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Women Helping Women in Johannesburg’s Townships
I met Jabulile Tlhabane, 57, in a small woman-owned restaurant on a busy road in Alexandra Township, located about 60 minutes outside Johannesburg. Alexandra, or Alex as the locals call it, is home to over a million people, even though its intended resident capacity is capped at 100,000. That means stresses are rife among Alexandra’s…
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How Jamaica Is Improving Its Maternal Health Outcomes
In the western hemisphere Haiti has the highest maternal mortality ratio at 380 deaths per 100,000 live births. While Jamaica only has 80 deaths per 100,000 live births in comparison, the number of maternal deaths is still too high for the small island nation. Last week Jamaica’s Ministry of Health announced that it would train…
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Researchers Confirm Labor Pain Anesthesia Can be Administered in Low-Resource Settings
At most hospitals in low-resource settings it is very unlikely that women would receive pain medication during labor. This is a problem, however, when women must receive emergency C-sections. While some administer general (inhaled) anesthesia, the spinal anesthesia poses more risks when there is no adequate training. However, doctors and researchers have shown that spinal anesthesia can be…
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Artist Puts Spotlight on Maternal Mortality and Obstetric Abuse in America
Michelle Hartney has been an artist and activist for maternal health and obstetrics since the birth of her daughter and son: Shine and Seamus. While she says both of her deliveries were empowering, they were also very troubling prompting Hartney to create awareness through art about the high maternal mortality rate in the United States…
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![[Photos] Haiti Works Toward Eliminating Maternal Tetanus](https://socialgoodmoms.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/dsc8627.jpg)
[Photos] Haiti Works Toward Eliminating Maternal Tetanus
Casimer Dieuvela, 24 years old and five months pregnant, lives two to three hours walk from her monthly health post in Deschappelles, Haiti, but she goes despite the distance to receive her tetanus shot. It’s her third time coming to the health post run by health agent Junior Exanthus and arranged by Hôpital Albert Schweitzer (HAS). Dieuvela brings…
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Save the Children Sounds Alarm on Plight of the World’s Urban Poor
When you think about very low- and middle-income countries you might assume that the poor in deep rural pockets in these countries have the highest chance for maternal and infant mortality. That isn’t the case according to Save the Children’s latest State of the World’s Mothers report released today. The report says that it is…
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Justin Forsyth, Save the Children CEO, on Child Migrant Deaths in the Mediterranean
“Whoever makes up the next Government has a moral obligation to work with the EU to restart the rescue. Every migrant child’s death is a stain on Europe’s conscience. How many thousands must die this summer before Europe acts?” – Justin Forsyth, Save the Children CEO. Read more at Save the Children Calls on the EU to…
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Save the Children calls on the EU to Halt Child Deaths in the Mediterranean
On Sunday, the harrowing news reverberated around the world that hundreds of migrants drowned off the coast of Libya en route to Europe when their boat – not suitable for transport across the vast Mediterranean – capsized. As many as 700 people are feared dead, but the death toll could escalate as more information is…
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41 Maternal Health Organizations to Follow and Support #IntlMHDay
Today is the 2nd annual International Day of Maternal Health and Rights which calls attention to and demands action for the right of every woman to respectful maternity care no matter where she lives in the world. This is critical because a woman dies in childbirth every two minutes totalling nearly 300,000 maternal deaths each…
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UNESCO Report Shows Sobering Global Education Progress
Fifteen years ago an educational framework was set in Dakar, Senegal at the World Education Forum that established goals to achieve “Education for All” by 2015. Since then, the number of children who are now out of school has fallen by half, but there are still 58 million children out of school globally and around…
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Video Member Feature: Samantha Sophia
For the next few weeks we will feature videos of Social Good Moms and members of our Global Team of 200 sharing why they love being a part of our community of moms. The first mom that we’re featuring is Samantha Sophia. Follow her at @raisingself. “I’m a mother, I’m a wife, I’m a corporate…
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How Four Organizations Use Storytelling and Data to Highlight Women’s Health and Global Progress
Over the past few days several organizations have focused on International Women’s Day by releasing reports on the progress of women and girls in a variety of sectors through interactive web sites, data, as well as maps. The following have stood out during the week. Doctors Without Borders Women’s health care is critical in many…
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ONE Campaign Reports that Global Poverty is Deeply Rooted in Sexism
Featured Photo: Paolo Patruno – www.birthisadream.org Today is International Women’s Day which calls upon the world to look at not only the seminal achievements women have made throughout history, but also assess the ways in which women and girls are being perpetually marginalized across the globe through sexist policies and cultural traditions. This sexism is further…
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International Women’s Day Puts Spotlight on Global Poverty, Gender Inequalities
International Women’s Day Twitter Chat We will join Global Impact to discuss these aforementioned women’s and girls’ issues on Friday, March 13 at 1 PM EST. Join us using #HerDay2015. In Ormoc, Philippines women tend to take on village leadership roles to ensure children under five get their scheduled vaccinations and routine check-ups. These women also…
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IN PHOTOS: Engaging Health Workers to End Female Genital Mutilation
Friday, February 6 was International Day of Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation. Individuals, corporations, NGOs, the media, and foundations rallied together to raise awareness about FGM. Over 140 million girls and women alive today have undergone some form of FGM and it is mostly carried out on young girls sometime between infancy and age 15. Press Conference…
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Infographic of the Week: Africa Can Feed Itself
In Bill and Melinda Gates’ Annual Letter that was released this week, they bet that in 15 years Africa will be able to feed itself. For those of you who have never been to Africa you may think this is an overstretch, but it is entirely true and based on significant data. Most of the people…
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The Next #HeForShe Initiative Launches in Davos
Last September Emma Watson, UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador, helped launch the UN Women’s #HeForShe global campaign that calls upon men and boys to stand up against gender discrimination and to help women gain parity economically, politically, and socially through everyday actions and a commitment to change. Now Watson is in Davos, Switzerland at the annual World Economic Forum…
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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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5 Global Health Stories We’re Following This Year
2015 will be an interesting year in global health primarily because this is the year when the Millennium Development Goals should ideally be reached. Global health experts admit that many of the goals, for example MDG5, will not be reached globally even though some of them have already been reached on a country level. Ethiopia effectively reached MDG4…
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Our Top 10 Most Read Posts of 2014
Over the course of this year we have shared a great deal of global health news and information, reports from the field in Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Tanzania, and the Phillipines, and have broken down some of the most pressing global health documents. That said, some of our posts received many more reads than others. Here is…