Our Story
From the Founder:
I have many things to say on a personal level about why it important to support mothers in countries with less developed medical infrastructure. However, as someone who is scientifically minded, I think it is appropriate to share some statistics to get an overview of why this need is so dire.
We now live on a planet of over 7,000,000 people. Approximately 15,000 babies are born every hour. In developed countries, the birth of a child is met with joy, excitement, and relative ease.
In countries like the United States or the United Kingdom, where the infant mortality rate lingers consistently around .005% (meaning you have less than a one percent chance of losing your infant at birth) there is little reason to fear. In these countries, babies are delivered in sterile, safe, and well-controlled environments.
This story has always been the norm for me. A friend or family member having a baby meant little tiny clothes being given at a shower, a midnight text on the way to the hospital, a photo shoot within a few weeks of the birth and then a cute birth announcement.
When my husband and I traveled to Uganda to adopt our son, my eyes were truly opened for the first time to the hardships of giving birth in an underdeveloped country. Uganda has no public health system. When you show up at a hospital, you must be able to pay up front for the supplies that will be needed for your treatment or you must bring the supplies with you.
Due to this predicament, many women choose to give birth at home or end up giving birth somewhere unseemly after they are turned away at the hospital for not having the money or supplies to deliver. This is not the only contributing factor to the shocking infant mortality rate of .052% (ten times higher than the UK or the US), but it is a contributing factor.
The good news is, this problem is incredibly easy to address. There are already people in Uganda creating what have been deemed “Mama Kits.” Put simply, a Mama Kit is a kit that Ugandan women need to give birth. It is an all-in-one kit that contains everything needed to help provide a clean and safe delivery.
The simplicity of this was so striking to me, that I knew I needed to do something. The medical field has always been my passion, and I knew that I could not ignore the issue at hand after seeing its affects first hand during my time in Uganda. That is why I decided to put together Kits for Uganda.
Put simply, we partner with people in Uganda in order to supply Mama Kits. When you purchase one of our chique, handmade, Ugandan bags turned into an easy carry first aid kit, portions of the proceeds go towards purchasing Mama Kits on site in Uganda.
Every family needs a first aid kit handy. We are blessed enough where I live that we typically only have to deal with first aid type emergencies. My hope is to sell first aid kits that are practical, cute, and easy access for moms in America so that our partners on the ground in Uganda can provide lifesaving kits for moms in Uganda.
Help us to reduce the risks for our sisters in Uganda. Let’s give them the gift of a safe and sterile environment that we so often take for granted. Your first aid kit isn’t just helping your family, it could be helping someone else safely begin their own.