Te-Kworo Foundation Update

Sonic Healthcare Foundation announces major partnership.

Te-Kworo Foundation, working in partnership with the Barbara May Foundation, has entered a significant new partnership with Sonic Healthcare Foundation – one that will deliver better maternal health outcomes for thousands of mothers and babies in one of the most disadvantaged parts of Uganda.

Under a new agreement, Sonic Healthcare Foundation will sponsor the construction, fit-out, procurement and operating costs of ‘Sonic Healthcare Foundation - Kworo Hospital’, a 42-bed maternal health facility in Agago District, an under-resourced district in northern Uganda.

The new hospital is expected to save the lives of thousands of Ugandan women and babies in four remote districts in northern Uganda. In addition to funding the hospital construction and fit-out, Sonic Healthcare Foundation will support the hospital’s day-to-day running costs for at least three years.

“Te-Kworo Foundation works with the most vulnerable people within northern Uganda - with pregnant women who have to walk miles to get services,” according to Te-Kworo Foundation founder and Executive Director Alice Achan.

Expansion of existing services
The new Sonic Healthcare Foundation – Kworo Hospital (SHF – Kworo Hospital) comes on the back of a small existing maternity clinic founded and run by Te-Kworo Foundation in the town of Pader. Since opening in 2017, the clinic has safely delivered 2,500 babies and provided antenatal and post-natal care to 20,674 women through an outreach program to remote villages in outlying and inaccessible areas.

In addition to the construction of the hospital, Sonic Healthcare Foundation will facilitate access to up-to-date pathology equipment as well as the clinical and scientific expertise of Sonic Healthcare and its 42,000 employees worldwide. This will include a fully functioning blood bank – a life-saving service that has been unavailable to the population to date.

Ongoing hospital support
Sonic Healthcare Foundation has actively supported hospitals in central Africa since 1996, and the Foundation currently supports hospital laboratories in Tanzania, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Goma, DRC. The latter includes support of the pathology and radiology departments and outreach programs in Congo.

NBRS & Te-Kworo Foundation
NBRS has a well-established relationship with the Te-Kworo Foundation by providing our time and resources pro-bono to design a maternal health hospital in Northern Uganda. Former NBRS architect David Heap has moved to Uganda to oversee the project jointly with Te-Kworo Foundation Uganda.

Read more about the NBRS & Te-Kworo Foundation Partnership here.

Maternal health statistics in Uganda
Every year in Uganda, 6,000 women die from pregnancy and childbirth-related causes. Every day, 94 babies are stillborn, and 81 newborn babies die. Most of these deaths are entirely preventable. Only 57% of births in Uganda take place with the support of a trained birth attendant, and many health facilities lack adequate staff, equipment, and infrastructure.

The rate of maternal mortality in northern Uganda, estimated to be 600 deaths per 100,000 births, is twice the national Ugandan rate of 300 per 100,000 births. This compares to 7 per 100,000 births in Australia.

Learn how you can help here.