Experts from Africa and Asia to Discuss Maternal Health in Live Online Chat

NEW YORK - Partnership between UN Millennium Campaign and Women’s eNews will raise
awareness of the number one killer of young women in developing countries,
despite promises by world leaders to take urgent action to end this crisis

The number one killer of young women in the developing world is not a
disease whose cure eludes us, or a condition which the world lacks the
resources to treat. It is pregnancy and childbirth.

Every year, 500,000 women die while trying to give life. That’s one every
single minute.

The vast majority of these deaths are preventable. As part of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - a set of promises made in the year 2000
to eradicate extreme poverty, improve health, education and the environment
and create a global partnership for development - 189 world leaders have
pledged to reduce maternal mortality by three-quarters by 2015. But maternal
health has seen the least progress of all of the MDGs, and the Goal is
unlikely to be achieved unless urgent action is taken now.

Amidst this global emergency, the UN Millennium Campaign has partnered
with Women’s eNews, the online source of substantive information about issues
of particular concern to women, to host a live online chat about maternal
health.

Who: Annie Raja, General Secretary of the National Federation of
Indian Women, and Dr. Jemima Dennis-Antwi, the International
Confederation of Midwives’ Regional Midwife Adviser for
Anglophone Africa, will share firsthand experiences from the
front lines of the fight against maternal mortality, in a
live chat moderated by Kimberly Seals Allers, Editorial
Director of Women’s eNews’ Black Maternal Health series.
Seals Allers is also founder of Mochamanual.com.

When: March 25, 2009 at 10:00 am Eastern Daylight Time

Where: Online. Visit www.endpoverty2015.org or www.womensenews.org
to register in advance to log in to this event online.

Questions for the panelists can be emailed in advance to
maternalmortalitydebate@gmail.com or typed in during the event.

Note to editors:

The UN Millennium Campaign was established by UN Secretary General Kofi
Annan in 2002. The Campaign supports citizens’ efforts to hold their
governments to account for the achievement of the Millennium Development
Goals. The Millennium Development Goals were adopted by 189 world leaders
from the north and south, as part of the Millennium Declaration which was
signed in 2000. These leaders agreed to achieve the Goals by 2015. Our
premise is simple: we are the first generation that can end poverty and we
refuse to miss this opportunity. For more information, visit
www.endpoverty2015.org.

Source: United Nations Millennium Campaign

Kara Alaimo, UN Millennium Campaign, +1-212-906-6399