Late last month, Population Action International (PAI) showed the world premiere of their documentary The Silent Partner: HIV in Marriage. The screening drew more than 170 community leaders, members of the media, and local and international advocates together in Nairobi, Kenya.
Updates
Ghana’s First Lady Calls for New Partnerships
November 13th, 2008
Ghana's First Lady Mrs. Theresa Kufuor called for the strengthening of partnerships aimed at funding and improving sexual and reproductive health programmes.
Campaign to End Fistula
October 15th, 2008
The Campaign to End Fistula, led by UNFPA, has just announced that they'll quadruple in size and work in 45 countries (up from 12). There are at least 2 million women in Africa, Asia and the Arab region living with obstetric fistula and 50,000 to 100,000 new cases developing each year.
Spotlight on Sierra Leone
October 14th, 2008
There was a great feature in the Washington Post this weekend all about maternal mortality in Sierra Leone. Unfortunately, Sierra Leone has an extremely high maternal mortality rate -- 1 in 8 women die during childbirth.
Why is Africa Plagued with Maternal Mortality?
October 6th, 2008
There's a great blog post on RH Reality Check today about maternal mortality in Africa: On Maternal Mortality, Why Africa Falls So Far Behind. In the post, Edna Adan Ismail lists some of the reasons why African women die in pregnancy and childbirth.
Kangaroo Mother Care
October 3rd, 2008
Check out this video about the success of Kangaroo Mother Care in Malawi.
Op-Ed from Thoraya Obaid
October 1st, 2008
Everyday, over 1,400 women and adolescent girls die needlessly from giving birth and 40,000 more suffer injuries and disabilities that can last a lifetime. Complications of pregnancy are the leading cause of death for young women aged 15 to 19 in the developing world.
Report Card on Maternal Mortality
September 30th, 2008
A new report on maternal mortality, released by UNICEF, highlights the risks faced during pregnancy and childbirth by women in developing countries.
Misoprostol Approved in Uganda
September 19th, 2008
The Uganda government approved the use of the low-cost drug, misoprostol, to treat and prevent excessive bleeding in mothers during childbirth to curb the high maternal mortality rates.
Beyond HIV: Many STIs Can Kill Pregnant Women
September 17th, 2008
Masimba Biriwasha wrote a blog post on RH Reality Check today about the need to screen pregnant women for other STIs than HIV. She references a new study that was conducted in Cameroon on gynaecological morbidity--defined as "any condition, disease or dysfunction of the reproductive system that is not related to pregnancy, abortion or childbirth but may be related to sexual behaviour." Biriwasha says:
Mobile Phones and Global Health
September 10th, 2008
Many thanks to DataDyne, the nonprofit (sponsored by the UN Foundation and Vodafone Foundation) that developed a software application for mobile phone devices that enables public health workers in developing countries to collect data more efficiently. (Found via UN Dispatch) Yesterday, the UN Foundation and the Vodafone Foundation, together with the World Health Organization announced that its EpiSurveyor program will expand to 22 sub-Saharan African countries by the end of the year. Check out this video of a DataDyne employee who helped train health workers in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo explain why this technology is so significant. Click through to watch a video.