Australia’s near-neighbour Papua New Guinea is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a mother and there are signs the country’s health crisis is getting worse, a report has found.

Women in PNG are 35 times more likely to die during pregnancy than women in Australia (1 in 120 in PNG compared to 1 in 8700 in Australia), according to an evaluation of maternal health by the aid agency ChildFund Australia.

The 1-Tok Kaunselin Helpim Lain is the first toll-free telephone counselling service in Papua New Guinea with professional counsellors available seven days a week, 12 hours a day, from 7am to 7pm. This essential service provides survivors of gender-based violence and their families with an immediate and comprehensive support package that includes access to information, confidential counselling and referral to other service providers, and is available in three languages – English, Tok Pisin and Hiri Motu. The hotline is a collaboration between ChildFund Papua New Guinea, The Family and Sexual Violence Action Committee (CIMC) and FHI 360. The project is funded by the New Zealand Aid Programme, with contributions from USAID, ChildFund New Zealand and ChildFund Australia. The hotline has received calls from just under 8,000 women, men and children in its first two years of operation (August 2015-2017).

ChildFund Papua New Guinea is a representative office of ChildFund Australia. ChildFund began work in Papua New Guinea in 1994, and undertakes child-focused community development programs in Central Province and the National Capital District. Key programs are implemented in the areas of maternal and child health, including nutrition, and water and sanitation, education through the Child-Friendly Schools framework, protection and resilience against family and sexual violence, and disaster and child protection. ChildFund PNG has established a Family and Sexual Violence Counselling Hotline which operates in Port Moresby and provides national coverage.

More than two months after Papua New Guinea’s strongest earthquake in almost a century, stranded survivors are turning to an unexpected lifeline: a small domestic violence hotline run by a non-governmental organisation [ChildFund].

Although the risks of violence against women rise after disasters, most callers aren’t women. They’re men reaching out for support, enquiring about how to obtain food, shelter, and other services, or fearful of violence that has broken out in some areas after tribal clashes.

In Papua New Guinea, ChildFund Australia has implemented the HOPE (A Haus (house) for Protection and Empowerment) project, which aims to reduce the widespread violent abuse of children’s and women's rights by empowering survivors and training human rights defenders. The project has provided a safe refuge center for survivors of violence, better prevention mechanisms and a group of human rights defenders trained and empowered to intervene in sexual violence cases and encourage survivors and families to seek legal justice and medical attention.

Recent reports have shown that Papua New Guinea (PNG) is one of the most dangerous countries for mothers and pregnant women. According to the aid agency ChildFund Australia, women in PNG are 35 times more likely to die during pregnancy than women in Australia.

One of the biggest issues that leads to death or severe complications for both the mother and child is a lack of supervised births at adequate birthing facilities. In 2016, only 40 percent of women in PNG gave birth at a health facility with a specialized birth attendant.

“No woman should die giving birth. Yet in a country just 160 kilometers north of Australia, women are losing their lives every day during childbirth due to unsafe conditions and causes that are completely preventable,”

Papua New Guinea’s first free telephone counseling service 1-Tok Kaunselin Helpim Lain has received more than 5000 calls in its second year of operation, a two fold increase from its first year.

Launched by ChildFund Papua New Guinea in 2015, in partnership with Consultative Implementation Monitoring Council (CIMC) Family Sexual Violence Action Committee (FSVAC) and FHI 360, analysis of call data for the past 12 months found that the top three issues for callers were: relationship advice, physical and sexual violence (mostly perpetrated by an intimate partner) and child welfare concerns.