Now that the year is winding down, we want to know:
What are you plans for 2009?
Now that 2008’s almost over, that means we’re officially well beyond the half-way point to meeting the MDGs by 2015. Do you still think it can be done? What are you doing to meet MDG5 in the upcoming year?

The Campaign to End Fistula was recognized as a model for championing collaboration between countries in the Global South, receiving an award of excellence from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The Campaign, which began in 12 countries in 2003 and now spans 45 countries in Africa, Asia and the Arab region, [...]

Today is Project for Awesome – Every year, YouTube’s Community takes over YouTube for a day… and instead of being stupid or funny… the community promotes charities. (Though, in all honesty, the videos are still pretty stupid and funny!) The idea is to watch these video, comment A TON, and then they’ll get bumped up [...]

Check out this blog post on RH Reality Check from Representative Nita Lowey, Chairwoman of the House Appropriations State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee. Her advice to Obama about the global gag rule? “Just repeal it.” It’s really as simple as that. In her post, Rep. Lowey talks about the challenges of working under the [...]

Ann Starrs, president of Family Care International, wrote an article, “Half a Million Reasons,” in the current issue of Public Service Review: International Development. In it, Starrs provides an update on progress toward MDG 5, on the challenges that still lie in the way of its fulfillment, and on recent causes for hope.
In a special issue focusing on the MDGs, [...]

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. The film examines the risk of HIV within marriage and the particular challenges facing [...]

There’s a great blog post on the Huffington Post today. The author, Rishi Manchanda, a primary care physician in south central Los Angeles, writes about his experience of visiting a Kenyan hospital 2 hours outside of Nairobi. His colleagues had gathered in Kenya as members of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), an international nonprofit, to attend [...]

Today is the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A few weeks ago, we shared a beautiful video that helps us remember what the Declaration stands for. Now it’s time to put those words into action. We need to remember that maternal health is a human right. Preventable maternal deaths are caused by the [...]

Tomorrow is the final day of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. Can you name 16 forms of gender-based violence? UNFPA has an extensive list of different types of gender violence (there’s more than you’d think), and they have 16 ways that they’re fighting it right now. You can also check out their [...]

The December issue of National Geographic has a great piece on maternal and child health in the central part of India’s Maharashtra state. The author, Tina Rosenberg, focuses on the Jamkhed program that trains local midwives to administer health services and deliver babies safely. The success has been dramatic: Thirty-eight years after its founding, the program [...]