Woman News
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2010 - Seven Who Rewrite the Rules
One result of these efforts was a change in a law that made emergency contraception available to all women in Mexico. In 2005, Langer was appointed president of EngenderHealth, a leading international reproductive health organization working to improve the quality of health care in the world"s poorest communities. One important part of EngenderHealth"s approach is engaging men to change harmful behavior, promote maternal and reproductive health and prevent gender-based violence. Langer"s experience as a clinician has proven vital to understanding the health issues at stake for women and she knows what it will take to see real improvements. "We"ve reached the tipping point. Right now, there is greater attention and resources for maternal health than ever before and we must this seize this momentum to make sustainable, positive changes in health and rights for women everywhere," she says. --Sarah Seltzer Tonya Lewis Lee, Champion for Healthy Mothers Maternal mortality and infant mortality rates in the United States are in the top tier among developed nations, and African American women and infants are significantly more at-risk--regardless of income or education. Acclaimed author and children"s television producer Tonya Lewis Lee has spent the past two years on a mission trying to change the health profile of pregnant women and their infants, with a special focus on African American lives. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that African-American women are three times more likely than any other ethnic group to lose their child before its first birthday, regardless of their level of education or income. With a deep understanding that instilling healthy lifestyle habits in women at an early age is critical to improving maternal health, Lee helped create the Preconception Peer Educator Program in 2008 for college students and pioneered a youth-to-youth model to address the issue. The program is part of her work as the national spokesperson for "A Healthy Baby Starts With You," a campaign from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services" Office of Minority Health that"s dedicated to improving maternal health and reducing infant mortality rates. The peer educators complete a 10-hour study curriculum, then return to their communities to speak at local high schools and produce a health fair. The groundbreaking program launched at Spelman College, Fisk University, Morgan State University, Lane College, LeMoyne Owen University and the University of Pennsylvania"s School of Nursing. "When I realized that the World Health Organization ranked the United States 29th in the world in infant mortality, I had to become involved," Lee says. "American children are dying at the rate of third-world countries. It"s a shame, and it doesn"t have to be that way if we educate the public on the problem and begin to work on eradicating some of the causes. The infant mortality rate is a marker for the health of a nation and I know that all of those babies lost to infant mortality are important resources lost to us all." To give a face and voice to those impacted by the health of African American women and the resulting infant mortality rates, Lee produced and released "Crisis in the Crib--Saving Our Nation"s Babies" in 2009. The documentary highlights participants in the Preconception Peer Educator Program and their grassroots work in Memphis, Tenn.--a city with one of the highest infant mortality rates in the country. "It is my hope that in the next three to five years we will begin to find the health disparity gap is closing and we can help researchers give us more insight into why we have this problem." --Kimberly Seals Allers Dr. Sarwat S. Malik, Pathfinder for Muslim Women Dr. Sarwat Malik is hoping to see the results of her efforts to empower Muslim women in her lifetime. Diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007, she was told by her first oncologist she had a life expectancy of six months to a year. With her persistence and new advances in treatment, she now is stable and has a new life"s ambition. She made the Muslim Women"s Fund her life"s work in 2008, becoming co-founder and vice-chair after retiring from her Rochester, N.Y., internal medicine practice of 35 years. "What inspires me is the energy I get from this work and the huge transformative potential for Muslim women globally," she says. The fund, a special project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, invests in strategic educational and economic microenterprise programs that support women in becoming fully empowered stakeholders and change agents in their societies. Growing up in Pakistan, Malik studied medicine at the Fatima Jinnah Medical College, an all-women"s medical school. She says it wasn"t until she moved to the United States in 1966 that she realized Muslim women were marginalized. It was an article written by her husband, history professor Salahuddin Malik, and presented in academic circles during the late 1960s and early 1970s highlighting gender justice and the special status of Muslim women in the teachings of the Quran and Hadith that changed the direction of her life. The paper and the ensuing discussion led her to the conclusion that cultural practices based on misogynistic misinterpretation of the faith prevented Muslim women from receiving the same level of rights, dignity, security and respect as their male counterparts. "I felt this was a challenge. I wanted to make sure that women understood those rights," she says. In 2006, after attending "Women"s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality Conference" in New York, Malik and a group of other attendees got together to talk, and the core of what would become the Muslim Women"s Fund was formed. The fund collaborates with the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy to reform the curriculum in madrassas, or Islamic schools, in Pakistan. "The program includes secular education with a focus on human rights, gender rights, gender equality and non-violence," she says. A pilot project was also launched in 2009, in conjunction with the Egyptian Association for Society Development, a Cairo-based nongovernmental organization, to eradicate female genital mutilation through a dual strategy: religious re-education and microenterprise incentive for the barbers and midwives who perform the practice. Malik says 90 percent of African people believe the cultural practice is mandated by their religion. "I"d like to see every woman empowered in a way that she feels that she has dignity, respect, human rights and the desire to do something positive in the world." --Shahnaz Mahmud Maria do Socorro Melo Brandao, Infuser of New Futures Maria do Socorro Melo Brandao was five years old when her family left the impoverished state of Ceará in northeast Brazil to search for better opportunities in Rio de Janeiro, more than 1,000 miles south. But the life of a migrant family was difficult in 1966 and her parents struggled for years to secure even the most basic amenities. "We lived in a wood shack above open sewage, and then in the basement of a house with no running water," Melo Brandao says. The family moved between hillside favelas (squatter settlements) until Melo Brandao was 17, when her parents managed to buy a house in the City of God. The hardscrabble neighborhood would become synonymous with gang violence years later thanks to the eponymous 2002 movie. After graduating from high school in 1983, she worked as a typist for several years before gaining admission to a psychology program at Pedro II College of the Humanities--an ambitious career path for a woman of her circumstances. In 2002, Melo Brandao helped found the Seed of Life Association of the City of God, a nonprofit organization whose cornerstone program aims to help women with little formal education. She believes that by harnessing their creative abilities, these women can improve their economic and psychological welfare. Participants learn to make clothes, jewelry and other household products--out of recycled, discarded or inexpensive materials--to be sold in markets around the city. In addition to income-generating skills, the organization also teaches women about drug prevention, sexual health and civic responsibility. "Nowadays, women in (the) City of God know that if they want to, they can do a lot of different things," Melo Brandao says. "We"ve noticed small but fundamental transformations in their lives. They have higher self-esteem. They believe in themselves." Despite being staffed entirely by volunteers, the Seed of Life Association of the City of God continues to turn out fresh initiatives. It runs an after-school program for 8- to 14-year-olds, offers computer courses to residents of all ages and provides orientation to mothers of public school students on issues pertaining to sexual health and citizenship. "But we don"t think only about women," Melo Brandao says. "We think about the family: the mother, the father and the children." --Gabriel Ponce de Leon For more information: Women"s eNews 21 Leaders for the 21st Century Home Page Note: Women"s eNews is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites and the contents of site the link points to may change.Pages: 1 [2]