To address a maternal health crisis, Rotary members help midwives build leadership skills and professional networks
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About 830 women and 7,000 newborns, mainly in low- and middle-income countries, die each day because of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. These deaths are mostly preventable. Midwives are key to preventing them, so an initiative organized by Rotary members is supporting the essential work of midwives in Papua New Guinea and Australia.
According to the World Health Organization, increasing the number of midwives worldwide by just 10% could save up to 1.3 million lives each year. Rotary clubs are working to help meet that need, in part through leadership and advocacy training. Working with the Australian College of Midwives and the Papua New Guinea Midwifery Society, they launched the Papua New Guinea Midwifery Leadership Buddy Project. As of April 2025, the project has helped 52 midwives from Papua New Guinea and 31 from Australia develop their skills.
Julie Kep (right), a midwife and facilitator for the Papua New Guinea Midwifery Leadership Buddy Project, speaks with Torea Tore at Port Moresby General Hospital during a Papua New Guinea Midwifery Leadership Buddy Project workshop. Midwives do much more than deliver babies. In some places, they facilitate up to 90% of essential sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, and adolescent health services.
Simon James Kopalua, a midwife in a remote region of Papua New Guinea, participates in the fifth cohort of the Papua New Guinea Midwifery Leadership Buddy Project. On a tour of medical facilities in Port Moresby, the midwives find inspiration for their community projects. In clinical settings, documenting procedures through signs like these can save lives.
The program is rooted in collaboration. Australian midwives are paired with midwives from Papua New Guinea for five-day leadership workshops. The process culminates in a yearlong community health project designed and led by the midwives in Papua New Guinea, with continued support from their Australian counterparts.
Project organizer Judith Brown, a retired midwife and past president of the Rotary Club of Morialta, South Australia, says the exchange between the midwives is reciprocal and prioritizes learning from one another’s strengths. The partnership enables midwives to learn about other cultures and develop their professional skills, Brown says, but the primary focus is “trying to help women just have a voice in both countries.”
Judith Brown (left), a workshop organizer and member of the Rotary Club of Morialta, South Australia, talks with Mary Sitaing, a midwife and president of the Papua New Guinea Midwifery Society. They have worked together to facilitate the workshop for six years.
Helen Hall leads a session for the Papua New Guinea Midwifery Leadership Buddy Project. She joined the Rotary Club of Rosebud-Rye in Victoria, Australia, after getting involved in the project through the Australian College of Midwives. Rotary members are, she says, “people I want to spend time with. ... They look locally, they look nationally, and they look globally at what they can do and how can they bring their skills into it.”
These collaborations have had lasting effects, from providing essential equipment to addressing issues like teen pregnancy. But at the heart of the program are the enduring connections between midwives who share specialized knowledge, a sense of global community, and a commitment to saving lives.
Learn more about Rotary’s dedication to improving maternal and child health.
— July 2025
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