About

Who we are

A small team of rural health workers passionate about enabling other health care workers to provide excellent newborn care to mothers and their babies giving them the right start in life for optimal growth and development

LINC hopes to:

Inspire health workers to take a lead in providing excellent newborn care
Provide learning materials, job aids and access to information
Develop an eLearning platform to reach health care workers through ‘digital’ outreach
Monitor and evaluate newborn care services through the use of data and clinical audits
Share good practices, new developments and innovations in newborn care
Innovate, pilot and research new approaches to improving newborn care
Provide newborn care information, education and support to parents and communities
Provide newborn care technical support to the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Free State

Our History

LINC started in 2002 through a partnership between the Limpopo Department of Health and the University of Limpopo to motivate and support hospitals in Limpopo to improve newborn care services. LINC has succeeded in establishing neonatal care services in all facilities in Limpopo through supporting leadership and guidelines, tools, training and mentoring to health care workers.

The LINC approach has been recognised as a best practice and in 2013 the National Department of Health adopted the guidelines, training and essential package of newborn care for use in District Hospitals in South Africa

Partners and Funders

LINC has developed partnerships and networks with a number of organisations including the Limpopo Department of Health, University of Limpopo, University of Limpopo Trust and Centre for Rural Health, University of KZN and the South African National Department of Health.

LINC is grateful for the funding and support from UNICEF, Save the Children, Friends of Sick Children, Discovery Foundation and ELMA Foundation. LINC is currently providing technical support to the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Free State with UNICEF Support.

The LINC team

The LINC team inlcudes the many dedicated individuals who are providing support to newborns and support the work of LINC. The current LINC project staff include:

Anne Robertson, the Limpopo Provincial Paediatrician and Senior Lecturer; University of Limpopo is the team leader. Anne is passionate about improving the health care system and enabling health care workers.

Joy Summerton, a health systems and social scientist is the project manager. Joy is a self-proclaimed human rights activist, advocating particularly for the rights of women, newborns, children and LGBTI.

Nicole Frank is our project administrator. She has a passion for administration and enjoys working in the NGO Sector.

Tsakani Mtileni is our Monitoring Evaluation Reporting and Learning (MERL) manager. She is also a demographer and enjoys working with statistics.

Lolly Mashao, the Limpopo Neonatal Nurse Coordinator, is our lead Neonatal Nurse Facilitator. Her passion is to ensure that babies and their mothers receive high quality care in health facilities through training, mentorship and support.

Dave Greenfield, a retired doctor has been supporting our initiative since 2003, he has extensive experience in newborn care and currently provides consultant support to the Eastern Cape

Veliswa Mgudlwa, a Neonatal Nurse recently come back home from the UK is the Neonatal Nurse Coordinator in the Eastern Cape

Jakes Rawlinson, an experienced public health doctor is assisting with Information, education and communication.

Vanessa Booysen a passionate Neonatal Nurse, previously supported newborn care in the Free State, and now assist with the development of material on a part time basis.