Statement by Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women Michelle Bachelet on the Famine in Somalia

Posted on August 11 2011 | Executive Director Michelle Bachelet | Statements

The most severe drought in decades is threatening the lives of more than 12 million people in the Horn of Africa, with the people of Somalia facing the greatest risks resulting from armed conflict and lack of sustainable security and governance. This confluence of famine and conflict is particularly devastating for women and children. While attempting to save their children from starvation, malnutrition and disease, women in Somalia are subject to conflict-related security threats including sexual violence. As they make the long journey from what was once their home to the refugee complexes either in Kenya or Ethiopia, women and children’s vulnerability is exacerbated.
Adding to the efforts of others, I call on the international community and world leaders to rise up to the challenge of protecting women and children and responding to their urgent survival needs.
Despite all the efforts made to date, less than half of the funding needed to respond to the famine has been committed while the disaster deepens by the day. Out of the requested approximately USD 1 billion, only 40 percent — USD 408 million — has been provided, and an additional USD 49 million has been pledged.
UN Women urgently calls donor countries and all political and military factions in Somalia to ensure that special attention be given to the critical needs of women and children and ensure that this assistance reaches those most acutely in need.

My prayers and thoughts go to all women and children of Somalia. God preserve them !

If you wish to donate charity for women and children of Somalia, you can donate through Zakat House which is independent govermental authority of the State of Kuwait.
You can call: hotline  22241994
                      call center 175
or donate in their centers or deposit to bank account in any local bank. Alternatively you can donate via local telecom companies by sending messages to certain numbers.

During the holy month of Ramadan, all moslims are encouraged to feed poor and provide charity. Zakat, which is one of the pilars of islam encorage moslims to pay 2,5% of their savings to poor ( for every 1000KD is 25 KD due to zakat). 

NEWS RELEASE Global partners stand behind global standards for midwifery

ICM International Confederation of Midwives~s press release:

On the last day of the International Confederation of Midwives Triennial Congress in Durban, South Africa, global agencies have expressed their commitment to work with each other and with ICM to tackle maternal mortality. The UN Population Fund, World Health Organization (WHO), the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) and the International Federation of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians (FIGO) have each pledged to support the implementation of ICM’s landmark global standards for midwifery education and regulation as a core strategy to tackle maternal mortality worldwide. Around 350,000 women die each year as a result of preventable complications in pregnancy and childbirth. 99% of these deaths happen in low income countries, many of which are in sub-Saharan Africa. Millennium Development Goal 5 commits countries to delivering significant improvements to maternal health worldwide but has been the slowest moving of all the MDGs so far.

 ‘Evidence shows that access to competent, educated and strong midwives significantly reduces maternal and infant mortality.’ said Bridget Lynch, President.  ‘ICM set out on the Road to Durban three years ago, committed to reaching our destination with the tools needed to help governments around the world tackle unacceptable rates of maternal and infant mortality. Since then, we have worked with midwives of the world and our global partners to make sure we arrived with these tools in our hands. I am proud to say that we are now the first health profession in the world to have achieved global standards for the competency, education and regulation of our workforce. These, alongside the information provided by the UNFPA’s State of the World Midwifery Report will be essential to the achievement of each countries maternal mortality target.’

14 June: WORLD BLOOD DONOR DAY

WHO will celebrate World Blood Donor Day on June 14th ,2011 Monday). Personaly, I wish to express my deep gratitude for all individuals who donate their blood for people in need in Kuwait. You are HEROES!

On 14 June 2011, countries worldwide will celebrate World Blood Donor Day with events to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank voluntary unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood.

The theme for World Blood Donor Day 2011 is, "More blood. More life." This theme reinforces the urgent need for more people all over the world to become life-savers by volunteering to donate blood regularly.

Maternity Health Statistics in Middle East Region by WHO

Check Maternity Health Statistics known as Making Pregnancy Safer for Middle East Region. The State of Kuwait ( KUW) has very low rates of evaluated indicators of maternity health, which is very good for Moms and Babies in Kuwait. It means that pregnancy& childbirth are safe.
Maternal Mortality Rate 12,8% ( mother dying due to pregnancy)
" Complications during pregnancy and childbirth are a leading cause of death and disability among women of reproductive age in developing countries. The maternal mortality ratio represents the risk associated with each pregnancy, i.e. the obstetric risk. It is also a MDG indicator."

WHO Sixty-fourth World Health Assembly

Sixty-fourth World Health Assembly

Dr Christos Patsalides

Minister of Health, Cyprus
President of the Sixty-fourth World Health Assembly

Date: 16–24 May 2011
Location: Geneva, Switzerland

The Health Assembly will discuss a specific health agenda prepared by the Executive Board as well as the programme budget, administration and management matters of WHO.

• Daily notes on proceedings

Documentation

• Provisional agenda
  pdf, 140kb
• Complete documentation
• Journal, Number 5
  20 May 2011: programme of meetings

Information for media

• WHA 64: guidelines and information for media

Selected topics

• Child health
• Child injuries and violence
• Cholera
• Chronic diseases
• Health systems
• Health workforce
• HIV/AIDS
• Immunization
• Malaria
• Maternal health
• Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
• Smallpox

Speeches

Dr Margaret Chan

WHO Director-General

• Opening address
• Opening address video
  Streaming wmv, 00:32:50

Bill Gates

Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

• Read the speech
• Video of speech
  Streaming wmv, 00:28:42

Her Excellency Sheikh Hasina

Prime Minister of Bangladesh

• Read the speech
• Video of speech
  Streaming wmv, 00:27:23

Dr Christos Patsalides

President, Sixty-fourth World Health Assembly

• Video of speech

Human Development Report UNDP 2010

Check 3D visualisation of the HDI ( kindly open the link) Human Development Index. Enter the name of your country, press play and watch the animation of the developement from year 1980 up to 2010.
HDI evaluates following indicators:
          1. Rank "A country's rank relative to other countries based on the HDI value for a particular year."  
              State of Kuwait ranking as High Human Developement Group      

2. Value"A composite index measuring average achievement in three basic dimensions of human development—a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living. For details on how the index is calculated, see Technical note 1. Calculated based on data from UNDESA (2009d), Barro and Lee (2010), UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2010b), World Bank (2010b) and IMF(2010a)."

            State of Kuwait is ranking No 47 from 169 countries in 2010

World No Tobacco Day 2011 by WHO

Word No Tobacco Day is Initiative of WHO World Health Organization.

"The World Health Organization (WHO) selects "The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control" as the theme of the next World No Tobacco Day, which will take place on Tuesday, 31 May 2011." 

International Day of the Midwife 2011 ( Summary by PMNHC)

The Partnership PMNCH The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child  Health which is part if WHO Initiative to reach Millenium Developements Goals 2015 published article about International Day of the Midwife organised by ICM International Confederation of Midwives on May 5th, 2011.

"More than 22,000 people in 31 countries are marching for midwifery to commemorate International Day of the Midwife this year. The International Confederation of Midwives has asked member associations, midwives and their supporters around the world to take to the streets on and around 5 May 2011 to raise awareness and build commitments toward tackling global inequalities in maternal and newborn mortality and to highlight local issues in midwifery service provision."

Every Woman, Every Child

"Every Woman Every Child" is global effort  on improving woman`s and children`s health launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in New York on April 14, 2010 as a part of Millennium Development Goals 2015.

“Every Woman Every Child” is a global effort bringing together governments, philanthropic institutions and other funders, the United Nations and multilateral organizations, civil society and non-governmental organizations, the business community, health-care workers and professionals, and academic and research institutions around the world that support  the “Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health”, which was launched during the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit."