Uganda, May 7 -- When a sudden flash flood in northern Uganda's Lamwo District submerged a road, 28-year-old midwife Alice found her ambulance and life-saving medical supplies stranded on the wrong side of the raging water, cut off from a refugee mother of six who had just gone into premature labour with twins.

Acting on pure instinct, Alice grabbed a waterproof plastic sheet from, hurled it across the water to shield the vulnerable newborn from the torrential rain, and waded across the receding waters to manually resuscitate the hemorrhaging mother, saving both her and her surviving baby.

Alice's story is extraordinary, but the precipice on which that mother's life hung is becoming alarmingly common.

Uganda is globally recognised as t...