A child is born. A mother makes a promise. A promise to keep that child healthy and whole. A promise to do everything in her power so her child will grow and flourish.
However, far too often, mothers do not have access to the resources they need to keep those promises. Even the best of intentions may not be enough to overcome hurdles to access health care, ensure their child receives an education, and give that child a chance to dream without limitations.
We have made remarkable progress in the past two decades. More women and children around the world have access to the care and support they need to survive and thrive. Child deaths have been cut by more than half, and deaths of mothers during pregnancy and childbirth by nearly as much. And yet we still lose nearly 6 million children and more than 300,000 mothers each year.
Lifting the world by saving and improving lives
We must continue to prioritize the health of women and children. It will not only save lives, but also improve the prosperity of families, thereby lifting up entire communities and nations.
PATH and our advocacy partners recently created a video to highlight these needs for mothers and children everywhere. The video is aimed at ensuring the United States government, a leader in global maternal and child health, continues to support cost-effective, high-impact programs and scale up innovations to save more lives, faster.
We partnered with the Visual Epidemiology Project at Yale University along with the Save the Children Action Network, World Vision, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Watch the video to learn more and make your own promise to women and children everywhere.
Together, we can give the most vulnerable women and children the power to protect their own health by providing new opportunities to grow, thrive, and unlock their potential. Watch the video and visit www.ToKeepaPromise.org to see how you can help.
At the center of the agenda: women and girls
At PATH, we believe innovating for women and girls is key to this effort, because they bear the brunt of the world’s diseases and face inequities that prevent them from protecting their own health. For nearly 40 years, PATH has empowered women and girls around the world to take charge of their own health through innovations that give them an equal chance for a healthy life. PATH’s innovative solutions transform health at every stage of a woman’s life, from improving sexual and reproductive health to make pregnancy and childbirth safer and through middle age and beyond with prevention and treatment of women’s cancers and other chronic diseases.