Midwife Fiona - along with her husband Rick and four children – have been back in the south-west since March and plan to return to Tanzania by September. 

During her time working in Nigeria, she was approached about helping in a community where 36 per cent of women were dying during childbirth and 63 per cent of their babies were dying within the first month.

Through community health education, Mrs Jara helped the village clean up their environment, taught them about hygiene, sanitation, and how to avoid malaria and typhoid.

Mrs Jara also helped open a safe birthing centre and trained health workers and traditional birthing attendants to run it. She also trained clinics and hospitals how to deal with complicated births

After two years, no women have died in childbirth and only one baby has died.

“For me that is really rewarding and satisfying to know that there was a community where the women were suffering so much and now they’re not.”

News of the success spread to Tanzania where they will now work with the university’s school of nursing to help implement a similar project.

“Instead of doing the groundwork and going to the villages and doing it ourselves we are now wanting to train up the local elders in the community, health professional, teachers, farmers ...” she said.

Her husband Rick, who she met at bible college in Melbourne, will work alongside his wife on the education program.

Mrs Jara has experienced the maternal health system in Africa first-hand. Her third daughter was born in Nigeria at a time when there was a 7pm-7am curfew because of fighting and bombings across the country.

Ms Jara went into labour just before 7pm and arrived at hospital just in time.

Before being taken to the labour ward, she was placed on an examination table and, just after the doctor left the room, the power went out. She was forced to give birth in the dark without the help of health professionals.

“As the lights came back on they made me hop down from the table with a baby in my arms and the umbilical chord hanging in between my legs to go to the labour room because they couldn’t deliver a placenta outside of a labour room.

“The place wasn’t clean. There was clots of blood all over the floor.

“By then the curfew time had come and I had to stay the night with no food, no drink, we were given water in a bucket to wash…”

On top of that there was only one single bed for Mrs Jara to share with her new baby, her husband and mother. When she fell pregnant with her fourth child in Nigeria, they returned to Warrnambool to have the baby.

Mrs Jara has spent more than 10 years as a volunteer, mostly in West African countries such as Tanzania, Niger, Nigeria and Ghana. “Africa is where my heart is.”

Mrs Jara will share her story at the Breastfeeding Centre in Liebig Street on July 29 from 7.30pm. Cost for the fund-raiser event is $10.