Saving lives in conflict-affected Congo

A harrowing birth witnessed deep in the Congolese rainforest sparked a Rotary-led global partnership now equipping frontline health workers with the skills needed to save mothers and newborns in one of the world’s most challenging environments.

In 2008, Lucy Hobgood-Brown, of the Rotary E-Club of Greater Sydney, NSW, witnessed a Congolese woman give birth to triplets in a dugout canoe deep in the Equatorial rainforest. Her husband had paddled for days through remote tributaries, desperate to reach the nearest hospital. Sadly, one of the babies died on the riverbank at Lotumbe village despite midwives’ efforts.

“I have never forgotten how stoic the pregnant woman was,” recalls Lucy, who grew up in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and now facilitates two Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) projects there. “To me, she was the catalyst for doing everything possible to ease the challenges of pregnancy in Congo.”

With the professional guidance of Dr Grace Maano, past president of the Rotary Club of Taree, NSW, efforts are ongoing to better equip Congolese health workers to combat the critically high rates of maternal and neonatal mortality in the DRC.

Recent data from the nation’s population of 109 million estimate between 427–547 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births and 25 neonatal deaths per 1,000 live births. Despite gradual improvements, these statistics remain among the highest in the world – driven by limited healthcare access, ongoing conflict and complications such as haemorrhage and infection. The situation is even more dire in conflict-ridden regions like North and South Kivu provinces.

According to Lucy, Dr Grace has tackled this challenge with characteristic determination. In 2023, Dr Grace travelled to Lotumbe to see the site where the triplets were born. There, she introduced obstetric emergency training for doctors, nurses and traditional birth attendants. The initiative’s success and strong local engagement led to the approval of a Rotary Foundation global grant.

The training program is modelled on the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine’s Rural Emergency Obstetric Training course, adapted for the DRC’s unique context. Laerdal Global Health donated training mannequins via their Buy One, Get One (BOGO) program. Implementation is supported by local partners including the Rotary Club of Goma-Nyiragongo in eastern DRC, the DRC Emergency Medicine Association (www.amurdc.org) and the Rotary Club of Taree. Coordination is being facilitated by HandUp Congo (www.handupcongo.org), the Sydney-based non-profit founded by Lucy and supported by the Rotary E-Club of Greater Sydney.

Train-the-trainer workshops were planned across five geographic areas of this vast Central African nation, with one already held in October 2025 in Kinshasa, DRC’s capital, attended by 15 regional doctors and midwives. Congolese doctors previously trained in Botswana (November 2024) and South Africa (November 2025) will facilitate ongoing training. The global grant has a two-year implementation plan through to May 2027.

“More than 1.93 million pregnant women have little or no access to safe delivery services or prenatal care,” says Dr Rogatien Mwandjalulu Kisindia, a Congolese obstetrician and past president of the Rotary Club of Goma-Nyiragongo. “This training will make an enormous difference for healthcare workers in conflict-affected eastern Congo, where I work. Currently, only about 35 per cent of pregnant women in this region have access to skilled birth attendants. In some areas, that number has dropped to nearly zero, making pregnancy exceptionally high-risk.”

“It is heart warming to see how many organisations and individuals have come together to make this vital training project possible,” notes Dr Diulu Kabongo, president of the DRC Emergency Medicine Association. “We are grateful to The Rotary Foundation and every donor who has supported this project.”

Help us continue to make a difference!

• Tax deductible donations for Australians are available through www.rawcs.org.au, Project 47-2015-16 ‘Building a Healthy Congo’. Designate ‘obstetric DRC’.
• For more information contact Dr Grace Maano via gmaano@gmail.com or Lucy Hobgood-Brown via handupcongo@gmail.com