As a former physician specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, Dr. Smith is especially concerned that many women in poor countries still do not have access to the most basic medical interventions, causing many unnecessary deaths of both mothers and their babies.

John and Jane also see the big picture – that with education, young girls can break the cycle of poverty and early childbearing. “Study after study shows that every year of a girl’s education raises the likelihood that both she and her future children will survive and thrive,” John says.

John and Jane are both involved with the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA), an international nonprofit that improves the lives of women and girls in developing countries. They were introduced to the organization by Denver Post columnist and former Colorado first lady Dottie Lamm, who was on the organization’s board.

For 30 years, CEDPA has run programs and training, designed with community partners, to give women the tools they need to improve their lives, families, and communities. “We can see almost daily more and more women becoming energized and mobilized for change in their communities worldwide through CEDPA’s work,” says John, who is now the organization’s board chairman.

Jane’s philanthropy has been closer to home. She is a founder and an honorary trustee of the Women’s Foundation of Colorado, and serves as board chair of the Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona. Additionally, Jane has been involved with a number of conservation causes and is now on the board of the Sonoran Institute, which enables community involvement in conservation decisions and furthers public policies that respect the land and people of western North America. Jane’s commitment to these various organizations illustrates her strong belief in philanthropy as a way of life.

“Philanthropy for me is a philosophy rather than something you do,” says Jane. “We’re all connected and because of that, we all have a responsibility for each other. It’s not a matter of wealth, anyone can be a philanthropist.”

She and John travel often to locations around the world, many in Africa, and have been struck by what CEDPA and partnering organizations have achieved.

“We recently visited villages in Egypt,” says Jane. “It was incredibly moving to see where CEDPA support has taught life and health skills to so many women and young girls and, more important, to see them all so eager to learn.”

A trip to Guatemala confirmed why the empowerment of women is so important to all areas of development. John talks about meeting with about twenty lay midwives, listening to their stories about attending births in small huts, many miles from the most basic medical facility. “A Guatemalan obstetrician who helped train these women told me that even when a mother could be identified as high-risk early in her pregnancy, her husband would usually not let her leave her farm work to deliver at a clinic,” he says.

These firsthand experiences led Jane to begin supporting emerging women leaders through CEDPA’s Global Funders’ Circle, sponsoring women from war-torn countries such as Sudan and Nepal who are working to bring peace and stability to their nations.

These women and others like them, whether in Tucson or Cairo, are leading change around the world. It is John and Jane’s belief that all of us can be partners in that change.