Funding Area: Health
One Heart Worldwide was founded in 1998 as a maternal and neonatal healthcare (MNH) project in the Tibetan Autonomous Region through the University of Utah and opened a base of operations in Nepal in 2010. They have since scaled from two pilot districts to improving access to quality MNH care for over 1.8 million pregnant women and their infants in 36 districts across Nepal. External evaluations have found that their work, in collaboration with the Nepali Government, has led to substantially accelerated progress towards helping Nepal achieve its SDGs for maternal and neonatal mortality.
Their mission is to make pregnancy and childbirth safer for all. They envision a locally-led health system that reaches all women and their children, with an emphasis on those living in last-mile environments. Their model is designed to address the systemic barriers to care faced by underserved populations. By partnering directly with the Nepali government and local stakeholders, they support those actors’ capacity to design and maintain an effective continuum of care based on their local context.
Projects We Support
Simulation-Based Mentorship Training for Birth Attendants in Rural Nepal
One of the main issues contributing to Nepal’s too-high neonatal and maternal mortality is the poor quality of training that healthcare providers, including Skilled Birth Attendants (SBAs), receive. To better address the training needs of maternal and neonatal healthcare service providers and improve the quality of essential obstetric and newborn care services in rural Nepal, OHW has developed, piloted, and implemented a simulation-based mentorship program, the first of its kind in Nepal, to train SBAs and other healthcare providers on lifesaving techniques and skills. Trainees practice clinical skills on high-fidelity medical manikins that simulate pregnant, delivering, and breastfeeding women and infants. This approach improves skills retention by providing experience in real-world scenarios.
In 2025, with support from The Tomberg Family Philanthropies, OHW trained 8 Clinical Mentors in Nepal’s remote Humla district, who will then train SBAs across the district using the simulation-based methodology- To date, those mentors have reached 229 individuals with training activities. They also set up three large simulation-based training laboratories at major health centers and hospitals, as well as six smaller “neonatal resuscitation training corners” at smaller health facilities so that even healthcare providers in the most remote villages can practice this lifesaving skill. The program is expected to improve access to quality healthcare for nearly 2,000 pregnant women and 1,500 newborns in Humla each year.
2026 Grant
In 2026, with Tomberg’s support, OHW will expand this program to the district of Saptari. By the end of the intervention, we expect nurses and healthcare providers trained under this program to serve a total population of 29,000 mothers and infants per year.
Support Dates: March, 2025 – Ongoing
Organization and Project Photos
Note: This information was provided by One Heart Worldwide.
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