If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
A Q&A with SPARK teen activists Julia Bluhm (15) and Izzy Labbe (14) who took on Seventeen magazine over photoshopping model's images and secured a commitment from the magazine to stop.
We invest in women and girls because they pay it forward. When you train, mentor and support a woman, you're reaching her family, her community, and her country.
The work of the United Nations and the growing movement to advocate for girls comes down to one truth: girls matter.
When I talk to my friends who are moms of young children, we often talk about the instinct to protect our children. What we really mean are the scary realities that lie right under the surface of the conversation.
The Modification in Mother-Baby Statistics Initiative seeks to use mobile technology to deliver prenatal services to women who have no access to care, thereby saving their lives and the lives of their babies. It is an Ode to Ma...my contribution, my way of paying homage to moms everywhere.
Fellow mothers, let us wake up to the reality that the world is changing, and we the mothers are the agents of change. Talk to your girls, don't shy away from your responsibility as a nurturer of dreams.
Creating Healthier Children and Families Through L.O.V.E.
Early Childhood Programs Director at Central Missouri Community Action Program
A parent who has the tools to make appropriate decisions about the healthcare of their child has been given self-confidence and self-esteem. I believe when a person has self-esteem mountains can be moved.
We all want to bring every good thing to our children. My daughter and her friends want to have the power to choose a rewarding future for themselves. Girls in countries like Niger want the same thing. 
The best advice I ever received as a mother was "ask for help." It was given to me by one of the few of my friends who'd started this parenting thing before I had, and who'd been determined, she finally confessed, to make it look easy.
Considering the mandated coverage of pregnancy care in the Affordable Care Act, the delivery of maternal child healthcare has significant potential to impact the bottom line for both state and federal agencies.
She reads poetry with power and passion, and at the age of fourteen has already been honored for her own poems. She says poetry is the gold she discovered within herself.
While moms know that their job is never done, part of this is because they are not only concerned about the wellbeing of their own family, but also of others in their neighborhood and around the world. It is with this sense of community that mothers can join together and create changes for their children and for generations to come.
San Diego: 'America's Finest City', Except for Those with HIV/AIDS
Executive Director, Christie's Place
I began my career in HIV and quickly learned that in the shadows of affluence lies the truth about San Diego . . . a region lacking the resources to address the dire health needs of our most vulnerable residents.
I had the opportunity to speak with H.R.H. Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands about her work and thoughts on motherhood. As mothers to four young children between us, the reflections and aspirations shared by other moms take on a special meaning.
While International Women's Day is a day for us to remember the many achievements and advancements for women around the world, it is also a day to remember how far we still need to go, particularly when it comes to improving health care services for mothers and their babies.
Women and girls have been at the center of the HIV prevention research agenda for more than a decade. Women account for half of new HIV infections worldwide, in part because there are too few prevention options that they can control.
By connecting donors around the world to women in need of care, Watsi has the potential to activate a solution that's completely unprecedented.
We need to be sure women and girls are safe whether they are caught in the first stages of a crisis or in a long-term refugee situation, whether they are living in a refugee camp or in an urban setting.
We know that malnourished girls become malnourished women, who in turn give birth to small, malnourished children. But women like Anna are changing things by getting essential nutrients to their children in the most critical moments.
What should the statistics on the causes of death of women in developing regions say to us? That the world must live up to and build upon its successes to many ways.
