* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
By Lyric Thompson
Women for Women International
For those of us fortunate enough to give birth-- or be born-- with access to hospitals, medical care and plenty of food to eat, Mother’s Day is a happy occasion spent celebrating that special woman in our lives who was the steward of early life. It is a day marked by indulgence: chocolate- or flower- sending, or a tender phone call or loving card. But for many mothers in the world, the act of giving life is undertaken at great risk to one’s own. This Mother’s Day, let us honor the millions of women around the globe for whom motherhood is still a great gamble, and redouble our efforts to ensure that no woman will have to give her own life in order to create a new one.
This weekend, I will return to my hometown to celebrate my own mother. One of our shared, mother-daughter activities is sponsoring women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), through Women for Women International. Our support helps Shukuru and Florence, two women living in the conflict-torn East, access training and tools that help them tackle the twin challenges of war and poverty. Florence, my mother’s sponsored “sister,” has seven children. Shukuru, my “sister,” is not yet twenty years old and has two girls. The letters they write us, through the help of a translator, tell of how important it is for women to learn about reproductive health, how to plan when to have children, and how their sponsorship funds are helping pay for children’s food and school fees. For mothers like Shukuru and Florence, the chance to survive childbirth and raise healthy, happy children is a gift not taken for granted.
The fact that Florence and Shukuru have even survived the process of giving birth multiple times is in itself a feat. According to groundbreaking research by the medical journal The Lancet, more than 50% of all maternal deaths in 2008 took place in only six countries, including DRC. The others were India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Ethiopia. Women for Women International works in many of these countries, and has witnessed firsthand the extraordinary obstacles—and strength—of mothers who are struggling every day to provide a safe and healthy future for themselves and their families, even in the face of tremendous obstacles.
Take twenty-year-old Khadija, an Afghan mother who with the support of a sponsor began our year-long training program in November, 2009. Only 14% of births in Afghanistan are facilitated by a medical worker, leading to one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. The financial strain of raising a family at such a young age and without formal training is tremendous. After learning about her rights, how to manage finances and how to sew, Khadija purchased an embroidery machine and now sells items at bazaars to generate income so she can send her children to school. Khadija also learned how to plan pregnancy and how to prevent children from contracting serious diseases. Even though her country is still far from stable, Khadija is on more steady footing and hopeful that she can pay forward the dividends of her success in the future. In her words, “I would like to have my own income-generation project in the future, to support other women and girls."
This kind of ripple effect that direct investment in women has on health, education and economic growth is not unique to Khadija, Shukuru and Florence. According to the World Bank, women invest up to 90% of their resources in the family and community, as compared to 30-40% by men. When women are earning an income, they can afford medical care for themselves and their children, pay school fees for girls as well as boys, and ensure that sufficient food and nutrition is available to sustain healthy families. Women who own businesses employ other women. Women who learn healthy behaviors, such as the importance of having a skilled birth attendant present for delivery and how to practice good sanitation in the home, are on the frontlines of the global effort to reverse these grim health statistics.
We need all hands on deck if we are to achieve the goals we have set for ourselves. We know investment in women yields incredible results, from health, to education, to economic growth, yet globally women receive less than two cents of every dollar of development assistance. We can no longer afford this paltry record. In 2000, the world committed to a number of development goals that aimed to significantly reduce poverty and hunger and boost health and education by 2015, known as the Millennium Development Goals. While we celebrate Mother’s Day, we are yet farther from reaching MDG 5, on maternal health, than we are from achieving any other goal.
We cannot let another Mother’s Day pass with one woman dying every minute from pregnancy-related complications. It is time to realize our promises: Every woman deserves an equal chance at safe childbirth. Every child should enjoy the same opportunities to learn and grow. We as a global community can bring the world closer to the day when Mother’s Day brings the same cause for celebration the world over. This is something we can achieve, with the Khadijas, Shukurus and Florences of the world leading the way.
