CARE President Dr. Helene Gayle to speak at two major women's conferences

ATLANTA (October 12, 2007) - CARE President Dr. Helene Gayle will be a featured speaker at the Women Deliver Conference in London on Oct. 18-20 and at the California Women’s Conference in Long Beach on Oct. 24. At these two important gatherings of top experts, Dr. Gayle will discuss why giving birth shouldn’t mean risking death – spotlighting the problem of maternal mortality, programs that work and what is needed to cut maternal deaths by three-quarters by 2015.

“One woman dies from complications during pregnancy or childbirth every minute,” says Dr. Helene Gayle, president of the poverty-fighting organization CARE. “We cannot sit back and write off the lives of 500,000 women every year as though they’re expendable. These women matter. When children lose their mothers, the whole family suffers. Mothers are the cornerstone of healthy communities. Of healthy nations. With more political will and financial investment, we can turn around one of the greatest human rights tragedies on the planet, and that’s very inspiring.”

According to Dr. Gayle, maternal mortality represents the greatest disparity in public health worldwide. It is an issue that needs to be prioritized by more world leaders, governments and large global organizations.

CARE currently has maternal and child health programs in approximately 40 developing countries. Building on these programs, Dr. Gayle recently announced CARE’s new initiative on Empowering Women for Good Health.  For this initiative, CARE aims to mobilize $150 million to provide an additional 30 million women and their children better maternal health and nutrition services in the 10 countries most affected.

CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. Women are at the heart of CARE's community-based efforts to improve health conditions, access to basic education and economic opportunity. CARE also delivers emergency aid to survivors of war and natural disasters, and helps people rebuild their lives. 

For more information visit:
www.care.org
www.womendeliver.org
www.californiagovernorsconference.org

To arrange an interview with Dr. Gayle, contact:
Allen Clinton, 404-457-4635 or clinton@care.org