School nurse Bali Babwe cradles the baby she adopted five months ago
A little girl born too small, too soon. She weighed one kilogram and her mother had died in childbirth
But the infant was given a second chance. How are you? In that situation we got a company called the Atta and they gave us a blessed miracle
Then I started giving the baby the blessed miracle, and the baby went again at 1.5
We were able to be discharged from Ragos Petro to go home
ATA, a Ugandan non-profit organization, collects, pasteurizes, and delivers human milk to babies in need
Since its launch in 2021, it has delivered over 1 liters of milk to more than 650 babies All donors are medically screened Still the idea of shared breast milk remains culturally sensitive
It's like blood. If you have an accident and you need blood
they transfuse you with your own blood. You get blood from another person. So if someone can get blood, which goes into your brain
which goes in everywhere, and people have accepted blood, What of breast milk? Which you take and you pass out
So the main thing is proper education of the communities and then some of these cultural barriers can be overcome
Prematurity remains the leading cause of death for children under five globally and Uganda is no exception
with a neonatal mortality rate of 19 per 1,000 live births. The Ugandan government is now taking steps to scale up the initiative with more regional human milk banks across the country
For Bani Babu and her adopted daughter, breast milk sharing was more than a medical solution
It was a gift of survival