WHY SHOULD YOU CARE? (Part 2 of 4 Series)

Women are viewed as the lesser of the two genders in most countries. The domino effect of this cultural problem trickles down to the future generations to come. I came across this extremely good article that explains WHY you should care. This is an amazing read. I am going to briefly summarize it today in the post but you can find the entire article here: http://www.wwhi.org/site/images/docs/whywomen.pdf

Progress is achieved through women. It is as simple as that. In the world today - women make up close to 50% of the world's population but only own 1% of the world's wealth - have a 10% share in the global income and occupy only 14% of the leadership positions in the private and public sector. Not only are these staggering statistics alarming - there are almost 900 million adults worldwide who can’t read or write and 2/3 of these adults are women.

Despite all this - the welfare of women is not an issue that most countries see as a priority. We know that the world's future depends greatly on the contribution of women. Think of how many women have been an integral part of your life. There are too many women and young girls that are "unable to participate in a wide-range of economic opportunities and subjected to strict gender bias" Unfortunately women and young girls are seen as "unworthy of investment or protection".

We know that women and young girls are worth the investment and definitely worth protecting. We need to protect the future of the next generation and if we don't address these issues right now - the future is not only dim - but will be in a state of utter chaos. We need to care - because there are literally thousands of womens lives who depend on us caring.

What We Want To Accomplish

In rural Senegal, the average age of a girl when she has her first child is 12-14 years old. She is a child, having a child and worse, she is most likely doing it without any medical help. These young women contribute to the disproportionately high number of pregnant women in Africa who never live to become mothers. Our concern isn’t only for the young women who don’t live long enough to raise their children, but also for the children they carry. One in twenty children die during child birth in rural Senegal and few survive if their mother is not alive in the first year.

Many organizations have attempted to decrease the perilously high and devastating rates of maternal death. However, despite their efforts there has been little or no decrease in maternal deaths worldwide. This low effectiveness has led us, WWHI, to seek alternative ways to increase local sustainability, capacity, and efficacy of much needed medical interventions. We have developed a model that combines a community-based approach with a uniquely incentive-based finance model.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

It's OFFICIAL.

We did it everyone!!!  We ranked at number 167 out of 200 charities. 

THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!

Thank you for your vote - your time - and for believing in our cause.  We could not have done this without you.
 
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

Thank you to bloggers who blogged about our cause and spread the word. Thank you to the WWHI team who worked tirelessly around the clock. Thank you to CHASE BANK for contributing $20,000 towards Maternal Mortality. There will be so much good that will happen with this donation and we will be well on our way to meeting our goals.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

Your willingness to help women all over the world has paid off.

We did it. 

It's OFFICIAL.

Just a few clicks of your mouse...

Chase Community Giving is back to give away another $5 million, and you help decide which 200 local charities receive donations.

On July 13, they’ll announce 200 winning charities

• One charity will receive $250k
• 4 runners-up will receive $100k
• 195 others will receive $20k

Please vote for WWHI! Click here  to vote!

WHY WE DO IT (Part 1 of 4 Series)

I wanted to address some of the really important issues surrounding Maternal Mortality - so this is part 1 of 4 series. Keep checking back to read the other posts that go along with this series. 

I came across an article on the WHO website. I thought I would re-iterate some of what the article said and also post a part of the article, as this is the reason WHY we do what we do. The question posted in the article was - WHY DO SO MANY WOMEN STILL DIE IN PREGNANCY OR CHILDBIRTH?

Every minute, at least one woman dies from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth. What does that mean exactly? 

That means 529 000 women die each year. Okay, well what does THAT mean?  Well, lets bring it home. 

529, 000 women dying each year is like all of the city of Mesa, Arizona dying each year. Or Tampa, Florida or Long Beach, California and even Atlanta, Georgia. Each of these cities have around 500,000 people living in it. Yes. It's a staggering number. In addition, for every woman who dies in childbirth, around 20 more suffer in injury, infection or disease - approximately 10 million women each year. That is one-third of the country Canada's population.

Well what are the medical issues? Well here are the facts from the WHO:
Five direct complications account for more than 70% of maternal deaths: haemorrhage (25%), infection (15%), unsafe abortion (13%), eclampsia (very high blood pressure leading to seizures – 12%), and obstructed labour (8%). While these are the main causes of maternal death, unavailable, inaccessible, unaffordable, or poor quality care is fundamentally responsible. They are detrimental to social development and wellbeing, as some one million children are left motherless each year. These children are 10 times more likely to die within two years of their mothers' death.

THIS IS NOT JUST A WOMEN'S ISSUE. SHARE THE FACTS WITH THOSE AROUND YOU. You can read the rest of the article at http://www.who.int/features/qa/12/en/index.html

Cheers,

Eujean

Take Our Cause With You

Take our cause with you and help spread the awareness of maternal mortality.

All you have to do is COPY and SAVE the image above. Then go to the "Layout" section of your blog (if you're using blogspot) and "Add Gadget". Then click on "Picture" and then click on "browse" and find the picture in the place you stored it. Click on it and click "Open". Then click "SAVE" on the button on the Layout section of your blog. Don't forget to click SAVE or else your blog won't know that you added this picture.

TAKE OUR CAUSE WITH YOU. BE A PART OF WWHI.

WOMEN DELIVER CONFERENCE

Here is an update of what WWHI is doing:

WWHI will be attending the June 2010 Women Deliver Conference in Washington D.C. (The conference funds were not from the WWHI funds) Women Deliver is a global advocacy organization bringing together voices from around the world to call for action against maternal death. You can check out more information at www.womendeliver.org  A few of the things that they will be addressing are Women and Power, Strategies to address STDs, Analyzing Progress etc. We are excited to learn and to be a part of this conference. We know and understand that Maternal Mortality is an issue that must be supported by the world. It cannot be helped by just one single organization or country. We must work together, share together and help together in providing solutions that are sustainable and effective. 

To find out more about the Women Deliver Conference you can check out their website at www.womendeliver.org