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Kicking Off World Health Worker Week Through Photos and Stories #WHWWeek
To kick off World Health Worker Week (April 5 – 11) we are sharing photos and stories of some of the health workers we’ve met around the world over the years who work tirelessly to keep women, children, and families healthy and most importantly alive. In the sub-Saharan and Asian countries where we have met these health workers,…
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11 Photos in Honor of World Water Day
This Sunday, March 22, is the United Nations’ World Water Day. 354 million people continue to not have access to clean, drinking water every day. This is a critical problem because dirty water causes a whole host of water-borne diseases that kill the smallest children, especially those under the age of five. “Without access to…
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New 6-Year Global Strategy Launches to Further Curb Malaria Deaths
Since 2001 malaria deaths have fallen by 4.3 million. This is due in part because of a concerted scale-up of malaria prevention and control efforts, especially across sub-Saharan Africa. Increased funding has made this scale-up and global malaria prevention partnerships possible, and yet the funding falls short of the estimated $5.1 billion annually needed to…
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How the United States Can Feed More People By Reforming Food Aid
The United States has long been a food provider for the world, but the way in which food aid is chosen and delivered to poor countries around the world is outdated. In fact, the system is bloated with nugatory, bureaucratic red tape and payments that go to middlemen instead of buying the food and transporting…
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USAID Tackles Respectful Maternity Care, Better Working Conditions for Midwives
This week USAID released its follow-up to Ending Preventable Maternal Mortality: USAID Maternal Health Vision for Action (June 2014) with its new report of the same name with the addition of evidence for strategic approaches. These approaches seek to lower the world’s maternal mortality rate. Right now 289,000 women die per year from complications during…
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New Global Projects Measure Newborn Health Interventions #EveryNewborn
Eight million children under the age of five die every year from preventable diseases. Of those eight million deaths, 2.8 million are neonates according to the World Health Organization. Key interventions like Kangaroo Mother Care, pre-and postnatal care, deliveries in a hospital setting with trained health workers, and exclusive breastfeeding are some proven ways to keep more babies alive.…
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5 Maternal Health Organizations to Support Now
Every day 800 women die due to largely preventable causes during childbirth. That number is mentioned everywhere maternal health is mentioned and championed, but it always bears repeating. Until the drastic maternal mortality numbers decline the data must remain front and center. Mothers’ lives depend on us knowing the facts. Over the past few decades maternal…
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7 Facts About Premature Births You Might Not Have Known
Photo: A premature baby is shown in the postnatal ward at Cama Hospital, a major hospital for women and children, in Mumbai, India. UN Photo/Mark Garten Premature births are now the number one killer of babies globally. Of the 6.3 million children under five who died last year, 1.1 million of them died due to complications from premature…
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One Mother’s Story Of Giving Birth in a Hospital Instead of At Home
Merida, Philippines – I met Jocelyn Pingos, 27, in Merida, Leyte on a bright, sunny tropical day in the Philippines. A mother of four, Jocelyn sat outside her local health center and waited patiently to have her youngest, Lenith, 10 months, looked at because of a nagging cough. Her second youngest, Jelenia, 3, was also with her. Jocelyn’s…
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New homes recreate shattered lives in the Philippines
This post was originally published on the World Vision USA blog. At everyone’s most basic level, we all want somewhere to lay our head every night. Filipinos living in the path of last year’s Typhoon Haiyan’s early morning storm surge and over 300km/hour winds lost everything within a 30-minute span, including their homes, and many,…
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Human Rights Watch Explores the Lives of Indian Women Who Clean Human Waste
Lalibai stands by the entrance to the village cremation grounds. Before she took action, villagers had forbidden members of her community to cremate their dead here. © 2014 Digvijay Singh Can you imagine getting up every morning to clean human waste from dry toilets (those without running water or that are not attached to a…
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WHO Releases New Maternal Health and Mortality Data
Maternal health is one of the world’s biggest global health priorities especially as the deadline for the Millineum Development Goals near. As a global priority MDG 5 (improve maternal health) cannot be effectively measured without full and complete data resources. According to the new report, Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 – 2013, only 40% of countries accurately record…
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10 Facts About Female Genital Mutilation You May Not Have Known #EndFGM
Today marks the UN’s International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation. It is vitally important that we raise our collective voices today and frequently throughout the year to help stop the violence against young girls who are literally mutilated in the name of culture and custom when they have to endure a lifetime…
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Photographer Launches New Site for Maternal Health + Monday Reads
Last week I wrote a piece for Impatient Optimists, Documentary Captures the Lives of Midwives in Southern Ethiopia, in which I shared the work of Italian photographer Paolo Patruno. Patruno works with NGOs to document births across sub-Saharan Africa in order to highlight the current state of maternal health on the continent. Thus far he…
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The Face of Neglected Tropical Disease
When we think about diseases in Africa we think about the biggest of them – malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and pneumonia. We forget about the neglected tropical diseases that debilitate so many in sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia from intestinal worms to elephantiasis. These diseases are real and they are easily prevented, but as their name…
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Our Newest Partnerships: Oxfam America and Kangu
We are always thrilled to work with some of the best NGOs and nonprofits in the world. Today, we are announcing our newest partnerships with Oxfam America and Kangu. We look forward to working with Kangu to spread the word about maternal health and healthy pregnancies in developing countries in both Africa and Asia. And…
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One Million Children are Now Syrian Refugees
Amid news of a poison chemical attack right outside of Damascus last week and the sniper attack on a UN convoy today, UNICEF also had harrowing news of its own to announce last Friday. They have recorded the one millionth child refugee who has escaped the war in Syria. “This one millionth child refugee is…
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Update on Our First Insight Trip to India
Last week I was in India with Social Good Mom and Global Team of 200 member Nicole Melancon of Third Eye Mom. We kept up with all of our photos, videos, and posts on a frequently-updated Tumblr, SocialGoodMomsIndia.tumblr.com. We will continue to update the microsite with more multimedia from our visits with Protsahan, Pratham India,…
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The Importance of Education for Girls
Much of yesterday’s Women Deliver 2013 conversation centered around education for girls. Without at least a primary education girls in poor and middle income countries cannot properly contribute to their country’s economy nor to their household. Girls who are fortunate to prolong marriage are able to attend school longer than if they are married away by…
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Continuing the Newborn Health and Survival Conversation #Newborn2013
A premature baby is shown in the postnatal ward at Cama Hospital, a major hospital for women and children, in Mumbai, India. UN Photo/Mark Garten April 15 will kick off the first Global Conference on Newborn Health. Leading up to the mid-April conference sponsors (@mchipnet, @gatesfoundation @unicef, @savethechildren and @usaid) along with supporters (@jhpiego, @jsihealth, @laerdalmedical)…