Maureen Kanyiginya is a young midwife with a gentle, confident presence. Sitting on a bench in a grassy area outside the rural health center where she works, in western Uganda, she says she loves helping mothers and delivering their babies. "I make mothers comfortable," she states firmly. "I'm a health worker."

A recent New York Times article featured an updated United Nations forecast that projects the world’s population will reach 10.1 billion by the end of the century, rather than stabilizing at nine billion midcentury as previously predicted.

In places where there are no nurses or doctors or people have to travel a distance to see one, community health workers play an invaluable role of offering basic health care and information to often isolated or remote communities

Bata Geleto walks up to a small mud house in Shashemene, a town in the southern region of Ethiopia. She carries a large, blue bag and an umbrella to protect herself from the sun as she walks house...