Kristof: We Can Stop Women Dying In Childbirth, We Just Need More Money

by Mike Smith · 2009-10-13 14:16:00 UTC
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Sometimes it takes less than 140 characters to get the message across. In a tweet earlier today, Nicholas Kristof wrote: "Maternal mortality: 540,000 women die annually in childbirth, equivalent of 5 jumbo jets crashing a day." 89 characters that can provide a real shock.

The tweet was in reference to “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” a book co-written by Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, a former New York Times correspondent who works in finance and philanthropy. It was excerpted at length in the New York Times. In that piece they make an obvious point: we know how to avoid maternal mortality (it's 1 in 47,600 in Ireland, but 1 in 7 in Niger), it's just that "poor, uneducated women in Africa and Asia have never been a priority either in their own countries or to donor nations." Kristof is demanding action and aid to help save lives, advocating tried and tested methods that just need funding in order to make a real difference.

Photo credit: LaBelleVida

Mike Smith
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