Entrepreneurs give hope to Zambia hospital

A group of Australian entrepreneurs has donated $650,000 to a Perth-based charity that is working to improve a major hospital in Zambia.

Getting someone to donate $50,000 to a charity while walking across a volcano in Antarctica is no mean feat.

But it's one Perth businessman John Elliott pulled off with aplomb.

The charismatic insurance broker secured the donation along with another $600,000 in pledges for the Health Hope Zambia charity during a week-long business trip to Antarctica with a group of more than 100 Australian entrepreneurs.

Mr Elliott initially saw the February trip as a networking opportunity and the chance to spread the word about the charity's hope to raise $750,000 for a major renovation of the maternity ward at the University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka.

The work is expected to help save the lives of thousands of mums and their newborns.

Mr Elliott had no idea that he would walk away from the Antarctica trip with most of the money in the bag thanks to donations from many of the 115 entrepreneurs travelling with him as part of the Unstoppables think tank's inaugural summit.

One entrepreneur pledged $200,000 after meeting Mr Elliott during a four-minute speed dating-style networking workshop, while another promised $50,000 as they walked across the volcanic black soil of Deception Island off the Antarctic peninsula.

Mr Elliott, whose insurance broking business covers the Perth-based charity's running costs, said the donations had been "beyond expectations" and meant the renovation work could begin much earlier than expected.

"What this means for us now, is that it means the project can come forward by six months," he told AAP.

"This has changed it from a two-year project commencing in 12 months to one that can start six months earlier and be completed one year earlier."

The project aims to improve facilities for women giving birth at the University Teaching Hospital, where about 34,000 babies are born each year.

It is hoped the new facilities will dramatically reduce the preventable mortality rate of 60 babies a month at what is Zambia's largest labor ward.

The charity, which was set up by Perth-based entrepreneur Brendan Clark in 2011, last year redeveloped the hospital's malnutrition ward and helped save the lives of about 25 children a month.

It has also set up a food program that provides more than 200,000 meals to orphans and school children.

The charity has received the backing of the West Australian government, which allows equipment that has been decommissioned from state hospitals to be sent to Zambia.