Uganda, Africa
Eema Care Centre manages 3 projects in and around Soroti, Uganda
Nurse midwife Marion Toepke did research focused on maternal health in the remote rural villages around Soroti. Then, rather than focusing on publishing a paper, she found countless ways to use her data to help the communities she had studied. Her program gave rise to the clinical outreach Eema Centre does now.
Because of the withdrawal of USAID and the dissolution of JHPIEGO, much of the support the Ugandan maternal health system received has stopped. Eema Care Centre and IMA now provide a variety of outreach to the 14 rural small health centers that are open and serving patients who used to go to Teso Safe Motherhood.
Eema Education Fund
The Education Fund provides scholarships to individuals seeking to advance their education, mostly in the healing arts and sciences. It comprehensively supports adult learners who would not otherwise be able to afford their education.
IMA works in the town of Soroti, Uganda in partnership with the local staff and board of directors of a CBO, a Community Based Organization. A CBO is a non-profit organization that works within a local community to improve the well-being of its residents. The organization is called the Eema Care Center. It administers three different education and outreach programs.
The first group of 34 students is composed of people who were on staff at Teso Safe Motherhood. For this reason, the individuals are well known to IMA to be kind, compassionate and talented care providers. Seven are in medical school, and ten are in advanced degree programs, like nursing. Two are pursuing MBAs, and the others are studying business, accounting, information and records management, laboratory science, and social sciences like counseling. Their scholarships are comprehensive – Eema provides housing, food, books, laptops, healthcare, childcare – everything they need to succeed. We are confident these talented and deserving adult learners will become tremendous doctors, advanced practice nurses, laboratory technologists, counselors and administrators.
Most of the students began school in August of 2024. We conduct site visits once or twice each year to ensure everyone is doing well in school, and we provide support when obstacles appear. It’s a little too early to assess things like graduation rates, but everyone’s grades and progress through their programs demonstrate the group's commitment to success.
Updates From The Students
“I’m enjoying classes. I have
a feeling, after this course,
if all goes well, I will do a bit
of teaching. That is what I’ve discovered. I’ve realized I’ve gotten some skills. I’m building my confidence. There is a teaching college at Mulago, a nine-month course I’d like to do at the end of this program I’m in. I’d like to teach at Soroti University, I want to be at home and serve my home people.”
Aiso Salome
Bachelors of Medical Laboratory Science
Student at Clarke University
"Currently, I am placed at Mulago Hospital (the national referral hospital). I have developed a strong interest in the ICU (intensive care unit), caring for unconscious patients. I’d like to continue for a Master’s, I’d like to specialize in critical care. We don’t have that in Soroti. They have a room they call the ICU but there is no equipment or trained nurses there.”
Akiteng Esther
Nursing Student at Aga Khan University
“I feel it would be good for us
if we could cooperate with a medical school. At Teso Safe Motherhood we gave quality services, we could train people with a better culture and ethic to be incorporated into this country. Comparing hospitals where I’ve worked to Teso Safe Motherhood, it makes me really appreciate, really Iove the quality of work we did at Teso Safe Motherhood. We could do a good service by training others to give that quality service.”
Agunyo Phoebe
MD Student at Kampala International University
The Maternal Mortality Research Project
With Nurse Midwife, Marion Toepke
Nurse midwife Marion Toepke conducted research in the rural villages surrounding Soroti. Marion, who also holds a Masters Degree in Anthropology, began volunteering with IMA in Bamiyan, Afghanistan in 2006. In Uganda, she conducted a formal research project on causes of maternal death in the dozens of remote villages located in the Teso region around Soroti. Based on her research results, Marion has produced educational conferences and informational materials for the local people. She could have used her time and talent to write and publish a research paper. Instead, she used what she had learned to help the communities she studied. Her Village Women Conferences attract hundreds who come for health messages and support. Marion produced booklets for the folks in their local languages. The booklets, translated into three languages, contain practical guidelines for safer pregnancy with site-specific information on community resources.
Clinical Outreach
Eema Care Centre provides a variety of outreach to the rural communities that Teso Safe Motherhood once served. These communities attend small, “Level II” health centers. Richard Ocen, the outreach program director, finds there are 14 level two health centers in those areas that are open and serving patients.
Some of the centers are quite remote. They are staffed by midwives with limited education. They often lack running water and basic supplies. They don’t have dependable power to sterilize instruments. They relied on aid provided by USAID for things like sterile scalpel blades to cut umbilical cords. That aid is now gone.
Because of the withdrawal of USAID and the dissolution of JHPIEGO, much of the support the Ugandan maternal health system received has stopped. Programs that provided for these village clinics have been discontinued. That is why Eema Care Centre now provides all 14 clinics with 100 “mama kits” per quarter. Mama kits contain all the essential sterile items for a safe birth.
Eema provides cost-free emergency transport 24/7, for mothers at these clinics who need to go the district hospital in town during labor and birth. During some transports, Richard learned that many of the centers lacked blood pressure cuffs. Eema distributed blood pressure cuffs to the clinics after learning about the problem.
In early 2026, Eema Care Center distributed mosquito nets, donated by high school student Alice Wang, to mothers at the 14 health centers.
In 2026, Eema and IMA will begin providing Helping Mothers and Babies Survive training for midwives in these fourteen centers. This fall, a group of IMA volunteers will teach the first module, Helping Babies Breathe ™.
Health Center
IMA funded construction of a new healthcare facility. Dr. Martin Ouna, OB/GYN plans to open in 2026. We are looking forward to seeing the impact of his work on the community.