The District 9560 Conference Committee has announced that the Founder of Flourishing Women, the DG's Partner Project for 2022-23, will be the keynote speaker at the Longreach conference.

Professor Ajay Rane will share his passion for women's reproductive rights and his lifelong mission as an advocate for vulnerable women across the globe at this year's district conference.

Professor Rane is a urogynaecologist, surgeon, academic, and humanitarian, based at Townsville University Hospital as specialist physician. He has private rooms at the Mater Hospital Townsville and is the Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at James Cook University.

In his clinical practice, Professor Rane has a particular focus on stress incontinence, genital trauma, and female genital mutilation.

Born in England and raised in India, Professor Rane’s father was a surgeon who gave up a lucrative practice in England to return to his homeland to care for those who needed his specialist skills. 

"I guess you could say the seeds for this humanitarian work were sewn early in my life," he said.

"My father could easily have stayed in the UK and made a very good living.

"Instead, he went back to this homeland because he knew that was where he could do the most good.

"By the time we went back, my brother (Abhay, now an eminent urologist and surgeon in the UK) and I were pretty much English kids and it took some considerable readjustment when we went back to India.

"Both of us would agree now, though, that our father's example shaped our decisions to be doctors ourselves."

For more than 25 years, Professor Rane has worked in the developing world treating women with significant childbirth injuries including fistula - the abnormal opening between the vagina and the bladder and rectum - which is endemic in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia triggering a loss of urine and faecal control after prolonged, obstructed labour. 

He is a staunch advocate for women and women’s reproductive health and his work overseas has led to a reduction in fetal and maternal mortality and morbidity.

As the former Chair of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), Professor Rane launched a program to train more than 50 international urologists, gynaecologists, general surgeons, and obstetricians as specialist fistula surgeons. Known as FIGO Fellows, they treat women with highly complex fistula in some of the world’s most challenging operating rooms. 

As a member of the Health Minister’s Taskforce on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Professor Rane was instrumental in the 2012 change to Australian law criminalising FGM. He has also worked, pro bono, in low-resourced medical schools in Asia and Pacific Island nations so that their trainees can compete in the international medical arena.

In 2019 Professor Rane founded Flourishing Women, a charity that raises money to support local childbirth education and surgical training in developing countries to reduce the incidence and effects of fistula and FGM which include stillbirth, homelessness, destitution, and premature death.

Flourishing Women is the DG Partner Project for 2022-2023.

Professor Rane is a Queensland Great and has been awarded an Order of Australia and the Public Service Medal for outstanding public service in women’s health and humanitarian support for vulnerable women in the developing world.

"Awards are very humbling to receive but my true reward is how we are changing the lives of women for the better," he said. 

"I'm very appreciative of Rotary's support of Flourishing Women and send a huge thank you to the clubs and individuals who have donated so far," Professor Rane said.

"Fistula is not a particularly sellable cause because it's unpleasant and confronting and hard to talk about so I'm very grateful for Rotary's interest and support."

Registrations are now open for the Conference via Trybooking. See separate article in this newsletter for details.