Founded in 2021, ATTA Breastmilk Community aims to end preventable newborn death, through breastmilk donation while prioritising maternal health and mental well-being. ATTA is an acronym for Alyssa Taha and Tracy Ahumuza, representing the mother-child dyad. It is registered in Uganda as a not-for-profit social enterprise, the Alyssa Marie Foundation, dedicated to supporting parents and healthcare workers to provide the best possible nutritional start for newborns through facilitating the secure donation of breastmilk, training, and community engagement.
Equitable access to safely donated breastmilk to all newborn babies who need it to survive and thrive.
To end preventable newborn death, maternal, and mental health challenges through breastfeeding and safe breastmilk donation.
A community of parents dedicated to making donated breastmilk equitably accessible to all newborn babies who need it to survive.
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Tracy has served as a communication specialist at the Infectious Diseases Institute since 2017 where she leads a team in internal and external communications for social behavioural change, public and global health security initiatives. Tracy has a particular interest in women and child health with a passion in breastfeeding awareness which was ignited following her own traumatic birth experience, where she lost her daughter Alyssa three days after birth.
Tracy, through the Alyssa Marie Foundation, hopes of setting up Uganda’s first community-based milk bank to provide equitably accessible donated human milk to babies who need it the most and in the meantime support to the families of babies who require a human milk donor.
Doreen has been a general practitioner, nutritionist and lactation specialist since 2006. Her interest in breastfeeding and lactation support was kindled when she had her first child in 2012 and had a terrible experience with breastfeeding. Even with difficulties, she went on to exclusively breastfeed her three children.
Doreen dropped her desire to pursue a career as a physician and took on that of becoming a breastfeeding and lactation professional. She founded Naturally Nourish, a company that seeks to empower mothers and their support persons to confidently nurture their children through the provision of professional nutrition and childcare support for the first one thousand days. She has obtained several hours of lactation-specific training with over 70 L-CERPS and through Naturally Nourish, she has supported breastfeeding families for over 600 man hours and counting.
Catriona is a professor of Clinical Pharmacology from the University of Liverpool. Her area of expertise is medication dosing and safety in pregnant and breastfeeding women and their babies, and she has been based at the Infectious Diseases Institute since 2014 studying antiretrovirals, anti-TB drugs and antimalarials.
She is passionate about ensuring that women receive the evidence-based information on which to base decisions about their health and the health of their babies, and her work includes community engagement and empowerment activities. She is also a mother of five and has personal experience of breastfeeding and breast milk donation.
Rachael works with Vessel is Me, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving care for families who have experienced pregnancy loss, neonatal deaths, and couples dealing with infertility. She heads the team of first responders when these incidents happen. She offers psychosocial support and grief coaching.
Rachael professionally holds a Bachelor of Business Computing from Makerere University and has attended training in business and financial management by the USAID/Uganda Health Support program, PSFU.
PACE Skills development training on Franchise basics, Marketing Strategies, Customer loyalty and Financial Management, PSFU, PACE, and PROFAM.She has 10 years of working experience as a finance and administrative officer. She has excellent skills in budget formulation and monitoring.
Martin is a partner at Bytelex Advocates and heads the IP and Dispute Resolution Departments. Having started his career at one of the most profound litigation firms in the country, Martin has had an opportunity to learn from some of the most brilliant litigation minds and take part in some precedent-setting judicial battles.
He brings this unique and valuable experience with the singular purpose to get the most optimum results for any legal problems.
A founding Partner of Bytelex, Martin also takes a keen interest in intellectual property and advising entities on IP strategies and their respective IP rights necessary to their businesses.
Kathy set up and leads the Neonatal Unit at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital in eastern Uganda. She is the founder of the charity Born on the Edge, which works to improve newborn healthcare worldwide.
Kathy received her medical training in London before moving to Mbale, Uganda in 2014 with her husband and firstborn. She is now blessed with 3 girls, all of which she was grateful to have had the opportunity to breastfeed until they were more than two years old. She is passionate about improving the care of small and sick newborns in settings with limited resources.
She is particularly interested in the care of preterm babies in these settings including improving their access to donor human breast milk. She dreams of creating a donor human milk bank in Mbale! Kathy recently completed her PHD in neonatology at the University of Liverpool.
