NICHE International was set up to train local health professionals to teach the Neonatal Care Course (NCC). We follow the model used by life support organisations all over the world – clinicians do the course themselves, some are recommended as instructors, they train as instructors, form their own faculty with a bit of support initially from senior instructors, start training their peers and eventually begin to train their own instructors. The NCC sits under the umbrella of the Advanced Life Support Group (ALSG) in the UK.
The overall aim of the Neonatal Care Course is to reduce neonatal mortality rates (death of a baby in the first month of life).
The statistics above taken from https://www.healthynewbornnetwork.org/hnn-content/uploads/Uganda-CD2030.pdf, show that the neonatal mortality rate in Uganda reduced from 35 per 1000 live births in 2000 to 21 in 2016. 35% of the under-5s deaths though are in the neonatal period. The NCC can help bring down the numbers of deaths caused by complications of preterm births, sepsis and pneumonia. Together, these 3 causes make up half of the deaths in the first 28 days of life. We think that’s something worth working for.