HealthConnect One and Uzuri Birth Celebrate Graduation of Ghana's First Community-Based Doula Cohort

Fifteen graduates trained across Ghana mark a historic milestone in community-based maternal health, with international diplomatic and organizational support 

ACCRA, Ghana, July 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- HealthConnect One and Uzuri Birth today announced the graduation of the first cohort of Ghana's Community-Based Doula training program, a historic milestone in the effort to strengthen maternal health care across the country and the African diaspora.

The graduation ceremony, held in Accra, celebrated fifteen graduates — thirteen women and two men — who traveled from across Ghana, some from as far as 12 hours away, to complete months of intensive classroom instruction and supervised clinical experience. Twelve graduates received certificates of completion, and three received certificates of participation after joining the cohort partway through the program. 

The training marks HealthConnect One's first international doula training cohort and formalizes Uzuri Birth as a certified training partner in Accra, Ghana. Built on a community-based doula model that HealthConnect One has developed over nearly 40 years, the program equips graduates to provide compassionate, culturally responsive support to women and families throughout pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period, while deepening their working relationships with local midwifery and birth centers in the Greater Accra region. 

"Institutions cannot do this alone. It happens when people on both sides open what they have built to one another," said Dr. Twylla Dillion, President and CEO of HealthConnect One, in remarks to the graduating cohort. "This work is not an export. It is an inheritance, reconnecting across the diaspora what was always meant to be connected." 

Dr. Dillion described the graduation as the continuation of a lineage rather than the start of something new. "This is not the beginning of something new, but the reinvigoration of something that was always ours," she said, adding that every graduate "carries this forward into their own community, and that community carries it to the next, until birth support that is rooted, respectful, and community-owned becomes the expectation." 

Shontei Hampton, Community Partnership Program Manager at HealthConnect One, facilitated the training program on behalf of HealthConnect One and provided ongoing program support to Uzuri Birth throughout the cohort, helping build the operational foundation for the partnership between the two organizations. 

Bobette Ngiedi Lelo, Founder and CEO of Uzuri Birth, a Congolese full-spectrum doula, traditional midwife, and childbirth educator who relocated to Ghana in 2021, served as lead facilitator for the cohort. Uzuri Birth partnered with local healthcare institutions, including Ogbojo Polyclinic in Accra and VRA Hospital in Akosombo, to provide graduates with hands-on clinical training in prenatal care, labor and delivery, and postpartum support. 

The ceremony drew diplomatic representatives from three nations. Kitoko Petha, Minister-Counsellor at the Embassy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Ghana, spoke on behalf of the DRC's Ambassador to Ghana, describing the graduation as "a historic milestone for Ghana and an inspiring example for the entire African continent." "We are celebrating a vision, a commitment, an investment in what is most precious for humanity: life itself," he said, adding that "no country can truly speak of development if the foundation of society, the family, is weakened by preventable death during childbirth." 

David Gibbs, First Secretary at the High Commission of Barbados to Ghana, represented Her Excellency Juliette Bynoe-Sutherland, High Commissioner of Barbados to Ghana, at the ceremony. Reflecting on his own family's experience with a difficult pregnancy while living in the United States, Gibbs spoke to the importance of community-based support even where formal healthcare access exists. "There's that fear element which doctors and hospitals may not always address adequately, and this need for that community approach... the significance of this event is not at all lost on me," he said. 

The program was facilitated by Ghanaian-Canadian media personality Ivy Prosper, and featured remarks from Mama Harriet Kaufman, a senior midwife who has worked in Ghana for nearly three decades, as well as a valedictory address from Vanessa Gyan on behalf of the graduating cohort. The ceremony closed with the presentation of certificates, a performance of the official Uzuri Birth theme song by recording artist Lady Letra Davis, and cultural performances including traditional drumming and a Congolese dance performance by Lokole Danse. 

HealthConnect One and Uzuri Birth said the Accra cohort is the first of what they intend to be an ongoing partnership, with plans for additional cohorts and a trainer pathway in Ghana aimed at making community-based birth support the standard of care from Accra to communities across the diaspora. 

Where community leads, life follows. Every Birth. Every Family. Every Community. 

About HealthConnect One 

For nearly 40 years, HealthConnect One has been a national leader in community-based doula and breastfeeding peer counselor care, working to advance birth equity for underserved families across the United States and, now, internationally. HealthConnect One trains and supports community-based birth workers whose lived experience and cultural knowledge strengthen trust and outcomes for the families they serve. Learn more at healthconnectone.org. 

About Uzuri Birth 

Uzuri Birth is a maternal health organization based in Accra, Ghana, founded by Bobette Ngiedi Lelo, dedicated to improving birth outcomes through holistic birth support, doula education, and community engagement. Uzuri Birth serves both local Ghanaian families and members of the African diaspora seeking personalized maternity care in Ghana, and leads Ghana's first Community-Based Doula training program in partnership with HealthConnect One. 

Media Contact
Nina Dillion
Executive Assistant
[email protected] | 773-395-2623 

SOURCE HEALTHCONNECT ONE