Mother in Papua New Guinea with baby wearing TempWatch

UNICEF Deployment

🇵🇬 BEMPU in Papua New Guinea

Bebi Kol Kilok — Saving Lives Through Community Health

The "Bebi Kol Kilok" Program

In Papua New Guinea, the BEMPU TempWatch is known as "Bebi Kol Kilok" — meaning "baby cold clock" in Tok Pisin, the local creole language. The name captures exactly what the device does: it continuously watches a baby's temperature and tells parents when their baby is getting cold.

Papua New Guinea faces a severe neonatal health crisis: approximately 6,000 newborns die annually from preventable causes, with hypothermia underlying an estimated 60–80% of those deaths. The TempWatch was integrated into the country's Early Essential Newborn Care (EENC) program and deployed through Village Health Workers, bringing monitoring technology directly into communities.

Why Papua New Guinea?

In PNG's remote communities, mothers often have limited access to hospitals or trained nurses after birth. Village Health Workers equipped with TempWatch can identify dangerous drops in newborn temperature and act immediately — often the difference between life and death for a premature or low-birth-weight baby.