Through the MamaToto (“mother and baby”) initiative (2012-2018), HCU trained thousands of volunteer Village Health Team (VHT) members and supported health facilities, districts and community leaders with skills, equipment, and locally-driven innovations.

The results were striking: Higher vaccination and prenatal care rates, better early care-seeking, and major reductions in child deaths, pneumonia, diarrhea, and malnutrition. Nearly all VHTs stayed active through the project, and two-thirds continue to volunteer a decade later.

MamaToto tools and training resources are now shared widely and continue to guide community health efforts in Uganda and beyond including for the large Mama na Mtoto scale-up initiative undertaken in Tanzania’s Mwanza Lake Zone from 2015 to 2020