With International Women’s Day ahead, it feels especially important to reflect on the women whose leadership drives progress across global health and community resilience.

At Direct Relief, we have the privilege of working alongside extraordinary women who are strengthening health systems, rebuilding communities, and expanding opportunity in ways that will last generations. Today, I want to recognize a few whose work deeply inspires me.

Reema Nanavaty

Reema Nanavaty leads the Self-Employed Women’s Association, or SEWA, now the largest union of informal sector workers in India. Under her leadership, SEWA has expanded women-owned enterprises across energy, agribusiness, food processing, waste recycling, and textiles. The organization has created lasting women-led supply chains that strengthen both families and communities.

Her work is not theoretical. She has led recovery efforts for earthquake-affected rural women, supported rehabilitation programs in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, and launched a food security program reaching 1 million households. Through SEWA’s Hariyali Green Energy and Livelihoods Initiative, women are gaining access to renewable energy while building climate resilience.

Direct Relief has partnered with SEWA across multiple phases of the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond, with the partnership supporting digital transformation efforts, cancer screening expansion, and solar investments that deepen long-term resilience. Reema’s leadership reminds me that economic empowerment and health are inseparable, and that when women lead, systems strengthen.

Sunny Chen

Sunny Chen, Executive Director of the Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawai‘i, or HMHB, leads one of the most trusted maternal health organizations serving families across the islands.

Every day, HMHB works to ensure that mothers and babies—especially those in rural and geographically isolated communities—can access the care and support they need. From mobile clinics to community-based programs, their work is grounded in proximity, trust, and deep understanding of local needs.

That trust became critical during the 2023 Maui wildfires.

When Lahaina was cut off from hospitals and outside assistance, Sunny and the women of HMHB were among the first medical teams to reach the community. With roads blocked, they traveled by jet ski carrying Direct Relief emergency backpacks filled with medical supplies, providing triage care and helping residents access critical medications.

Their response reflected something we see across Direct Relief’s partner network: organizations that care for communities every day are often the ones communities turn to first in times of crisis.

Mariana Svirchuk

In Lviv, Ukraine, Mariana Svirchuk is helping build something that will outlast war.

At the UNBROKEN National Rehabilitation Center, part of Ukraine’s largest hospital network, more than 26,000 wounded Ukrainians have been treated since the full-scale invasion began, including hundreds of children. Care extends beyond emergency treatment to prosthetics, psychological rehabilitation, and long-term recovery.

Mariana’s mission now includes building UNBROKEN University into a national platform for postgraduate training and research in trauma care, surgery, rehabilitation, and mental health. Direct Relief has supported both the center’s daily work and committed €1 million to help establish the University, investing in the next generation of clinical expertise.

Her leadership reflects a profound truth: recovery is not only physical. It is mental, social, and systemic. Building institutions in the midst of crisis is an act of courage and vision.

Anna af Ugglas

Anna af Ugglas, Chief Executive of the International Confederation of Midwives, or ICM, brings more than three decades of experience as a midwife, educator, and global health leader.

From clinical roles at Karolinska Hospital in Sweden to leadership with UNFPA, WHO, and global maternal health initiatives, Anna has dedicated her career to strengthening midwifery worldwide. Today, ICM represents 131 Member Associations across 116 countries, representing over 1 million midwives globally.

Since 2012, Direct Relief and ICM have partnered to equip certified midwives with standardized Midwife Kits and to advance policy and data tools that strengthen maternal and newborn health systems. When midwives are supported, maternal mortality declines, newborn survival improves, and communities thrive.

Anna’s leadership underscores something simple and powerful: safe pregnancy and birth are not a luxury. They are a right.

The Common Thread

These women work in different regions, across different systems, in vastly different contexts. From rural India to Hawai’i, from Sweden to Ukraine. Yet they share something profound: a belief that strengthening women strengthens society.

On International Women’s Day, I’m reminded that progress in global health is not driven by slogans. It is built by women who show up every day and who are building institutions, expanding opportunity, and refusing to accept preventable suffering as inevitable.

I am grateful to learn from them, to partner with them, and to celebrate them, not only today, but throughout the year.

— Amy

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