For many expectant mothers in the remote and isolated communities around the world and specifically in Papua New Guinea, the journey to safely deliver a child is fraught with structural hurdles. In geographically isolated areas, the distance to a hospital, the high cost of transport, and the unpredictability of travel mean that women often delay seeking care until labour has already begun. This delay in reaching skilled care is a primary driver behind the nation’s high maternal mortality rate, which sits at approximately 171 deaths per 100,000 live births.
At the Collective Empowerment Foundation (CEF), we believe that a mother’s location should not determine her safety during childbirth. As a non-profit social enterprise, we work to solve these logistical and infrastructural challenges by providing programs and services to capacitate local healthcare systems and infrastructure. One of our flagship Targeted Programs is the CEF Safe Birth Program, a hospital-integrated maternal waiting house model that shifts maternity care from a reactive emergency response to planned, predictable proximity to skilled medical professionals.
How the Program Works
We do not operate parallel medical services; instead, we partner directly with local governments, such as the Western Province Health Authority, to capacitate and strengthen existing health systems. Through this partnership, the hospital retains responsibility for clinical delivery, while CEF acts as the service provider managing the operational logistics that enable early arrival. Together with local communities, we co-designed a six-step, system-integrated Comprehensive Care pathway:
- Community Identification: Local Community Health Workers and Aid Posts identify eligible mothers in remote areas and initiate the referral process.
- Supported Transport: CEF coordinates and funds the safe transport of the mother from her village to our facility in Kiunga.
- Pre-delivery Care: Mothers are provided with secure accommodation, daily non-clinical monitoring, and essential care packages at the CEF facility up to four weeks prior to their delivery date.
- Supervised Hospital Delivery: When labour commences, mothers are transferred to Kiunga Hospital for a safe delivery under the care of skilled local maternity staff.
- Postnatal Recovery: Following hospital discharge, mothers return to the CEF facility for early postnatal recovery and observation.
- Supported Repatriation: CEF coordinates the safe return journey home for the mother and her newborn.
The Impact of Planned Proximity
The results of treating healthcare access as a logistical infrastructure challenge are profound. In the first six months of our first CEF Safe Birth program in Kiunga, Papua New Guinea our program supported 41 expectant mothers who successfully completed the care pathway. This resulted in 41 facility-based live births with absolutely zero maternal or neonatal complications, and zero emergency obstetric interventions.
By removing the barriers of transport and accommodation, we empowered mothers from some of the most deeply isolated communities in the Western Province region—including Mongulu, Nomad, Telefomin, and Bosset—to access the care they deserve. Furthermore, the model effectively decongests local hospital emergency wards by ensuring mothers arrive early, stable, and monitored.
Our Social Enterprise Approach
The CEF Safe Birth Program is a prime example of our hybrid identity. We are not a traditional charity offering short-term relief. We are a non-profit social enterprise contracted by public government bodies and private corporations to deliver highly targeted, sustainable social programs. By earning income through mission-aligned service provision, we fund further charitable impact. Our ultimate goal is always sustainability; we succeed when we capacitate local systems to the point that our programs can be fully adopted and run independently by the government.
Partner With Us
Whether you are a government department looking to strengthen rural health systems or a private sector organisation seeking to fund mission-aligned social programs with measurable impact, CEF provides the infrastructure-led solutions to make it happen.
We invite you to learn more about our enterprise model and explore how contracting our Targeted Programs can build resilient communities for generations to come. Reach out to us today to discuss how we can partner for maternal health equity.
