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By: Lindsay Menard-Freeman, Women Deliver

If you brave the helter-skelter road out of the capital city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh—where rickshaws, motorcycles, and oversize trucks compete with cows for two narrow lanes—then turn onto the dirt road between the rice fields, you will find something remarkable in the quiet village of Devpuri. Despite India’s dire maternal and newborn health record (each year, 78,000 women die giving birth and a million babies don’t survive their first month), mothers and newborns are surviving. Read more...

By: Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin; originally posted in The Huffington Post

My mother, Morenike Osotimehin, was a remarkable woman. A great entrepreneur, and an excellent wife to my father, who was a schoolteacher, she managed her own small business, sourcing fruits, and gave birth to eight children: four boys and four girls.

She was born in 1924, she was strong -- and she was an inspiration. Every day was a balancing act between work and the requirements of a big family. She understood that each one of us must live a productive life and contribute to society, and she insisted that we go to school, work hard and do our very best. But she also had a soft spot for those not doing so well. Apart from her own children, my mother regularly took in cousins and nephews who needed help. Sometimes there were as many as 15 of us in our home. Read more...

By: Smita Gaith, Women Deliver

The Nike Foundation continues its commitment to the Girl Effect and the health of girls and women by funding Tostan’s Community Empowerment Programs. 

Tostan is an international grassroots organization. The Community Empowerment Program is a community-based effort that makes use of the power of social networks to promote knowledge and skills sharing. The program was created with the intention of targeting the most vulnerable in the country: rural girls and women and embraces a holistic and participatory approach. Read more...

Every Mother Counts, an advocacy and mobilization campaign aiming to increase education and support for maternal mortality reduction worldwide, invites the world to take part in their No Mothers Day campaign this Sunday, May 13th. No Mothers Day is a social issue campaign, being implemented to raise awareness about the hundreds of thousands of young girls and women who die each year during from causes relating to pregnancy and childbirth. The idea is to take a moment aside while many people in the world are celebrating their mothers to understand the issues surrounding maternal deaths around the world. As part of the campaign, the website encourages the world to “go silent” in an act of solidarity for the “missing mothers,” women who die from pregnancy or childbirth-related causes around the world, and those who are vulnerable to high-risk pregnancies. Read more...