August 2012 - Global Moms Challenge

New ABCs for Global Engagement and Social Good

By: Aaron Sherinian

Afghanistan, Bhutan and Colombia. And that's just the start of the list...

It's not every day that you can put something on your calendar that says you have a meeting with someone in Afghanistan, Bhutan and Colombia. But that is what's happening this year as part of the Social Good Summit. As I'm sure you've read about from our friends at Mashable, this year's Social Good Summit will be one of the biggest global moments to talk about global issues and how technology is helping drive innovation around the big problems our world faces.

General

Survivors

Women throughout the centuries have struggled in childbirth. Many of our ancestors faced harrowing deliveries with life-threatening circumstances. Most certainly, some of these women experienced obstetric fistula.

Almost unheard of in industrialized countries now, it is caused when a woman experiences prolonged labor and is unable to receive a needed c-section. Her infant’s head presses on the birth canal for an extended time (often several days), damaging the tissues and leading to a hole between the birth canal and the bladder or rectum. This hole causes permanent incontinence unless corrected with surgery. In a double tragedy, 90 percent of the babies born to these women are still-born. The agony continues with husbands and extended family typically rejecting her, often banishing her from the community, or leaving her in a hut on the outskirts of the village to subsist as best she can.

General

When Cooking Kills

BY CHRYSULA WINEGAR

Imagine if you learned that the way you cooked for your family was killing them. Sarah, in Kenya, did. After losing a sister to lung cancer, she began to understand the issues. Two years ago she was able to do something about it, after she began to cook with a more fuel-efficient and cleaner cookstove.

General

A Mother’s Perspective: Earth Summit Outcome, Rio+20

By: Harriet Shugarman, Climate Mama

The “world came together” in Rio De Janerio, June 20-23 with the stated goals of: securing renewed political commitment to sustainable development; assessing progress towards internationally agreed goals on sustainable development and addressing new and emerging challenges. But what does that mean to you? My understanding is that these goals weren’t actually met – do we need to be concerned?

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