“On a path of service, all doors will open”
—His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
Nurse Arlene Samen vividly remembers these inspiring words by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama in 1998, when he encouraged her to travel to Tibet to help mothers and children. This journey led her to create One Heart Worldwide (OHW) to run an innovative community-based maternal and neonatal healthcare (MNH) program in Tibet where her organization worked for 10 years on the ground. Unfortunately, due to the volatile political situation in Tibet, OHW had to leave in 2009 with a heavy heart. On the bright side, Tibet’s former OHW team started its own civil society organization and continues OHW’s legacy by promoting quality MNH services for pregnant women and their babies.
Within a year of OHW’s departure from Tibet, Arlene established the OHW program in Nepal in 2010. With her vibrant leadership, OHW has helped to reach nearly half a million pregnant women and newborn infants in Nepal. Her legacy is in creating the ‘Network of Safety’ model that brings together health service providers, community, social workers, and local governments to work as partners to improve MNH services and provide quality care for mothers and infants.
