Pat Cox, the new president of the Griffith chapter, said the conference was a success.

“There were Soroptimists from Griffith, Narrandera, Coleambally, Deniliquin, Cootamundra and Finley at the 2015 Riverina Regional Conference,” Mrs Cox said.

“Work sessions concentrated on the aims and objectives of Soroptimism and issues in attracting and maintaining membership.”

Rose Chick from Deniliquin was elected as president for the Riverina region, Will Mead from Griffith was elected as secretary and Bev Weymouth from Coleambally was elected as treasurer.

Funds were raised at the conference for Birthing in the Pacific and the Vanuatu disaster appeal.

The workshops were led by Sandra Richards from South Australia, Julie Griffin from Sydney and May Lamont from Queensland.

May spoke about the Birthing in the Pacific project, which aims to provide essential education and suitable equipment to widwives and birth attendants in New Guinea where 1500 women die each year due to preventable conditions in pregnancy or childbirth.

Soroptimist International works with local partners to apply international best practice and evidence.

The project supports training at four levels – for clinicians there is a Pacific Emergency Obstetric Care course, for community health workers there is maternal health and widwifery training, for village birth attendants there is literacy and reproductive health training and for midwives there is learning exchange and professional development.

In remote areas, training village birth attendants is vital as they can recognise potential problems, giving the expectant mother time to reach a birthing centre.

Soroptimist International is helping ensure midwives and other birth attendants have suitable equipment such as obstetric wheel – a calendar to help birth attendants and pregnant women to work out their due date, Karim work Bilum – a pouch of essential tools for safe deliveries and training aids such as Neo Natalie dolls.