In cultures all around the world, water wells are about community – the place where women gather to collect water, share knowledge and support one another.

Last Tuesday, founder of The Water Well Project and Cabrini infectious diseases paediatrician, Dr Linny Kimly Phuong, gathered with 23 other remarkable women to support one another as they were each inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women at the Arts Centre.

Linny was added to the Victorian Honour Roll for her ongoing commitment to improving health access and outcomes for culturally and linguistically diverse communities through her health promotion charity, The Water Well Project. The charity provides free, culturally tailored health education to communities from migrant, refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds, and, to date, has reached an extraordinary 30,000-plus people.

“I felt like such an imposter standing next to some of those incredible women and can only hope that one day I will live up to their achievements,” the humble physician and mum-of-one said.

But Linny, who also regularly appears on ABC News Breakfast TV, where she plays a prominent role in public health advocacy, very much belongs alongside her fellow inductees.

She started the organisation shortly after she qualified as a doctor, keen to support a community close to her heart.

“My parents were refugees – Vietnamese boat people,” Linny said. “So I genuinely have a passion for improving refugee health, but I didn’t set out to start an organisation. This came about through a couple of chance encounters, really, and maybe me being a naive first-year doctor.

“But now, this thing we started in 2011 has grown to the point where we’re in three states, we have over 450 active healthcare professional volunteers, made up of doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, physios and more, and we’ve delivered more than 2,000 health education sessions.

“It just amazes me that busy healthcare professionals are volunteering their time and energy to help refugees and asylum seekers reach a ‘level playing field’ [with the everyday Australian] to improve their health knowledge and ability to navigate the healthcare system.”

Linny and her team of dedicated volunteers talk to community groups across Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania about all manner of topics, providing much-needed, free and culturally appropriate information.

“We may receive a request about a migrant women’s group that meets every Wednesday, who are of reproductive age, who want a better understanding of antenatal health care in Australia,” Linny explains. “And we’ll be invited into their community, into their spaces, whether a church, mother’s group, or English language class, and deliver these interactive sessions.

“A women’s health session may look like us passing around a breast pillow and teaching participants how to feel for breast lumps, passing around pap smear brushes to talk about cervical screening, or dispelling myths about vaccinations.

“These sessions empower women who perhaps come from countries where their health and their status isn’t as well regarded. We know that when we empower women, it empowers them as individuals but also impacts their wider community’s engagement in preventative health interventions such as getting a breast screen or engaging in cervical cancer screening. We hear those stories time and time again.”

Linny and the team also provide practical information about navigating the health system.

“If you think about arriving in a new country without the native language, and are unfamiliar with how the healthcare system works… how do you know what to do when you have chest pain? How do you know that chest pain may mean that you’re having a heart attack, and how do you know when to visit a hospital emergency department versus a GP clinic? We talk communities through such scenarios to give them that practical knowledge, too,” she said.

“Sometimes it feels like what we do is just a drop in the ocean, but it’s wonderful that we can make a small difference.”

Linny’s recognition as an inductee into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women is a clear indicator that the difference she is making is far from small. If you would like to make a difference as a volunteer or a supporter of The Water Well Project, please visit the website.