Tanzania Opens World-Class Preemie Care Facility

A new state-of-the-art facility in Tanzania is revolutionizing how premature babies receive care by ensuring mothers never have to be separated from their newborns. The Doris Mollel Foundation built the $900,000 ward at Kwimba District Hospital, creating the first unit in Tanzania to fully implement the World Health Organization's zero separation concept.

The facility can care for about 40 premature infants each day while keeping families connected through every moment. Mothers can see and hold their babies even while the infants receive specialized medical care, transforming what has traditionally been an isolating and frightening experience.

Executive Director Doris Mollel, who was herself born premature at just 900 grams, designed the ward with deeply personal insight. She created transparent viewing areas so mothers can watch every stage of their baby's care and understand exactly what's happening.

The facility includes an innovative family room where fathers and relatives can visit mothers practicing skin-to-skin contact with their babies. This feature emerged directly from conversations with mothers who identified the exclusion of fathers from kangaroo care wards as a major challenge.

"The idea came directly from mothers themselves," Mollel explained. "They told us that one of the biggest challenges is that men are not allowed into kangaroo wards, so we felt it was important for a mother to step out holding her baby so the father can see them."

The WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will officially open the facility on February 28, 2026. The organization has strongly advocated for keeping mothers and babies together, and this ward represents that guidance translated into physical infrastructure that meets global standards.

The Ripple Effect: The Doris Mollel Foundation partnered with Keep a Child Alive, an organization founded by musician Alicia Keys, to make this vision real. The project includes housing for nurses to ensure round-the-clock care and represents the first step in a broader strategy to establish specialized preterm baby hospitals across Tanzania.

The facility demonstrates how listening to mothers and investing in family-centered design can transform healthcare delivery in profound ways.