by World Moms Blog | Dec 2, 2014 | 2014, World Voice
World Mom, Aisha in Nigeria, gets her temperature taken at a stop to check for Ebola while driving her daughter to school in northern Nigeria.
This Giving Tuesday, World Moms Blog contributors from 5 continents are on the ONE Campaign blog speaking out in support to help end Ebola. From Nigeria to Indonesia to Belgium to New Zealand to the USA mothers support donating to help end the Ebola outbreak and provide needed healthcare to those affected.
Check out the full post over at ONE!
Also, the advocacy to #ENDEbola continues on World Moms Blog with the WGirls, an international nonprofit who reach out to the girls and women in their communities in need. In times of global crisis, they also rally to help. Today, WGirls President, Amy Heller, is on the blog talking about the importance of supporting efforts to end Ebola and her organization’s support of Doctors Without Borders to do just that this #GivingTuesday.
We are grateful to support these partnerships to help support the organizations who need our help to contain Ebola this #GivingTuesday!
Photo credit to Aisha Yesufu.
World Moms Blog is an award winning website which writes from over 30 countries on the topics of motherhood, culture, human rights and social good. Over 70 international contributors share their stories from around the globe, bonded by the common thread of motherhood and wanting a better world for their children.
World Moms Blog was listed by Forbes Woman as one of the "Best 100 Websites for Women 2012 & 2013" and also called a "must read" by the NY Times Motherlode in 2013. Our Senior Editor in India, Purnima Ramakrishnan, was awarded the BlogHer International Activist Award in 2013.
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by Jennifer Burden | Sep 24, 2014 | 2014, International, Social Good, World Voice
Following the Social Good Summit, World Moms Blog was invited to a private event focused on the immediate humanitarian need to contain and eradicate the Ebola virus. It was eye opening, and we can’t wait to share what we learned and what actions everyday citizens can take…
“We have to get ahead of this crisis.” — Carolyn Miles, CEO of Save the Children on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Carolyn Miles, CEO of Save the Children, reported that her organization is working in all three countries with the most Ebola cases: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Ebola has a high fatality rate and isolation helps calm the virus down. Children are being orphaned at an increasing rate, and burial practices and safety are of importance, as the virus is still active after death. As the crisis increases, Miles says the goal is to also increase the amounts of Ebola Community Units (EBCs) that Save the Children has been setting up.
The introduction of an EBC gives aid workers the ability to work with people in the communities affected to increase trust in the treatment of the dangerous virus and helps get people out of their homes to decrease the chance of infecting family members. Miles also noted that the governments of the US and the UK are also running treatment centers in the countries affected.
Christopher Elias, President of Global Development at The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, describes the space and scope of Ebola “unlike anything they have seen.”
This is the first outbreak in Western Africa and the 1st in urban areas. In fact, just two weeks ago, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ear tagged $50 million dollars to go toward eradicating Ebola. By the time they had made the announcement, they had already handed out the first $13 million, which indicates the urgency of the need, according to Elias. The $50 million commitment is the largest Gates has made to a humanitarian crisis. This is just the beginning, as $1 billion is needed to complete the mission, according to the ONE Campaign. Christopher Elias explains the 4 part strategy for the Ebola funding, as follows:
The 1st part of the strategic plan for where the Gates money will benefit is to partners such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO) and others. In fact, the first $1 million was allotted to UNICEF.
The second step is to fund research, as there is a need for both, a cure and a better test to diagnose Ebola.
Third, the strategy is focused at the country level.
Something very unique to controlling this outbreak is the use of health systems previously in place from the efforts to eradicate polio in Lagos, Nigeria.
The capital city had 19 cases, but health workers were able to control it quickly. Same was true for Senegal, where there was one case that was rapidly contained. Part three of the strategy will be how resources in countries affected can be complemented to help.
And the fourth part of the financing strategy for the Gates commitment is to join partnerships with the CDC and others to calculate which countries will be at risk for the spread of Ebola. Identifying and anticipating where Ebola could travel next, will help those countries prepare if the virus does indeed arrive. As already mentioned, the quicker the containment of the disease, the less likely it is to spread.
Carolyn Miles noted that where there are no health systems intact, in the more rural areas, there is the most risk of the virus spreading. In the more urban areas, as mentioned, the legacy of the polio eradication efforts are already in place to contain and treat Ebola.
We also heard from Jamie Drummond, co-founder of the ONE campaign, who pointed out that strengthening the economies in countries vulnerable to the disease is important. The world needs more sustainable systems, and, in fact, according to Drummond, it is estimated that $1 billion is needed for the Ebola crisis. He explained that the money could come from GAVI, but that would come at the expense of endangering the vaccination programs already planned to prevent other deadly diseases. Realistically, we need to deal with Ebola AND get GAVI the money it needs to carry on it’s already life-saving work.
The three countries currently affected by Ebola have significant natural resources. Had these natural resources been managed well in the past, the money to combat the virus would be here today. ONE insists that we need long-term investments in functioning economies.
On that note, we were told about the “Publish What You Pay” campaign to expose corruption and unveil money laundering schemes. In many countries throughout Africa there is no budget transparency, and citizens cannot see how the money is used. This campaign is working hard toward better functioning economies in Africa.
Towards the end of the conference, actor Idris Elba, famous for his role as Nelson Mandela, among others, arrived. Having roots in Sierra Leone and Ghana, he explained that he is dedicated to lend his celebrity to help the crisis in West Africa. He also noted that the Sierra Leone economy has been slashed by over 30% and that 75% of the Ebola victims are young women, who are more likely the caregivers for people suffering from the virus. In addition, he explained that in Sierra Leone there is a large group of thousands of young adults mobilized and going door to door to give out information about Ebola. But, this group is heavily fatigued. Elba is hoping to rally them forward.
World Moms, Elizabeth Atalay, Kyla P’an and myself, left the conversation briefed on just how large of a problem Ebola is and can be, and the importance of immediate action.
Three Steps YOU can take to help #ENDEBOLA right now!!!
1.) Sign this petition to tell world leaders to ACT on Ebola now!
2) Donate. Every little bit helps, to organizations on the ground, such as Save the Children.
3) Share. Download this image and share on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.:
Together, we can take action to save lives!
This is an original post to World Moms Blog by founder, Jennifer Burden, in New Jersey, USA.
Image credit to ONE.org.
Jennifer Burden is the Founder and CEO of World Moms Network, an award winning website on global motherhood, culture, human rights and social good. World Moms Network writes from over 30 countries, has over 70 contributors and was listed by Forbes as one of the “Best 100 Websites for Women”, named a “must read” by The New York Times, and was recommended by The Times of India.
She was also invited to Uganda to view UNICEF’s family health programs with Shot@Life and was previously named a “Global Influencer Fellow” and “Social Media Fellow” by the UN Foundation. Jennifer was invited to the White House twice, including as a nominated "Changemaker" for the State of the World Women Summit. She also participated in the One Campaign’s first AYA Summit on the topic of women and girl empowerment and organized and spoke on an international panel at the World Bank in Washington, DC on the importance of a universal education for all girls. Her writing has been featured by Baby Center, Huffington Post, ONE.org, the UN Foundation’s Shot@Life, and The Gates Foundation’s “Impatient Optimists.” She is currently a candidate in Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in the Executive Masters of Public Affairs program, where she hopes to further her study of global policies affecting women and girls.
Jennifer can be found on Twitter @JenniferBurden.
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by Jennifer Burden | Oct 12, 2013 | 2013, World Voice
#Moms4MDGs! World Moms Blog editors, Elizabeth Atalay, Jennifer Burden & Nicole Melancon pose with the ONE Campaign’s Jeannine Harvey and writer Jennifer Barbour just before heading into UN Headquarters in New York City on September 23, 2013.
In the late 1970s, a popular saying then was, “Who cares?” — equivalent to the “Whatever!”, which was more frequently used by myself and my peers decades later. Back in the day, my older teenage family members and friends would use the “Who cares?” in natural conversation when I was running around the house as a toddler. I would immediately respond by turning my head to one side and saying, “I care!” My family found this entertaining, and they kept saying, “Who cares?”, to get me to do the silly head turn. (Yep. I just admitted that.)
Too young to explain then, I still remember why I turned my head. I wanted them to know that someone cared, but I didn’t want anybody to know it was me.
Fast forward 30 something years later, and I have found a place where fellow “I Care!” folks convene. Like a Trekkie at a Star Trek conference, I was among the masses of people “Who Care” at the Social Good Summit this year, including Richard Branson, Melinda Gates (who follows World Moms Blog!), Al Gore, will.i.am and Malala.
This year was World Moms Blog’s third year in attendance at the event, which is a “three day conference where big ideas meet new media to create innovative solutions” that coincides with the UN’s General Assembly in New York City.
Nicole Morgan, Jennifer Barbour, Jeannine Harvey, Elizabeth Atalay, Kelly Pugliano and Jennifer Burden at the Social Good Summit September 24th, 2013 in NYC.
The first year in 2011, our website was less than one year old, and I attended with my husband in tow to help me watch my baby girl. I knew not a soul, and stepped out of my comfort zone to do things like introduce myself to super model Christy Turlington Burns after being inspired by her session on working alongside bloggers to improve global maternal health. I also connected further with the UN Foundation’s Shot@Life campaign, which I later traveled to Uganda with last year and the GAVI Alliance, for which we have hosted global tea parties in support of life-saving vaccines for children.
Our second year at the summit in 2012, World Moms Blog had newly made the FORBES list of “Top 100 Websites for Women 2012” for our first of two times, and I couldn’t wait to listen to and meet Moira Forbes, who heads FORBES Woman. By this time I had roped some amazing, like-minded friends from my blogging circle into the conference, too — Nicole Melancon of Third Eye Mom and Elizabeth Atalay of Documama. They are the World Voice editors at World Moms Blog and cover social good and human rights.
That year, we met some incredible people, such as Nicholas Kristoff, coauthor of “Half the Sky“, a must-read book on the nightmare realities of modern day slavery. The summit was also a great opportunity for a reunion with fellow Shot@Life Champions, whom we had met earlier that year at training in Washington, D.C. in support of global vaccines, and our fellow #ONEMoms who support eradicating global poverty.
Our third time at the Social Good Summit this past September, our World Moms Blog team expanded, and I was also thrilled to be invited as a #2030NOW “Global Influencer” Fellow by the UN Foundation and Plus Social Good.
I attended small “Master Class” private sessions throughout the conference and networked with some new amazing peers. One of which was Wall Street power house, Whitney Johnson, who recently named me to her list of the few people who made a lasting impression at the Social Good Summit. I am entirely humbled. The list also includes one of my total heroes who spoke at the Social Good Summit, Malala, the brave girl in Pakistan who was shot in the face by the Taliban and addresses the world on the importance of education girls.
I also got the chance to rub elbows with the fiery Feminista Jones, who is not afraid to stand up in a room of over achievers and a princess and give an effortless tirade on why AIDS is killing black women in America at alarming rates and no one seems to care. I didn’t know if I wanted to hug or tweet her afterwards. We were discussing HIV/AIDS with HRH Mette-Marit, the Crowned Princess of Norway to add some context here.
In addition to the #2030NOW Global Influencers team, the Shot@Life Champions and #ONEMoms, I was also proud to be part of another social good posse. We’re made up of women who happen to also be moms and writers, and we all live for this helping people all over the world stuff. It’s in our blood. And it matters.
Nicole and Elizabeth came back this year, and we added Nicole Morgan, Kelly Pugliano, Jennifer Barbour and the former Miss Tanzania and Miss Africa World and current social entrepreneur, Nancy Sumari to our pack. Nancy happened to be in NYC on a work-cation, and meeting her was a total highlight!
World Moms Blog contributors took the stage at the Social Good Summit, too! LaShaun Martin spoke on the “Mothers Connect” panel with Johnson & Johnson and Shot@Life, and Nicole Morgan was asked to speak on her wishes for her children on the same panel. Well done, World Moms!
This year our normal schedule was also highlighted by additional invitations from ONE.org, WaterAid, Save the Children, Shot@Life, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Women Deliver, and the GAVI Alliance to talk social good and network outside of the summit. This included two invitations to UN Headquarters for discussions, one on Millennial Factivism with ONE.org and Okay Africa and another on Harnessing the Power of Global Public-Private Partnerships with the GAVI Alliance and the Global Fund. We have learned so much that we’ll carry along with us.
For example, at a private meeting with Mark Suzman, Managing Director of International Policy and Programs for The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he gave us a stat that I have continued to turn over and over in my head ever since,
“In Ethiopia 1 in 15 children die before the age of 5 years old. But, not too long ago that statistic had been 1 in 5 children.” A true reminder that the world is making progress when it comes to the Millennium Development Goals, but there is still much work to be done.
There were internal lessons for us on gaining the self-confidence to speak up and carry out our work, too. For example, being at a press event when they’re fielding questions for Carolyn Miles, the CEO of Save the Children, about refugee children in Syria and the questions were coming from TIME Magazine, ABC and….well, World Moms Blog. (We care about kids!)
#Moms4MDGs in NYC — Nancy Sumari; Carolyn Miles, CEO of Save the Children, Nicole Melancon; Elizabeth Atalay; Jennifer Burden; and Jennifer Barbour just after a discussion on children refugees from the Syrian conflict. Sept. 23, 2013.
Or going through UN Headquarters security with fellow World Mom and Sister from Another Mister, Nicole Morgan, with our matching bright green luggage that we had both received as gifts from the Disney Social Media Moms conference amongst high level foreign diplomats.
We went from sharing a seat at the “It’s a Small World” ride together in May at Walt Disney World to being invited to the UN headquarters during the General Assembly in September. It really is a small world after all.
Our global posse is rooting together for the good of the world, and we’re also always pushing, encouraging, growing like a snowball and making it easier for each other to do more. The Social Good Summit has proved a great place to connect World Moms Blog with the United Nations and with organizations working towards a better life for mothers and children around the globe, an important part of our mission. Our contributors, in turn, are bringing big ideas to media, just like the creation of our #Moms4MDGs campaign to raise awareness for the UN’s goals to end poverty inspired by our editor, Purnima Ramakrishnan in India. I can’t wait to see what these women will do next!
And we all care very much, dammit. (Turns head to the side to stretch neck from working at the computer screen too long.)
This is an original post by World Moms Blog Founder, Jennifer Burden of NJ, USA. Keep an eye out for more from our contributors about the important global issues we were briefed on. And join our #Moms4MDGs twitter parties each month, where we talk about one global issue (UN Millennium Development Goal) per month. The next ones are October 16th, 2013 at 1pm and 9pm EST. Click our details in our sidebar, too!
Photo credits to Nicole Melancon, Elizabeth Atalay, Nancy Sumari and the #2030Now Global Influencer team!
Jennifer Burden is the Founder and CEO of World Moms Network, an award winning website on global motherhood, culture, human rights and social good. World Moms Network writes from over 30 countries, has over 70 contributors and was listed by Forbes as one of the “Best 100 Websites for Women”, named a “must read” by The New York Times, and was recommended by The Times of India.
She was also invited to Uganda to view UNICEF’s family health programs with Shot@Life and was previously named a “Global Influencer Fellow” and “Social Media Fellow” by the UN Foundation. Jennifer was invited to the White House twice, including as a nominated "Changemaker" for the State of the World Women Summit. She also participated in the One Campaign’s first AYA Summit on the topic of women and girl empowerment and organized and spoke on an international panel at the World Bank in Washington, DC on the importance of a universal education for all girls. Her writing has been featured by Baby Center, Huffington Post, ONE.org, the UN Foundation’s Shot@Life, and The Gates Foundation’s “Impatient Optimists.” She is currently a candidate in Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in the Executive Masters of Public Affairs program, where she hopes to further her study of global policies affecting women and girls.
Jennifer can be found on Twitter @JenniferBurden.
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by Jennifer Burden | Sep 21, 2013 | 2013, Social Good, World Voice
We can’t wait to head to New York City tomorrow to attend this year’s Social Good Summit! This is one of our favorite conferences, and a great place to catch up with many of the people and foundations, including some that are a part of our #Moms4MDGs campaign, that we work with online throughout the year. It will take place at the 92nd St. Y in Manhattan from Sunday, September 22nd through Tuesday, September 24th in tandem with the Summit at the United Nations.
World Moms Blog editors and contributors, Elizabeth Atalay, Nicole Melancon, Nicole Morgan and LaShaun Martin are on their way to New York City! And my very good friend, Kelly Pugliano from EatPicks and Mom Got Blog, will be coming to the Social Good Summit for the first time with us. We’ll be attending both, sessions at the Social Good Summit, and thanks to ONE.org and the GAVI Alliance, panels at the United Nations. There will be so much to learn and to write home about! We will also be meeting Wateraid and attending a special lunch with ONE.org, Save the Children and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And LaShaun will be speaking at the summit for Shot@Life! And Nicole Morgan will be on stage to tell her wishes for her children! We can’t wait!!
And to top it all off this week, we’ll be meeting World Moms Blog contributor, Nancy Sumari from Tanzania! She is the former Miss Tanzania and Miss Africa World and current social entrepreneur. We are over the moon excited about meeting her!!!
I also have something else super excited to tell you — this year, I was awarded a “Global Influencers” Fellowship by the UN Foundation. Along with 9 of my peers in various places of the media industry, I will be up early and taking special classes to discuss and brainstorm the MDGs and more with guest speakers prior to the start of the conference each day. I’m really looking forward to telling you all about this!
Speakers this year include Al Gore, Melinda Gates, Will.i.am and more!
And the good news is that you don’t have to wait until we attend the summit to hear all about it. There is a live stream that you can join in!
Click here for the live stream: Social Good Summit 2013 LiveStream.
Follow the Social Good Summit’s hashtag on Twitter: #2030Now
Be part of the conversation! Let’s make a difference!
Jennifer Burden, Founder, World Moms Blog.
Jennifer Burden is the Founder and CEO of World Moms Network, an award winning website on global motherhood, culture, human rights and social good. World Moms Network writes from over 30 countries, has over 70 contributors and was listed by Forbes as one of the “Best 100 Websites for Women”, named a “must read” by The New York Times, and was recommended by The Times of India.
She was also invited to Uganda to view UNICEF’s family health programs with Shot@Life and was previously named a “Global Influencer Fellow” and “Social Media Fellow” by the UN Foundation. Jennifer was invited to the White House twice, including as a nominated "Changemaker" for the State of the World Women Summit. She also participated in the One Campaign’s first AYA Summit on the topic of women and girl empowerment and organized and spoke on an international panel at the World Bank in Washington, DC on the importance of a universal education for all girls. Her writing has been featured by Baby Center, Huffington Post, ONE.org, the UN Foundation’s Shot@Life, and The Gates Foundation’s “Impatient Optimists.” She is currently a candidate in Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in the Executive Masters of Public Affairs program, where she hopes to further her study of global policies affecting women and girls.
Jennifer can be found on Twitter @JenniferBurden.
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by Elizabeth Atalay | Aug 13, 2013 | 2013, Millennium Development Goals, ONE, Social Good, Third Eye Mom, Uncategorized, World Voice
As you know we are a global group of mothers, and we care so much for the children of our world and their future. Our children will inherit what we leave behind, so after participating in the United Nations Momentum 1,000 event to mark 1,000 days until the Millennium Development Goal deadline, we decided that we did not want to stop there.
Last month World Moms blog launched an 8 month Millennium Development Goal campaign to continue to raise awareness around each of the 8 Millennium Development Goals known as the MDG’s.
In 2000, 189 nations made a promise to free people from extreme poverty and multiple deprivations. This pledge turned into the eight Millennium Development Goals, and was written as the Millennium Goal Declaration .- United Nations Development Programme
World Moms Blog kicked off the campaign with a twitter party last month that had the voices of change agents chiming in from all over the globe.
Today we spotlight MDG 1 with World Mom Blog editor and contributor Nicole Melancon on ONE.org . You can then join us in the discussion on MDG 1 at our Twitter party tomorrow night at #Moms4MDGs.
MDG 1 is to “Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger” which is why we so fittingly partnered to share this message with ONE.org, who invites us all to “Join The Fight Against Extreme Poverty”.
The good news about MDG 1 is that the goal has already been met by halving extreme poverty since 1990. The bad news is that according to the most recent MDG Progress report there are still over a billion people in the world living on less than 1.25 dollars a day.
According to the World Bank “The international line of $1.25 a day is the average of the national poverty lines in the poorest 10-20 countries.the average”. Which means there is still a great deal of work to be done.
The second component of MDG 1 is to eradicate Hunger; and according to that same United Nations report 1 in 8 children still go to bed hungry every night; and 1 in 4 of those children facing malnutrition will be stunted in their growth and potential. Our goal with this campaign is to continue to raise awareness and use our collective voices as the mothers of the world to inspire change. Join us at the twitter party tomorrow night, check out Nicole’s blog post today on ONE.org, and help us keep the momentum going to reach the goals.
Join us on twitter tomorrow and head on over to read World Mom, Nicole Melancon’s, post at One.org! (The link to ONE is now live!)
This is an original post to World Moms Blog by World Voice Editor, Elizabeth Atalay of “Documama.”
Photo credits to the author.
Elizabeth Atalay is a Digital Media Producer, Managing Editor at World Moms Network, and a Social Media Manager. She was a 2015 United Nations Foundation Social Good Fellow, and traveled to Ethiopia as an International Reporting Project New Media Fellow to report on newborn health in 2014. On her personal blog, Documama.org, she uses digital media as a new medium for her background as a documentarian. After having worked on Feature Films and Television series for FOX, NBC, MGM, Columbia Pictures, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, and Castle Rock Pictures, she studied documentary filmmaking and anthropology earning a Masters degree in Media Studies from The New School in New York. Since becoming a Digital Media Producer she has worked on social media campaigns for non-profits such as Save The Children, WaterAid, ONE.org, UNICEF, United Nations Foundation, Edesia, World Pulse, American Heart Association, and The Gates Foundation. Her writing has also been featured on ONE.org, Johnson & Johnson’s BabyCenter.com, EnoughProject.org, GaviAlliance.org, and Worldmomsnetwork.com. Elizabeth has traveled to 70 countries around the world, most recently to Haiti with Artisan Business Network to visit artisans in partnership with Macy’s Heart of Haiti line, which provides sustainable income to Haitian artisans. Elizabeth lives in New England with her husband and four children.
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