HISTORY OF INFANTS' HEALTH FOUNDATION

Infants' Health Foundation was founded by Kyomuhendo Sylivia. Sylivia grew up from a remote hardest to reach village in Namayingo district in Uganda where there was no health facility and access to a good road. Accessing a nearest health facility was so difficult that they had to always walk for at least 25 kilometers, taking approximately 5 hours. Sylivia lost her beloved sister and the newborn niece due to child birth complications. Sarah safely delivered at home, but bled heavily afterwards and eventually died. Worst of it all, her niece they were left with, was born with spina bifida and her family members and neighbors truly believed it was witchcraft and she was taken to a shrine to the witchdoctor to be cleansed of the demons they believed were attacking her, unfortunately Malaika also died.
With this haunting experience, Sylivia vowed to change health situations in her community because she didn't want what happened to her sister and niece to happen to anyone else. Sylivia believes that her sister would probably still be alive if the sister had a healthy pregnancy and if her family and community were sensitized with right maternity information. She realized that inaccessible health facilities is not only a problem in her community of origin but in Uganda at large where many people and more so the low income women and children living in remote hardest to reach areas have to walk many miles at a greater cost for health care services which have led to needless preventable mother and infants mortality and morbidity. After her government sponsored degree at Kyambogo University, backed by her intrinsic passion and commitment, motivated by her sad experience and frustration about inaccessible health facilities, she started fundraisings from family members, friends, community members and other well-wishers. With the raised funds, together with her team, they launched Infants' Health Foundation.



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