Thamini Uhai is a non-governmental organization supporting the Tanzanian government’s efforts to reduce maternal and newborn deaths in rural areas of Tanzania. Since 2008, Thamini Uhai, formerly known as World Lung Foundation, has established comprehensive emergency obstetric and neonatal care (CEmONC) in 16 public health centers and five hospitals in Kigoma, Morogoro and Pwani regions. In the final phase of implementation, Thamini Uhai expanded its support in Kigoma to 29 dispensaries and two health centers offering basic emergency obstetric and neonatal care (BEmONC).

Moreover, Thamini Uhai implemented a pilot Birth companionship project in one hospital and eight health centers in Kigoma from 2017 to 2018 before scaling-up the intervention to selected facilities in Katavi region.

  Thamini uhai has established a model that operates on three basic principles:

1.Decentralizing EmONC services to the health-center level significantly expands access to lifesaving services;

2.EmONC can be provided safely by well-trained non-physician providers (task shifting); and

3. Demand generation is key for utilization of the available services.