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​Teacher Turns to Lay-Midwifery
to Serve Uganda's Mothers & Babies

​Jeniffer Mukhwana, BEd  — is a school teacher, lay midwife and community leader in her rural district of Wakiso — east of Uganda's Capital, Kampala, now also serving as a Founding Director of 'NIGH Uganda.'  She left her professional teaching in 2002 to become more involved in community work — first for the empowerment of women in her region — in self-help and entrepreneurship.

At the request of the Ugandan Ministry of Health, she has also taken on the role of voluntary lay midwife in her local community health center — working with skilled nurses and approved by her district leaders and health authorities to do so. Her dream is to continue training  in nursing and to acquire other advanced skills in health related matters. In this role, She notes that health must be based on teamwork at the village level. Jeniffer has also worked on NIGH’s focus to increase awareness about  Maternal Health with the 'Daring, Caring & Sharing to Save Mothers' Lives'  Campaign — with a focus on the specific needs of Ugandan women.
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Health must be based on
teamwork at the village level. 

Jeniffer serves as Co-Founder of 'NIGH Uganda' — a team of professional teachers, nurses, social workers and concerned citizens — including her husband Andrew, a Principal Headteacher at the Summit View Primary School, one of the biggest in Uganda's capital city Kampala. Affiliated with a growing circle of collaborators from the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health, the Mukhwanas have established the 'NIGH Uganda' team to advocate for and achieve the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Uganda, East Africa and worldwide. Recently they worked with school districts across Kampala to celebrate the 2017 United Nations Day by raising awareness about the UN SDGs. 

Together, in 2012, the Mukhwanas have also helped to organize the Muslim & Christian Teachers' Dialogue convened in Lira, Uganda — in association with the International Initiatives of Change (IofC). Attended by teachers, head teachers and principals of primary schools and colleges — as well as district education officers and political leaders — this conference focused on 'Enhancing Teachers' Role in Development, Peace Building and Good Governance.'

In these leadership roles, the Jeniffer and Andrew met with NIGH representatives, in 2010, at an International IofC conference in Switzerland. There they began their planning to collaborate with NIGH — to strengthen their own community service — particularly for rural womens' and girls' health and education — and to provide the NIGH representatives with much-needed insights for the 'on-the-ground' needs of women in rural Africa.

Jeniffer's online article — featured here  below — was first published on NIGH's original website.  She regularly ‘meets’  electronically within the NIGH leadership to implement their collective worldwide outreach and to empower the voices of nurses and midwives with messages of concern and hope for 'Improving Maternal Health' the UN Millennium Development Goal # 5 and the new UN Sustainable Development Goals.  

Photo Credits: From Jennifer Mukhwana's archives depicting her work at the Wakiso District Clinic near Kampala in Uganda.
Graphic Credits: UN SDGs Colour Wheel and UN SDG logos 3, 4 and 16  are posted here using the official UN SDG Logo Guidelines.