When Julie Dockrill was approached by the Rotary Club of Waimate, New Zealand, to train medical workers in Mongolia in safer childbirth practices, she wasn’t sure how much of a difference she could make — despite her 20 years of experience as a midwife and childbirth educator.

At the time, Dockrill wasn’t very familiar with Rotary’s work, nor was she aware of the high infant mortality rate in Mongolia, an Asian country located between Russia and China. But she agreed to participate if it meant saving the life of even one child. 

Eight years later, the project’s success has exceeded her expectations. Dockrill, now a member of the Rotary Club of Timaru, says she never imagined that the work the team began in 2013 would lead to the adoption of a nationwide health care framework that has contributed to the steady drop in Mongolia’s maternal and infant mortality rates.

The project, facilitated and managed by Waimate club member Gary Dennison, was originally conceived as an initiative to supply clean water to a remote area in Mongolia. Plans shifted when a community assessment determined that the terrain meant a water well wasn’t feasible.

Dennison explored alternatives. He learned through Rotary connections in Mongolia that maternal and child health services and updated and safer childbirth practices were needed. So his club and the Rotary Club of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, devised a new plan: a four-phase project in which a vocational training team would offer childbirth education to health care workers.

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