Michigan Engineering News

Born to warm: Grace Hsia Haberl and Warmilu

By: Brenda Ahearn

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A baby lies on the chest of its mother with a tiny hand reaching toward her face. From this view, only the nose and mouth of the mother are visible. She has her right hand protectively around her child and is gently rubbing its back.
A photo of a statue of the first present shows a man seated on top of a raised dais. The fountain is off in the photo, but the blue tiles surround a bit of greenery at the base of the dais. In the background is a tall, circular building.
A student and professor work in the window light of a hotel in Nairobi. A large, clear plexiglass box sits on the desk behind them.
Two women work together on a laptop in a glass conference room. Large tropical trees are visible outside the window.
Three people sitting at a table in a conference room.
Grace Hsia-Haberl discusses with Victor Adika in Adiva’s design shop in Nairobi, Kenya, in front of a table with supplies and materials for constructing a Warmilu warming pack.
A student smiles broadly and waves as he pushes a luggage cart at an airport.
A small boy and six small goats walk away from the camera, down a street in filmy late afternoon sun. Two other boys cross the street and, out of focus, a man on a motorcycle faces the camera.
A wide city street is packed with cars, buses, motorcycles and pedestrians as the evening sunlight wanes. A billboard shows a smiling man at a sewing machine, looking down as if at the street.
A group of women stand at a corner talking as one of them gestures with her hands. The sunlight of Kenya’s winter and the bright colors of their clothing add a note of warmth and welcome to the image.
People wait in the shade at the entrance to a hospital.
Children riding in the back of a covered pickup truck peek through the openings waving and smiling enthusiastically.
A woman stands in a crowded conference room, presenting a blanket-like warming device to a seated group.
A woman wearing black and white beads and a vivid blue and white-printed top smiles hopefully as she looks to the left at an off-camera speaker.
A woman seated at a conference table holds a yellow, blanket-like warming device, peering at it.
A newborn baby, dressed in a pastel-striped onesie and wrapped in a cornflower blue blanket, is held by an unseen person. Sunlight streams across the baby’s face.
A photo of a mother looking down her young son, who she is holding in her arms. The baby, wrapped in a large bundle of leopard-print fleece blankets, is asleep, with only the top of its face and head poking out.
A man and woman ride a motorcycle over a dirt street in western Kenya. Both sides of the street are filled with pedestrians making their way past countless stalls of marketers selling their wares.
Sunlight catches in between the leaves of a tree over a group of children who have paused from playing jump rope to wave to a passing vehicle. Behind them one can see two of the buildings of the orphanage.
The deep orange and purple light of a sunset illuminates the cloud cover over a grassy field on a hazy, humid evening.
Grace Hsia-Haberl discusses with Victor Adika in Adiva’s design shop in Nairobi, Kenya, in front of a table with supplies and materials for constructing a Warmilu warming pack.

Born to warm

Travel to Kenya with Grace as she shares her University of Michigan-born non-electric infant warming blankets with hospitals, mothers and officials across the country. Called Incu-Blankets, the devices have warmed tens of thousands of babies in 23 countries.

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