda whereby every day 16 women die from preventable pregnancy and childbirth-related causes, 94 babies are stillborn and 81 newborn babies die. This equates to 69,570 preventable deaths each year during pregnancy, childbirth, and in the first month + many unknown unregistered deaths.

Health for all is imminently possible.  We can together build a world where no mother and/or child die just because they are poor, or because they live too far from a health facility if we have the courage to go beyond the walls of our health care facilities. While most health systems sit stationary, ready to treat the patients that reach them, Infants’ Health Foundation (IHF) commits to reaching patients where they are. IHF breaks down the barriers to accessing and utilizing maternal-child healthcare services in remote hardest to reach villages of Uganda by using microfinance motorcycle ambulances to bring midwives and other health workers to these areas where the need is highest on a monthly basis so they can provide free home-based quality and timely essential treatment and relevant information throughout the stages of pregnancy to low-income mothers and children living far from health facilities as well as giving them access to safe, quick and reliable free emergency transport to reach a health facility during labor. Our nurses in our comprehensive clinics provide antenatal check-ups, vaccinations, birth information, postnatal check-ups, child check-ups, nutrition information and treatment, HIV tests, anti-retroviral referrals, family planning, pneumonia treatment, diarrhea treatment, malaria testing and treatment, Sexually Transmitted Infections testing and treatment, counseling, referrals, and other lifesaving services.

This is effectively done through the following steps;

We identify a rural district with limited health facilities, impassable roads, and where the vast majority of the locals are forced to walk for hours at a great cost to access the nearest health facility.

We establish a working relationship with various stakeholders in the district including the District Health Department, community groups like women and youth groups. Together, we identify the existing remote hardest to reach villages in the district which are vulnerable and are underserved and the existing nearby government health facilities.

After we track for low-income women of reproductive age who are likely to get pregnant-mostly the married ones, pregnant mothers-in early 1st trimester, recent and new mothers, and children of 0-5 in the chosen remote villages and those living nearer each other are mobilized, organized and clustered into manageable groups. They select a convenient place from where they always meet to receive our services. This can be a home of one member within the group or a public place like a school, church, mosque, community hall, or a traditional homestead established by a family or clan. A mobile tent is always made available for especially mother check-ups to ensure privacy.

We then establish a system to conduct monthly, one-day comprehensive health clinics. Three to four government health workers including at least 1 midwife with medical supplies and medicine are transported by our motorcyclists to the chosen places so they can provide our maternal child healthcare services throughout pregnancy stages. At the end of the day, health workers go back to the health facilities where they are based and return to the served villages next month to ensure continuity of the program. Each health worker is facilitated with travel allowances and stipends of $6.7 (UGX 25,000) in every outreach clinic.

Transportation, together with the community groups we identify a community member looking for economic opportunity, and we mostly target the orphans, school dropouts, persons living with HIV/AIDS. The identified local resident is equipped with skills in basic first aid, road safety, and how to manage mothers in case they progress into the second stage of labor while on the way to the health facility. We then microfinance our motorcycle to him/her, who takes the motorcycle and runs his own motorcycle business and, as a condition he serves 3 nearby villages with monthly one-day clinics. Also available to carry mothers to health facilities in times of labor. On those days that he serves the villages, is only compensated for fuel. In the remaining days, the motorcyclist runs his motorcycle business. And on the days the motorcyclist operates motorcycle business he gives us UGX10,000 ($2.7) daily. This money supports in catering for the health workers' stipends. This makes our activities sustainable and easily scalable. But in Uganda, a motorcyclist doing motorcycle business can get at least UGX 30,000 ($8.3) daily. We adapt and modify the commonly available transportation in Uganda and East Africa in general of motorcycles, rather than setting up something new. Motorcycles help us reach places where vehicles cannot(go).

The program not only helps to bring life-saving and life-changing healthcare services to low mothers and children living in remote hardest-to-reach areas but also, improves the local economy, helping individuals earn a living and become self-reliant. It also enables IHF to become less dependent on donors, by our estimates eventually being able to fund more than 55% of the total budget through revenue from the motorcycles. It is because of this that will potentially enable this model to scale nationally and globally as other Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) and NGOs with similar missions as IHF, embrace and implement this model as they also strive to reduce their dependence on donor funding.

IHF is targeting low-income women of reproductive age who are likely to get pregnant-mostly the married, pregnant mothers, recent and new mothers, their partners, and children of 0-5 years regardless of their ethnicity, political affiliation, educational background, national origin, religion and ability, and who the vast majority are living on less than $1 per day and are residing far from health facilities in remote hardest to reach villages of Uganda – The villages which have historically been deemed as too difficult to serve and left without access to basic, lifesaving care. -The communities in dire need of health services. Where there are impassable roads that even motor vehicles cannot go, and where locals are forced to walk for many miles at a great cost (often 30 – 60 kilometers) to reach the nearest health facility.

Although IHF’s primary target beneficiaries consist of low-income women of reproductive age likely to get pregnant, pregnant women, recent and new mothers, their partners, and children living far from health facilities in remote hardest to reach villages of Uganda, IHF provides a variety of health information and services through education campaigns ranging from maternal and child health, reproductive health, warning signs of a dangerous pregnancy, prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV, exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months to healthy nutrition, proper sanitation and hygiene as well as COVID-19, of current, which many other people can benefit from. This is done through IHF’s community meetings, radio talk shows, community launches, social media platforms of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, public events, workshops, motorcycle reflectors, outreach campaigns.

Data collected from Infants’ Health Foundation’s outreaches is vital to the Ugandan Ministry of Health and the international community to develop appropriate policies and programs for specific regions, improving access to quality healthcare services with short-term and long-term outcomes. Health workers also benefit from our continuous empowerment workshops.

Our solution impacts our beneficiaries through; 1) A reduction in infant and mother mortality and morbidity since mothers and children are able to get the timely and adequate care needed throughout the pregnancy stages. 2) Increased male participation in maternal-child healthcare services due to home-based services and educational campaigns. 3) Promotion of gender equality since women are empowered to make decisions, especially on their reproduction and availability of transportation in cases of referrals makes them independent from male dominance of providing transport. 4) People make well-informed decisions due to our accurate information during educational campaigns carried out by our skilled qualified nurses rather than them depending on fake information from unqualified relatives, witch doctors, and traditional birth attendants. 5) Mothers are able to save since they no longer incur the great costs of reaching health facilities due to our home-based services and thus increase in living standards. 6). Employment opportunities were created for health workers, motorcycle drivers, village health teams among others.

Infants’ Health Foundation believes that the locals have the power to lead in creating lasting change in their own health outcomes. That’s why we vastly work with local residents, community leaders and network with local partners. We aim to recruit and hire as much as possible from the communities we serve, tapping into local expertise and building sustained local capacity. Our team of over 10 people is community-led: all of the team is Ugandan, 90% of the team is female, and the majority of the team is from the communities we serve.

Sylivia Kyomuhendo, Founder & Director. Sylivia is responsible for driving the mission of the organization and overseeing the operation. Sylivia was born and raised in Syanjonja village one of the remote hardest to reach villages in Namayingo district-Uganda where accessing a health facility was a nightmare due to combined factors of poverty and long distances (difficulties and expenses in transportation). They had to always walk for over 25 kilometers to access a nearby health facility. Due to this, Sylivia lost her beloved sister and the newborn niece. Sarah safely delivered at home, but bled heavily afterward and eventually died. Worst of it all, the newborn baby was born with spina bifida, and her family members and neighbors muchly believed it was witchcraft and took her to a shrine to the witchdoctor to be cleansed of the demons they truly believed were attacking her, unfortunately, Malaika also died. She turned her frustrations and sad experience of lack of healthcare services into motivation and dedication to breaking the barriers to accessing and utilizing maternal-child health care services in her community of origin and Uganda at large. Sylivia is a 2021 Common WealthYouth Awards finalist for the African region, 2021 Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme Fellow, 2020 Savvy Fellow, Uganda's 1st Runner-up and Top Female Entrepreneur of the year in the 2019 Total Startupper of the year competitions, Selected as a 2021 One Young World fellow – Germany Munich, under the Young Health Programme Scholarship Supported by AstraZeneca, Member of the CIVICUS, Member of the NCD Alliance, Uganda's Representative & Fellow at South & East Africa Preconception Care Group, Uganda's Representative & Fellow at World Birth Defects Day Movement.

Sylivia has as well been selected as a keynote speaker at numerous national and international summits including the 9th International Conference on Birth Defects & Disabilities in Developing Countries held in Sri Lanka – Colombo, a World Health Organisation - Geneva led symposium at ICBD 2020, Congenital Birth Defects Surveillance Workshop in Kampala - Uganda. Organized by WHO Regional Office for Africa and WHO Geneva together with March of Dimes and CDC Atlanta, The European Policy and Expert Summit on Preconception Health in The Hague – the Netherlands, The World Health Organisation (W.H.O), Geneva & March of Dimes 2019 World Birth Defects Day Commemoration webinar, The 1st Annual National Health Promotion Conference at Speke Resort Munyonyo – Kampala, Uganda.

Sylivia holds a Master's in Public Health from Busitema University and a bachelor’s degree in Community Based Rehabilitation from Kyambogo University. She also holds various qualifications including a Certificate in Compassionate Communication at Center for Nonviolent Communication from Kenya, Certificate of Start and Improve Your Business at Federation of Uganda Employers in collaboration with International Labour Organisation, Certificate in Community Based Sexual and Reproductive Health - Inspire Counselling, Certificate in Uganda Sign Language - Inspire Counselling in partnership with Uganda National Association of the Deaf. 

 Harrison Okello, Co-Founder & CEO. Harrison directs the vision, leads the team, and oversees development. Harrison grew up in Bubooko village where there were no health facilities and one had to always travel many miles at a great cost to access the nearby health facilities, as a result, his family and community muchly relied on traditional herbalists and birth attendants, and witch doctors for health services and information. His newborn twin sisters both died at the traditional birth attendants’ home during delivery. He vowed to change the health situations in his community of origin. He Co-Founded Infants’ Health Foundation. Harrison holds a bachelor’s degree in Community Based Rehabilitation from Kyambogo University.

Hawaah Namuzidde, Health Manager. Hawaah grew up in a remote community in Buyinja Sub County-Nsoono village in Namayingo district. She witnessed a tragedy within one week when 6 women in her village tragically died because they lived too far from the nearest health center. She was inspired to become a midwife and motivated to become part of the solution.  She saves lives in Uganda’s rural remote communities - some of the most dangerous places on earth to give birth. Haawah holds a diploma in Midwifery from Mulago Nursing & Midwifery School. Before joining Infants’ Health Foundation, she worked with government health facilities as a midwife for over 5 years.

Joyce Nekesa, Head of Village Health Team –Joyce is a former traditional birth attendant who became one of Infants’ Health Foundation’s first Community Health Workers. “Being a traditional birth attendant, we didn’t have a lot of things to help mothers. We worked barehanded without protection. If there was a difficulty, hospitals were not near for help so it often led to death,” she says. “Getting trained as a Community Health Worker affected my life greatly – we were told the dangers of giving birth outside of the facility, and it reduced the mortality of the women and the babies.” Today, Joyce is a mentor for other IHF’s Community Health Workers and is a highly-respected role model in her community.

Our Board of Advisors include; Dr. Peter Waiswa -a Ugandan medical doctor, Associate professor of Health Policy Planning and Management at Makerere University School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Uganda. He is also a member of the World Health Organisation Advisory Board. He is a health systems researcher with a focus on newborn health and development and maternal-newborn-child health services. Etienne Salborn is a changemaker-maker and the founder of the Social Innovation Academy (SINA), enabling disadvantaged youth in East Africa to unleash their potential to become self-reliant and create social enterprises. Dr. Olive Sentumbwe. Dr. Ssentumbwe is the Family Health and Population Advisor at the World Health Organisation. She has been a champion of family planning and maternal health throughout her career. Patrick Magoola -is an experienced District Health Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the medical practice industry. He is currently the District Health Officer of Namayingo district where Infants’ Health Foundation currently operates. Rebecca Nerima -is the Consultant, Uganda/South Sudan Program Manager Vitamin Angels Alliance

We are continuously seeking feedback from the communities we serve to ensure we are serving their needs. By working with the communities to create solutions, partnering with government healthcare workers, and utilizing the free healthcare services already available to the Ugandan residents, we are able to operate with a small number of staff and volunteers. Our operations are funded through individual donations and grants. We started implementing our vision and program in mid-2019 with a small, mostly volunteer, staff in just a few villages. Since then, we have grown as an organization to have program, research, and development staff and an impressive Board of Advisors. We steadily built our reputation in the communities we serve as an organization capable of providing high-quality healthcare services on a sustainable basis. 

We are serving our communities of origin, we are the hopes of our communities and this has kept us motivated and more hungry for the scalability of our impact. Not even bad weather or flooded roads can deter us from reaching the underserved communities and serving them with timely and affordable high-quality healthcare services.

We would greatly benefit from assistance with our scale and revenue models, as well as our ability to validate the impact we are achieving. This partnership would also further our goal of becoming a thought leader in health system design.

Secondly, given our resourcing requirements to meet our scaling goals, your connections will be invaluable to ensuring access to a broader pool of technical/financial/strategic resources.

It is so incredible to work, listen and engage, with stellar and talented change-makers who have similar missions to change the world and who actually have personal reasons why they want to make those changes.

Lastly, one of the most scalable ways for us to advance change in the world is to transform the way we lead our organizations, and that, to us is a profound opportunity, a huge need, and something we’re immensely excited that you offer.

The traditional health care model of private and government clinics and hospitals is that they sit stationary, ready to treat the patients that reach them, IHF’s community health model takes the health services to the people where they are, in their communities- within or nearest to their homes and thus IHF’s patients are able to access the lifesaving and lifechanging healthcare that they would not have otherwise accessed within the walls of a clinic or hospital. The IHF community health model is cheap yet the impact is immense. It’s the best way to invest in those left furthest behind in remote hardest-to-reach villages. IHF’s quality and timely community-based comprehensive health services are freely provided to our beneficiaries. IHF as well provides pregnant mothers and the sickest patients with access to safe, quick, and reliable free emergency transport of motorcycle ambulances to reach a health facility during labor.

IHF works in partnership with the government health facilities rather than competing with them. IHF facilitates government health workers who travel with medical supplies and medicine, with transport allowances and stipends to reach the unreached villages and serve the underserved populations. Throughout IHF’s lifesaving work, it is collaborating with various stakeholders including schools, mission, and faith-based institutions, women and youth groups, private clinics, motorcycle groups, CBOs, and NGOs.

IHF’s activities are sustainable and scalable because of our sustainability plan of motorcycle ambulances operating motorcycle business on the days we don’t have health activities, thus, IHF does not only help to bring healthcare to mothers and children living far from health facilities in remote hardest to reach areas, but also improving the local economy, helping individuals earn a living and become self-reliant.

IHF is serving populations that are difficult to reach and that other organizations do not target, who, the vast majority are living on less than $1 per day and are residing far from health facilities in remote hardest to reach villages of Uganda – The villages which have historically been deemed as too difficult to serve and left without access to basic, lifesaving care. The communities in dire need of health services. Where there are impassable roads that even motor vehicles cannot go, and where locals are forced to walk for many miles at a great cost to reach the nearest health facility. We realized that it was a necessity and extremely important to bring the services closer to the low-income women and children living in these remote hardest-to-reach villages because everyone everywhere has a right to access health care.

Community-led. IHF's proactive health system taps the power of social networks, community leaders, and local women. Communities take the lead to create lasting change. We continue to put communities we serve at the forefront of everything that we do - engaging community committees as governance structures, hiring former traditional birth attendants as Community Health Workers, and partnering with the local government.

Justice-Driven. Every person has the right to health care. Millions of people living in poverty die every year from diseases we know how to treat. Their deaths constitute one of the greatest injustices in our world today.

Simple. Proactive Care is a simple, straightforward model designed for successful government implementation at scale. Through our continuous testing, we have worked to design a streamlined intervention with simple, focused strategies that are easy to implement.

Infants’ Health Foundation aims to provide accurate maternal-child health information to at least 2,500,000 people through community outreaches, radio and television talk shows, door-to-door home visits, community launches, public events, workshops, social media platforms, stickers in public passenger vehicles, and motorcycle reflectors. To directly provide maternal child health services to 500,000 low-income mothers and children living far from health facilities in remote hardest-to-reach villages of Uganda regardless of ethnicity, political affiliation, race, religion, ability, and educational background. We want to show the world that 2 miles, 3 miles, 10 miles, 20 miles would never stand in the way of a happy life.  We are determined to sextuple our reach and impact within the next five years from now. Our ambition, and the scale of the need, however, goes far beyond this. With more than one billion people in the developing world still lacking access to care. We need to accelerate impact far beyond what Infants' Health Foundation can achieve alone. We have three strategic objectives to achieve by 2027: 1) Scale our impact, 2) Strengthen our impact, and 3) Spread community health. 

We aim to boost our marketing-social media platforms, increase our institutional knowledge and continue becoming members of various forums where there is a vast opportunity to strengthen partnerships and get funding opportunities including Uganda NGO Forum, Uganda Water and Sanitation NGO Network, Africa Women Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum, among others. 

1). Patient numbers at our mobile outreach clinics in which we specifically monitor our services. 

2). Patient tracking data for how our motorcycle ambulances are used.

3). Before and after statistics in villages served of women completing antenatal checks, health facility births, and postnatal checks. 

4). Interviews with health workers and mothers.

The status quo, reactive way of delivering health care, waiting for patients to come through the door, often leaves behind the poor, who never make it to the door because of cross-cutting barriers to care. As we have gone beyond the walls, we have reimagined what a health system can be without barriers. Health for all is imminently possible. No one should die waiting for health care. Proactive Care allows us to reach the patients who would not have otherwise made it inside the walls. In so doing, we march towards our goal of universal, quality health coverage.

There is a brilliantly hopeful future within our reach. A future where no mother dies in childbirth, and every child celebrates their fifth birthday. A future where no pain goes unexamined because a patient cannot reach the clinic, no illness is left untreated because of the cost. Where governments are supported to take the lead in providing quality health care for all their citizens and to build a health system that reaches patients rapidly through trusted health workers. This is the future our patients deserve. We now have the opportunity and the duty to bring the outcomes we’ve seen in the communities we serve to patients across Uganda and beyond.

Using this approach, the impact of Infants’ Health Foundation;

1). A reduction in infant and mother mortality and morbidity since mothers and children will be able to get the timely and adequate care needed throughout the pregnancy stages.

2). Increased male participation in maternal-child healthcare services due to home-based services and educational campaigns.

3). Promotion of gender equality since women will be empowered to make decisions, especially on their reproduction and availability of transportation in cases of referrals makes them independent from male dominance of providing transport.

4). People make well-informed decisions due to our accurate information during educational campaigns carried out by our skilled qualified nurses rather than them depending on fake information from unqualified relatives, witch doctors, and traditional birth attendants.

5). Mothers are able to save since they will not be incurring the great costs of reaching health facilities due to our home-based services and thus increase in living standards.

6). Employment opportunities created for health workers, motorcycle drivers, village health teams among others. 

Infants’ Health Foundation is driven by the core technology of user-friendly mobile application to provide access to prompt health care. Provided a pregnant woman has access to a mobile phone whether it is internet-enabled or not they can call the toll-free number which removes the need for low-income setting women to have internet-enabled phones. 

Mothers call to ask questions concerning maternity care and our health workers answer them accordingly. This supports us to debunk the dangerous myths about maternity care. They also call to inquire about the outreach clinics for example place and time.

In cases of emergency like labor, sickest patients in need of transportation services, they call and inform us about their locations, we then send our motorcycle ambulance to evacuate them to the nearest government health facility.

As we have gone beyond the walls, we have reimagined what a health system can be without barriers. Health for all is imminently possible. No one should die waiting for health care. Infants’ Health Foundation is targeting low-income women, of reproductive age who are likely to get pregnant-mostly the married, pregnant mothers, recent and new mothers, their partners, and children of 0-5 years Regardless of their ethnicity, political affiliation, educational background, national origin, religion, and ability. And who the vast majority are living on less than $1 per day and are residing far from health facilities in remote difficult reach villages of Uganda – The villages which are vulnerable and marginalized and have historically been deemed as too difficult to serve and left without access to basic, lifesaving care. The communities in dire need of health services. Where there are impassable roads that even vehicles cannot go, and where locals are forced to walk for many miles at a great cost (often 30 – 60 kilometers) to reach the nearest health facility.

We believe in a community where every person regardless of ethnicity, political affiliation, educational background, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, and ability has the opportunity to access the needed basic needs without facing financial hardship, and any forms of discrimination.

Infants’ Health Foundation is derived from the belief that; No mother and child should get sick and die just because they are poor, or because they live too far from a health facility. That is the premise why IHF serves the underserved populations in unreached areas. Access is fundamental to our mission and history. 

Our key resources: Motorcycle ambulances, motorcycle drivers, health workers, medical supplies.

key stakeholders: Government health facilities, religious institutions, schools, communities, Vitamin Angels, Peace Corps.

key activities: Creating access to health care through (i) mobile community-based healthcare services (ii) Prompt motorcycle ambulance transportation to the hospital.

Type of intervention: Mobile community-based healthcare services and emergency motorcycle ambulance transport.

Channels: Community health workers, community outreaches, radio and television talk shows, door-to-door home visits, community launches, public events, workshops, and social media platforms, stickers in public passenger vehicles, motorcycle reflectors.

Beneficiary: Pregnant mothers, recent mothers, and children below 5 years across the country.

Value proposition: Timely and affordable access to quality maternal-child healthcare services and emergency transportation to health facilities.

Impact measures: Reduced home deliveries, reduced pregnancy-related complications, reduced time to access hospitals, prompt dispatch.

Beneficiary value: Ensure that no mother and/or child die just because they are poor, or because they live too far from a health facility and thus reducing maternal morbidity and mortality, therefore, furthering the agenda of universal health care.

IHF adapts and modifies the commonly available transportation in Uganda of motorcycles to not only reach remote hardest-to-reach communities with essential health services but also, as our sustainability plan. Together with the communities we serve, we identify a community member looking for economic opportunity and mostly target, orphans, school dropouts, persons living with HIV/AIDS. We then microfinance our motorcycle ambulance to the identified local resident who takes the motorcycle and runs his own motorcycle business and, as a condition he serves 2-3 nearby villages with monthly one-day clinics. Also, available to carry pregnant mothers in labor and the sickest to government health facilities. On those days that he serves the villages, is only compensated for fuel. In the remaining days, the motorcyclist runs his motorcycle business. And on the days the motorcyclist operates motorcycle business he gives us UGX10,000 ($2.7) daily. Here, is the breakdown of IHF’s motorcycle program and its impact; 1 motorcycle costs $1300, Serves 3 villages with monthly clinics - serving approximately 1,750 patients per year (some of that includes return patients), enables at least 50 low-income pregnant women to deliver in health facilities annually, enables Ugandan health workers to serve the underserved patients in remote hardest-to-reach areas, gives one economically disadvantaged resident capital to start a small business to better support his family and serve his community, brings revenue to IHF which enables us to become less dependent on donors, by our estimates eventually being able to fund more than 55% of the total budget. Through the revenue it generates, the motorcycle is able to repair itself as well and there is always full motorcycle cost recovery within 30 months. A motorcycle lasts for 8-10 years. And after that period, it can still be sold at approximately $550.

IHF aims to strengthen partnerships. This will be through joining various forums where there is vast opportunity to strengthen partnerships and get funding opportunities including Uganda NGO Forum, UWASNET (Uganda Water and Sanitation NGO Network), AWIEF-Africa Women Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum. IHF is already an associate member organization of the Civicus Alliance, a network member of NCD Alliance, a member of Condom Distribution Unit – an agency by Ugandan Ministry of Health - we are the main distributors of condoms in Namayingo district, a member of the Consortium of Grassroots based Development Partners – an alliance for Uganda’s grassroots level organizations who equally suffer from reduced donor funding and are looking for sustainable projects generating income and empowering themselves through training on proposal writing among others. We are also in the cohort of the World Birth Defects Day Movement representing Uganda., Tony Elumelu Foundation fellow, One Young world fellow, Savvy fellow, Common Wealth Youth Awards Fellowship,

We also seek investment for donations from stakeholders in the community and abroad like caregivers, donors, and social investors including USAID, Vitamin Angels, World Health Organisation among others. 

We as well carry out fundraising from well-wishers in the communities we serve and various persons of goodwill.

Infants' Health Foundation has won various local, national, and international awards and fellowships including Uganda's 1st Runner-up and its founder ranked as the Top Female Entrepreneur of the Year in the 2019 Total Startupper of the year Challenge and received a money prize of UGX45,000,000 ($12500). Received a grant of 16 laptops from Labdoo. Won medical supplies grant from Vitamin Angels of 4000 doses of Albendazole 400 mg Chewable Tablets - Children 12-59 Months, 280800 doses of Multivitamins - Pregnant Women, 1000 doses of Vitamin A 100,000 IU - Children 6-11 Months, 2000 doses of Vitamin A 200,000 IU - Children 12-59 Months, fundraised and raised UGX2,800,000 ($800) which supported us to buy bicycles. One Young World fellowship funded by AstraZeneca through Young Health Programme.  Won a research and travel grant of UGX30,000,000 ($8600) from March of Dimes in collaboration with CDC Atlanta and W.H.O – Geneva and presented at the 9th International Conference on Birth Defects & Disabilities in Developing Countries in Sri Lanka with an abstract titled" Role of motorcycles in improving the health status of low-income women living far from health facilities in remote difficult to reach areas of Uganda before, during and after pregnancy. Won a research and travel grant from W.H.O Regional Office for Africa and presented in the Congenital Birth Defects Surveillance Workshop in Kampala – Uganda. Won a travel grant from Preparing for Life – Netherlands and presented in the First European Policy & Expert Preconception Care Summit in the Netherlands. Won UGX18,400,000 ($5,000) from Tony Elumelu Foundation as the 2021 TEF fellow. Won UGX4,000,000 (£1,000) from the Common Wealth Youth Awards 2021 as one of Africa’s Regional Finalists. Won medical supplies and human resource grants from USAID of Condoms, malaria mosquito nets, and Peace Corps Volunteers. Our motorcycles have continuously generated revenue that has supported us to meet some expenses during our mobile outreaches.