Maureen Marguerite Minden

Our dearly-loved mother Maureen Minden passed away quietly and peacefully on April 18, 2025, with her daughters by her side. Born in Toronto, but calling Vancouver home, Maureen leaves behind her two daughters Andréa and Dewi Minden, sisters Rolla Donaghy and Ann Scott, dearly loved nephews and nieces, and Robert Minden, to whom she was originally married. Maureen’s story includes many extraordinary years working in Nepal which she considered her second home, where she will be particularly missed by the family of her closest friend, the late ‘Subba’ Khagendra Jabegu, whom she considered family.

Maureen was a midwife and a passionate advocate for the rights of women. Ever humble, our mother made a historic impact on the wellbeing of women and children in Canada which is little-known but widely-enjoyed today. She founded the BC Midwifery Task Force in 1981 to advocate for the practice of midwife-delivered births to be legal in English Canada. After a strategic and formidable campaign of seventeen years, the five-woman strong Task Force finally achieved their win; in 1994 the BC Government adopted the practice of midwifery as an integral part of Public Health, and by 2022, PEI was the final Province to make the midwifery model of care Canada-wide.

Maureen held a PhD from The Centre for International Health Development and an M.Sc. in Medicine from the University of London, U.K., in addition to undergraduate degrees in Anthropology, Nursing, Midwifery and a Diploma in Tropical Disease. Compelled by a longing to understand the struggles of underprivileged populations globally and the means by which to offer support, Maureen’s work took her to Nepal, Burma, Bangladesh, Venezuela, Laos, Cameroon, and Jamaica. She worked as a Maternal Child Health Worker and an International Consultant. She was engaged by the World Health Organization (WHO), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), American Refugee Committee International (ARC), John Hopkins University, volunteered overseas with VSO and CUSO International, and was a member of the Board of Directors in Vancouver for the Trans-Himalayan Aid Society.

Of all the things about our mother that impressed us, the memories that will never fade are of how she appeared to us when we were small: a brave woman with beautiful, long, straight brown hair and sky-blue eyes who could walk across the rocky west coast shores in her bare feet and who taught us how to swim with the waves.

We invite all who wish to commemorate the life of our beloved mother Maureen Minden to offer a donation to the charity she loved most: Trans-Himalayan Aid Society.