CALMED was conceived at a meeting in New Delhi, India in September 2010 of a number of stakeholders working on maternal and newborn mortality reduction strategies. A training programme based on WHO module was established, between 2010 and 2012. Rotary Foundation Grants enabled a group of senior obstetricians and Rotarians to implement vocational training programmes in two states in India between 2013 and 2017. The programme achieved its objectives of enhancing the training of health care professionals, raising community awareness and fall in maternal mortality ratio in the target population.