Cornety Nakiganda is a devoted midwife with more than 40 years’ experience in facility and community-based care. Much of her career has been spent working with Kiwoko Hospital in Uganda, as the midwife leading their community-based health care programme. For decades Ms. Nakiganda has provided quality care to mothers and babies in remote and resource-constrained settings who may be unable to make it to hospital. Ms. Nakiganda knows the community surrounding Kiwoko deeply. She is a trusted member of the community and is committed to using her position to promote the health of mothers and children.
Midwives are lifesavers. I enjoy helping mothers have a healthy pregnancy, safe delivery and then seeing babies grow and thrive. That makes me feel peace in my heart.
Ms. Nakiganda currently works as the Community Midwife in Adara Development’s Hospital to Home (H2H) programme. In this role, she leads the ‘home’ component of the programme, which involves providing follow-up support to families after their babies are discharged from the Kiwoko Hospital neonatal intensive care unit. In this role, she manages a team of 100 community health workers who provide the in-home follow-up care for these babies. She supports this team through guidance and ongoing training. Her leadership is empowering, inspiring her team to provide the best care, which impacts entire communities. In H2H’s first year alone, she helped touch the lives of more than 1,000 babies. The H2H programme has the potential to change the way care is delivered to vulnerable children and their families in resource-constrained settings. The leadership Ms. Nakiganda has demonstrated through this programme will have a lasting impact on the wider global health ecosystem. Ms. Nakiganda’s impact on newborn health has been noted by the Ugandan Ministry of Health. In 2019, she was recognized as a Newborn Champion by the Ugandan Ministry of Health for her tireless dedication to the health of vulnerable newborns and their families.