Liya Kebede asks the UN for global fund for mothers

She may be a supermodel, but Liya Kebede is a mother first and foremost and spoke at the United Nations Secretary-General’s Forum, Advancing Global Health in the Face of Crisis, about the world’s maternal health crisis. The face of Estee Lauder shared stories about people who’ve watch their wives, sisters, daughters and friends die needlessly because of the basic right to maternal healthcare.

She wrote about her efforts at the UN on the Huffington Post:

It is heartening to hear leaders recognize maternal health as the crisis that it is. I do believe we can end maternal mortality if we truly invest in mothers’ health. However, this isn’t the first generation of women to hear empty words about this topic … A woman commented about how discouraged she was to hear me recite maternal health statistics which essentially hadn’t changed since she had worked on the issue 20 years ago. 20 years ago!!

The Millennium Development Goals and aid pledges are pointless if they remain merely words or if they remain too narrowly focused on specific diseases that allow millions of women to die in childbirth and millions more children to become orphans as a result. With less than six years remaining to achieve the MDGs, MDG #5 — the global pledge to reduce maternal mortality by three quarters — is by far the most neglected goal. In many of the worst affected countries, maternal mortality has dropped only negligibly, if at all.

I hope Kebede’s passion and words inspire more people to join her in pushing for global funds to help save mothers lives, we all wouldn’t be where we are without them.

[Image: IMG Models blog]