Every Newborn Deserves A Chance To Live
The Every Life initiative saves newborn lives by building and supporting high-quality neonatal care where it’s needed most — starting at Ngudu Hospital in Tanzania.
The Problem
The first 24 hours of life can decide everything
Every year, millions of newborns die from causes that are preventable with timely, quality care.
Most newborn deaths happen in the first hours and days of life — often simply because the right care is too far away.
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~2.3 million of newborns die every year, most from preventable causes.
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The highest risk is in the first hours and days of life. Approximately 75% of newborn deaths occur within the first seven days of life, and nearly 50% within the first 24 hours.
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In many regions, families must travel long distances to reach care.
The Impact
We Bring Life-Saving Care Closer
The Every Life initiative saves newborn lives by building and supporting high-quality neonatal care where it’s needed most — starting at Ngudu Hospital in Tanzania.
How it Works
We Are Starting in Tanzania
Every Life is closing the newborn survival gap by building NICUs across Africa—starting in Tanzania with a fully equipped unit that can treat more than 1,300 sick and low-birth-weight newborns each year.
The first Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is being built at Ngudu Hospital, in Kwimba District, Tanzania, providing immediate access to life-saving care while keeping mothers and babies together, close to home.
Kwimba District currently has no NICU, forcing families to travel more than 100 kilometers to access emergency newborn care.
In Tanzania, an estimated 46,000 babies die every year, with a neonatal mortality rate of approximately 24 deaths per 1,000 live births.
This is a high-need setting with a clear access gap, and it also represents a strong starting point for scale—through local partnership with the Doris Mollel Foundation (DMF) and alignment with broader maternal and newborn health investments.
KCA’s History in Tanzania
The Evolution of Empowerment and Actionable Change
Feb 2024
Antonio visits DMF’s
work with premature
babies in Tanzania
for the first time.
Feb 2024
KCA starts funding
DMF’s work in a hospital
wing for premature babies
in Tanzania.
April 2025
KCA and DMF decided to do
something and started the construction
of the first NICU hospital
in Tanzania begins,
thanks to KCA’s support.
Aug 2025
Antonio has the opportunity
to visit and witness
firsthand the progress
of the construction site…
Aug 2025
…and also meet some
of the mothers and their
babies in person.
Mar
2026
Inauguration of Tanzania’s
first NICU hospital
and its official
opening ceremony.
And This Is Only The Beginning
Where a baby is born should never decide if they survive.
Across Africa, too many newborns don’t have access to the equipment, medication, and trained care they need in the first critical hours of life.