In fall 2017, the East Africa Preterm Birth Initiative (PTBi-EA) began collecting tiny hats for tiny babies in East Africa. Then early this spring, members of the PTBi-EA teams began delivering the hats to mothers and babies at hospitals and health centers.
At Jinja Referral Hospital in Uganda, nurses unpacked tiny hats.
These tiny hats are vital for tiny babies. Preterm babies like this one are vulnerable to hypothermia and even death. Tiny hats keep them warm, giving them a healthy start in life.
Here, a nurse and mother found just the right hat for this tiny baby while the PTBi-EA program manager, Dr. Gertrude Namazzi, read a note from the knitter who made the hat.
The tiny hats were handmade and donated by knitters and crocheters in Africa, the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands.
PTBi-EA will be launching Tiny Hats for Tiny Babies 2018 in September. If you'd like us to send you more information about the campaign, please join our mailing list.
About PTBi-EA
At PTBi-EA our focus is on saving lives. Each year across the world, one million preterm babies die within the first 28 days of life, while over 300,000 women die in childbirth. PTBi-EA is working to reduce the number of preterm births and save the lives of preterm infants and their mothers, by improving quality of care and engaging in discovery research in regions of Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.
PTBi-EA is a collaboration among the University of California, San Francisco's Institute for Global Health Sciences; Kenya Medical Research Institute; Makerere University in Uganda; University of Rwanda and Rwanda Biomedical Center. PTBi-EA's work is generously funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Tiny Hats for Tiny Babies campaign was made possible through a partnership with the Warm Up America! Foundation.
To learn more about PTBi-EA and the Tiny Hats campaign, please view our videos.
Credits:
Photo: Abubaker Lubowa Video: Nicholas Berger