Updates

By: James Kityo, The Key Correspondents Programme

The Key Correspondents Programme is covering the Women Deliver 2013 global conference live from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia May 28 – 30.

At Women Deliver 2013 this week, two key partners for the Link Up project, the ATHENA Network and the Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GYCA), met with youth leaders from around the world on a range of issues that affect them when it comes to services for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and HIV. Read more...

By: Jill Sheffield, Women Deliver and Matti Navellou, Global Poverty Project; Originally posted on Huffington Post

It's time to modernize advocacy efforts to empower girls and women.

222 million women currently lack access to modern contraception. That's 222 million women who can't plan their fertility, and 222 million women who can't plan their lives.

As notable policymakers, government leaders, civil society representatives and corporate leaders come together this week to discuss the global health and empowerment of girls and women at the 3rd Women Deliver Global Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - now is the time to rethink effective advocacy in this area. Read more...

By: Liza Donnelly, Forbes Contributor; Originally posted on Forbes

The global advocacy group, Women Deliver, is hosting its third conference, May 28-30, 2013, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This conference brings together thousands of activists, world leaders, healthcare professionals, corporate leaders, NGOs and global media outlets from around the world to discuss how to help improve the lives of women and girls. For the event, I was honored to be invited to curate an exhibit of international cartoonist’s art on the subject of women’s rights. The artwork, gathered from cartoonists from 22 different countries, is also collected and published in a book, titled, “Women Deliver, The World Receives.” It was wonderful to be given the opportunity to invite my colleagues to submit their artwork on the subject of women and women’s rights. Cartoons can get at the heart of difficult and important subjects in ways that words often cannot. It takes a village, and the village usually has a cartoonist or two. Read more...

By: Victoria Melhado, Women Deliver Young Leader 2013

Victoria is one of 100 Young Leaders from around the world selected to participate in a leadership development program as part of the 2013 Women Deliver conference in Kuala Lumpur, May 27-30, 2013. The youth pre-conference is sponsored by Johnson & Johnson. Follow Victoria during the conference at @Vicmelhado.

My path to becoming a nurse, midwife, and an advocate for women’s health began before I knew what any of those things were. Read more...  

By: Amie Newman; Originally posted on Impatient Optimists

As we head into the week prior to the 2013 Women Deliver conference, the largest global meeting of the decade to focus on the health and well-being of girls and women, we thought it would be a perfect time to highlight the voices and stories of some of the amazing advocates, from around the world, who are attending this monumental world meeting. Today, meet Julia Wiklander founder of Girls' Globe. Read more...

By: Jill Sheffield, Founder and President of Women Deliver; Originally posted on Huffington Post

Last month, Malala Yousafzai became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize nominee in history. Less than six months earlier, she was shot at point-blank range by those who wanted to silence her for promoting girls' education in her native Pakistan. In a world that too often punishes and oppresses women, and tells girls that they cannot achieve, Malala is a beacon of hope. Read more...

By: Kristin Lindsey, Chief Executive Officer, The Global Fund for Children

Women as a whole have made great strides towards equality, but the fact remains that too many girls in the developing world live in circumstances that are unfair at best, and dangerous at worst. Who are these vulnerable girls? They are child brides. Roughly one-third of all girls in developing nations are married before they turn 18, and in certain countries the number climbs even higher. What does the future hold for a child bride? A lifetime of illiteracy and a drastically increased risk of dying from complications during pregnancy or childbirth. Read more...

Originally posted on ThinkBrigade

This opinion piece is published in collaboration with Women Deliver 100 Young Leaders, liaised by Bijoyeta Das. Ife Smith is one of the 100 Young Leaders for 2012-2013. 

The story of a young woman who endured both domestic violence and a court system that is unfriendly to the poor. A hard-working, law-abiding young woman who made the wrong decision of entering into a relationship with someone she thought she knew. During this relationship she endured physical, mental and emotional abuse. Not only did she had to literally run for her life, but the life she now has she can barely call her own because of  her country’s inhumane, unfriendly and insufferable legal system which she had to turn to for help.

By: Janna Oberdorf, Women Deliver

For pregnant women in Nepal, calcium is an important part of prenatal care that can save both mothers’ and babies’ lives. But too many women in developing countries, including Nepal, can’t afford to buy the expensive calcium supplements they need to prevent conditions like pre-eclampsia that can have life-threatening complications. Read more...

By: Lynn ElHarake, Women Deliver

Muslims hold mothers in high esteem, not just for the burden they endure during pregnancy and childbirth, but also for the key role they play in families, communities and societies overall. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) himself taught the followers of Islam that “paradise lies at the feet of the mother,” ensuring mothers a special place in the religion.

Yet, the disappointing reality is that despite the importance placed on mothers in Islam, six of the ten countries making up 60 percent of the global maternal deaths are majority-Muslim nations. Afghanistan, Chad, Sierra Leone, Somalia and South Sudan are some of the most dangerous places in the world for mothers to give birth. That is why in 2010, the Muslim Agency for Development Education (MADE) in Europe – a Muslim-led movement of young people leading the fight against global poverty and injustice – decided to launch At Our Mothers’ Feet, a campaign that aims to raise awareness within Muslim community in the United Kingdom about global maternal deaths. Read more...

By: Sharifa Kalokola; Originally posted on The Citizen

The author, Sharifa Kalokola, is a Women Deliver 2013 conference scholarship recipient. The article features two of Women Deliver's 100 Young Leaders from Tanzania, Florence Mwitwa and Maureen Anyago Oduor.

It turns out that being voted a class monitor, prefect or student leader in primary, high school and university might actually be a good predictor of one’s success later in life. For many world leaders today, leadership did not come when they already had grey hair – it all started in school. Academic achievement is part of the success story, but it’s not the whole story. This is the wisdom that drives Florence Mwitwa and Maureen Anyago, two 27-year-old university students, who were recently selected to represent the country in the 2013 Women Deliver conference Malaysia later in May. Read more...

By: Harshi Hettige, Women Deliver

Urunana, a Rwandan radio soap, is raising national sexual and reproductive health awareness by broadcasting health information weekly to approximately 10 million people. The engaging plots regularly draw 74% of Rwanda’s population to tune into new episodes twice a week. The show addresses subjects that are often met with silence: HIV and AIDS, family planning, domestic violence, and rape. Where the national average life expectancy is 55 years old and the number of maternal deaths is ranked 145th out of 180, it is vital that Rwandans learn about topical health issues. Read more...

By: Yousra Yusuf, Women Deliver

Around the world, there are currently about 175 million migrant workers who have left home in search of better jobs.  Many South Asian workers end up in Malaysia, which provides job opportunities to approximately 2.1 million documented migrant workers. Women from Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and other neighboring countries leave their families and support systems behind for jobs as domestic workers. Yet their lives are not always what they expected, and some are faced with devastating, abusive conditions. Fortunately, Women’s Aid Organization (WAO) has worked to provide over 100 abused women, including migrant workers, with shelter and counseling. Read more...