Sexual and Reproductive Health with Isaac Eranga

March 5th, 2015 By Katja Iversen; Originally posted on Devex I will never forget the evening in 2009 when I heard Sean, a 19-year-old spoken-word artist from Brooklyn, New York, give a performance about women dying during pregnancy or childbirth in Sierra Leone; it left me in tears. I am a fairly seasoned development professional and I have worked on the issue of maternal health for most of my career. I have written extensively about the issue, participated in hundreds of meetings and have read countless reports on the topic. But few things have gotten to me as much as listening to that young man use  his voice and artistic vision to convey how unfair, gruesome and needless it is to let a woman die giving life. I left that night inspired, with a new appreciation and understanding of the powerful connection between art and advocacy. Yes, as advocates we need the evidence on which to build our case, but it takes more

March 5th, 2015 Contact: Jessica Malter, Women Deliver jmalter@womendeliver.org Stephanie Platis, Global Health Strategies splatis@globalhealthstrategies.com On International Women’s Day, Women Deliver honors fifteen journalists championing the health and rights of girls and women through their reporting March 5, 2015, New York, NY – To celebrate International Women’s Day (March 8), Women Deliver is honoring 15 journalists for their consistent and game-changing coverage of maternal, sexual and reproductive health and rights issues at the global and national levels. The 15 honorees are women and men from 12 countries across Africa, Asia and North and South America. They have used their voices and media platforms to bring attention to issues like female genital mutilation in Liberia, Cameroon and Tanzania; women’s rights abuses in India and Pakistan; teenage pregnancy in Uganda; contraceptive access in the P

March 5th, 2015   By: The International HIV/AIDS Alliance Mary*, 19, is from Yambio in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria state and is living with HIV.  Orphaned at a young age and brought up by her aunt, she’s smart and determined to see her education through to university level if she can.  Few girls her age even reach secondary education – they often drop out early due to early marriage, adolescent pregnancy or their parents not recognizing the value of girls staying in school. Mary also sells sex.  Finding the money for her school fees was proving difficult and she began selling sex in order to continue her schooling.  Sex work in South Sudan is criminalised and sex workers often find themselves discriminated against by healthcare providers and law enforcement agents who are known to harass them when they find condoms in their bags. Mary is lucky in that she has been supported by the YMCA and the Alliance for

  Photo Credit: Mark Tuschman Why Are Women and Children Still Dying? Dr. Denise Raquel Dunning November 12, 2014 Nigeria, one of the richest countries in Africa, also boasts one of the world’s highest rates of maternal, newborn, and child death. One in 13 Nigerian women dies during pregnancy or childbirth, and one in 8 Nigerian children dies before their fifth birthday. And Nigeria is not alone. The global realities are equally devastating – nearly three million newborn babies die annually, and 800 women die in childbirth every single day. That means that two women will die by the time you finish reading this article – assuming you read fast. While the numbers are shocking, it’s even more horrifying to realize that nearly 90% of these deaths are avoidable: women, newborns, and young children die from preventable conditions like hemorrhage, p

Birth attendants on the frontline of childbirth delivery in India’s public hospitals work under challenging circumstances. One on one coaching is the core of a childbirth safety improvement trial involving these health care workers in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Source: PSI/Ariadne Labs   Font Size   Print January 12, 2015 Making Childbirth Safer: It Takes a Sales Force Atul Gawande , Vishwajeet Kumar , Ruth Landy , Mariam Claeson January 12, 2015 “The mother and her newborn are safe in my hands!” Ishrawati, a birth attendant at a remote health center in northern India, is feeling confident, and in many ways that’s surprising. Like millions of mostly female health workers delivering babies in the world’s poorest communities, Ishrawati works under conditions of chronic scarcity. No heating in her facility during freezing winters; no air conditioning in