PSI Board Member Ashley Judd Calls for Greater Investments in Women and Girls

Joins global leaders and advocates at the Women Deliver 2010 Conference to encourage action on maternal health, funding and human rights

WASHINGTON, June 8, 2010 - PSI Board Member and Global Ambassador Ashley Judd joined the Executive
Director of UNFPA, Thoraya Obaid, the former President of Chile Michelle
Bachelet, the former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, and the Vice
President for Africa of the World Bank, Oby Ezekwesi, calling on the global
community to place women's health at the center of the global agenda, with
the adequate resources and political will necessary to deliver a brighter
future for girls and women.

    (Photo: photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100608/DC17390)
    (Photo: www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100608/DC17390)

"We can do these things and we must do these things," Judd said at the
opening press conference of the Women Deliver 2010 conference on maternal and
reproductive health. The conference has brought more than 3,000 leaders,
advocates and officials from around the world together with one combined
purpose: to save the lives of girls and women through a greater focus on
women's health and empowerment.

"Women are at the economic heart of our world. And to achieve all they
must achieve, they need to be healthy," Judd said. "The benefits of investing
in women are enormous. When women earn an income, they are more likely than
men to put their income toward food, medicine, education, and other family
needs, which benefits not just families but entire communities."

Judd and her fellow panelists called for increased financial investment
to fulfill Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 - to reduce maternal mortality
and achieve universal access to reproductive health by 2015. Speaking at the
press conference, President Bachelet - one of the Honorary Co-Chairs of the
conference - referred to the upcoming target date for the MDGs and warned:
"To improve on MDG 5 we need concerted action in these remaining five years."

PSI believes that health is the cornerstone of a woman's overall
development and throughout the conference PSI will participate in several
Women Deliver plenaries and panels to discuss low-cost, innovative solutions
to increase access to reliable reproductive health products and services:

    On Tuesday:
    -- PSI Board Member Ashley Judd will host a panel on "Taking Innovation
       to Scale: Increasing access to long-acting reversible contraception
       (LARC) across the globe"

    On Wednesday:
    -- PSI CEO Karl Hofmann will participate in a panel on "Communities
       Deliver: Eliminating Disparities in Family Planning Access"
    -- PSI Board Member Ashley Judd will moderate a plenary on "Young Women
       Deliver"
    -- PSI will also present on panels entitled "Innovative strategies to
       improve services and increase access" and "Preventing Postpartum
       Hemorrhage"

About PSI

PSI is a leading global health organization with programs targeting
malaria, child survival, HIV and reproductive health. Working in partnership
within the public and private sectors, and harnessing the power of markets,
PSI provides life-saving products, clinical services and behavior change
communications that empower the world's most vulnerable populations to lead
healthier lives. www.psi.org

Anna Dirksen of PSI, +1-646-544-8492, adirksen at psi.org