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I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t eat “eight thousand nine billion doughnuts” if someone paid me to do it, let alone because I wanted to. But apart from that I think the message of this movie is one everyone can agree on. As this video from the White Ribbon Alliance shows, Mums matter - no two ways about it!
Although the importance of a mother is universally accepted, MGD5 is lagging behind all other Millennium Goals and there are almost 400,000 deaths annually classified as “maternal mortality,” as we've noted previously. This means that a Miami or Manchester worth of women dies every year in childbirth (most often due to obstructed labor or bleeding) or as a consequence of an illegal, unsafe abortion.
Without a mother the world can be a scary place. Especially if you’re a child. Unfortunately, according to the White Ribbon Alliance this is the fate of 2 million kids worldwide every year. That’s more orphans than people live in Luxembourg and Qatar combined! 99,5% of these kids are in developing countries where there likely aren’t procedures or institutions that can make sure they are looked after. Traditionally families would care for a mother-less child, but due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic these traditional care-takers may no longer be alive or well enough to care for a child.
As Jill Sheffield, the President of Women Deliver, said “The biggest enemy of women’s health and rights is political indifference”. Even though we know how to effectively lower maternal mortality, taking action on preventing mums dying has never been high on politicians’ priority list.
The thing is, a little investment can go a long way. At least 80% of maternal deaths could be averted for US$24 billion. That may seem like a lot of money but to put things in perspective President Obama spent US$25 billion bailing out the automobile industry. Americans annually spend US$14 billion on Mother’s Day merchandise - that’s US$2 billion more than the current (inadequate) global spending on maternal health!
Statistically, every person contributes only US$2.50 annually to making sure women don’t die in childbirth. By making even a small donation to an organization that works to save mothers you can double your per capita impact!
In the worlds of Melinda Gates - “every birth is a cause for joy that holds promise of a better future” and we can work to make sure that nowhere is it regularly a life-threatening condition.
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