One Heart Worldwide (OHW) is a 501(c)3 organization with over ten years experience providing on-the-ground training in newborn and maternal health.

Our mission is to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity in remote rural areas of the world.

Based on over ten years of experience in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, OHW has established an effective, replicable and sustainable model - called the Network of Safety - to reduce preventable deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth among vulnerable populations in remote rural areas with limited access to care. Essential to the OHW model are integration of local resources, collaboration with local communities and providers, and respect for cultural norms and practices.

Arlene Samen, a nurse practitioner with over 30 years’ experience in high-risk obstetrics at the University of Utah Health Science Center, had a life-changing encounter with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, in 1997. At the time, one in ten Tibetan newborns and one in hundred Tibetan pregnant women died during childbirth. His Holiness’ own mother had seen only seven of her sixteen children survive to adulthood. The Dalai Lama asked Arlene to help the women and children in Tibet. There was no turning back for Arlene after that initial meeting. She gave up her clinical practice to dedicate her life to serving pregnant women and their newborn infants living under the most vulnerable conditions and in the most remote places of the world.