Our friends at the UN Foundation are teaming up with the Baby Center tomorrow for an all day discussion and tweet-a-thon about maternal and child health. There will be a series of twitter chats and conference calls from 8 am to 5 pm EST tomorrow in which people can call in or tweet questions and comments to expert panelists. They are calling it a “Virtual Baby Shower” for Global Good. Ha!
Dispatch readers may be interested in dropping by a 9 am panel that includes the blogger Emily McKhann Dr. Richard Besser from ABC News, & Susan MacKay from UNICEF and Anita Sharma from the UN Foundation.
- Dr. Besser: A 13-year veteran of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is chief health and medical editor of ABC News.
- Susan MacKay: An award-winning documentary producer for BBC World and has had a long career in global health communications. Currently, she is the Senior Communications for Development Specialist at UNICEF
- Anita Sharma: the Director of Millennium Development Goals Initiatives at the United Nations Foundation and currently works as part of Every Women Every Child in support of the UN Secretary General’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health.
You can participate on Twitter using the hashtag#amillionmoms or old school:
Dial 1-800-311-9402 /1-334-323-7224 (Int’l).
Passcode: Mothers
A blog post from BabyCenter provides some context about why so many disparate groups from the public and private sector are organizing around this issue:
At BabyCenter, we believe that whether you give birth on the dirt floor of a hut or in a private room in a hospital, you’re still a mom, overwhelmed with love as you look into the eyes of your little one for the first time.
But the reality is, in the developing world, many women die in childbirth before experiencing that exhilarating moment because they’re not able to receive adequate care. And those that don’t, have to face harsh realities that their babies could die of a preventable disease because they don’t have access to proper nutrition and vital immunizations.
As Amy Graff discovered when she visited Kenya recently with ONE.org, these aren’t just stories, they’re real people who want their children to live happy, healthy and long lives.
The problem is, wanting to help and knowing how to help are two very different things.
Next Tuesday, we’d like to start bridging that gap, by partnering with our friends at ABC News to host an all day Tweetathon and BabyCenter Community party designed to introduce you to several amazing cause-related organizations and help you understand how you can make a difference immediately.
The Baby Shower for Global Good is part of the Million Moms Challenge, a campaign that brings together a coalition of more than a dozen world-class partners working around the globe to improve the lives of women and children who are struggling with things like access to proper nutrition and medical care.The Million Moms Challenge is sponsored in part by ABC News, the UN Foundation, BabyCenter and Johnson & Johnson, as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
What can you do?
1. “Like” the Million Moms Challenge Page on Facebook. If we can reach 100,000 likes by November 9 (that’s 75k more – we can do it!) Johnson and Johnson will donate $100,000 to organizations helping moms & babies.
2. Sign up for the Challenge by heading to MillionMomsChallenge.com and entering your email address at the top of the page. This will ensure you’re up-to-date on the latest information and opportunities to help.
3. Join the Baby Shower for Global Good on November 8 any time between 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET.
- Hear from dozens of organizations including the UN Foundation, ONE.org, Join(RED) , Save the Children, Partners in Health, World Vision, Riders for Health, International Medical Corps, White Ribbon Alliance, Johnson and Johnson, Text4Baby and more.
- Win prizes that like beautiful handmade scarves and jewelry, free-trade coffee, Two Degrees nutritional bars, and cozy newborn Information Blankets, designed to keep babies warm while reminding moms of important medical information they need to help their babies thrive. Other prizes include DVD copies of Ricki Lake’s documentary, “The Business of Being Born”, pedometers and an iPod Nano.
RSVP now by commenting “I just took the Million Moms Challenge!” in the comments below to be eligible to win a Million Moms Challenge prize pack including more than $100 in prizes from Million Moms Challenge partners. One winner will be chosen by random drawing and announced at the top of this post on November 7.
To join the Million Moms Baby Shower for Global Good, visit Tweetchat.com and enter #amillionmoms in the search box at the top of the page or join the Babies group in the BabyCenter Community.
Check it out!