Rahma Health, the evidence-based health information platform serving the global Arabic-speaking community, last night was named winner of three Telstra Best of Business Awards: Championing Health, Accelerating Women and the overall Business of the Year for 2025.

Rahma Health is Australia’s only community-led, evidence-based health information organisation serving the global Arabic-speaking community.

Everything is co-designed with community input, supported by 70 volunteers and 50 global partner organisations spanning from Ireland to the UAE to Iraq. The organisation creates resources in both Arabic and English that have been used three million times worldwide.

Founder Dr Naba Alfayadh, a General Practitioner from Melbourne, says Rahma Health demonstrates that “innovative technology strategy, authentic community engagement, and rigorous evaluation can deliver transformational health outcomes at scale”.

Measurable improvements

The analytics-driven approach has enabled measurable health improvements. An evaluation with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute demonstrated that health literacy more than doubled after just 5-10 minutes of using Rahma Health resources and that 95% of parents changed their behaviour after using Rahma Health resources. 

Rahma’s technology approach enabled creation of the world’s first comprehensive Arabic antenatal education video series – a collaboration between four countries and 50 global partner organisations: a series covering fertility, pregnancy, labour, postpartum care, mental health and infant care.

The organisation works with partners such as the Raising Children Network to culturally adapt and translate world-class content for the 400 million Arabic speakers globally.

“This is the next era for health information,” Dr Alfayadh said. “It doesn’t make sense that every country should reinvent resources for their population and that people living in countries with broken health systems should continue to miss out.”

The platform serves families in refugee camps in Jordan, Syrian families in Turkey, and women in rural Yemen alongside communities in metropolitan Melbourne, transcending traditional geographic barriers through culturally appropriate, linguistically accessible digital content.

The charity organisation has also been awarded the Women’s Health Medal of Distinction Australasia 2025 and finalist status for the Victorian Public Health Sector Awards.