Edna Adan was in New York City to make a presentation at a United Nations meeting of Every Woman Every Child.

The group was launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit in September 2010, Every Woman Every Child aims to save the lives of 16 million women and children by 2015. It is an unprecedented global effort that mobilizes and intensifies international and national action by governments, multi-laterals, the private sector and civil society to address the major health challenges facing women and children around the world. The effort puts into action the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health, which presents a road map on how to enhance financing, strengthen policy and improve service on the ground for the most vulnerable women and children.

Edna reports, “Event was full of VIPs including Presidents and Prime Ministers. Ban-Ki Mon opened session for us, shook hands with us four presenters and left. Christiane Amampour was moderating our session.”

More than 100 new partners, including governments, civil society and multilateral organizations, joined Every Woman Every Child in just the last year, bringing the total to more than 200 since the effort was launched. Private sector partners include Merck, which will launch a ten-year effort to
prevent, treat, and diagnose the top three causes of death in pregnant women; Sesame Workshop, which will produce multimedia early child initiatives aimed at promoting general health, HIV/AIDS education and early prevention of malaria; and Safaricom, which will focus on creating a Kenya-based mobile health partnership in collaboration with World Vision.