Family Planning Summit 2012, London hosted by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
With the access to family planning knowledge, comes the power to make an informed decision. We take for granted what power that gives us. To be able to control and decide when we plan to have children, or whether we do at all. Reproductive justice, which means, everyone has complete control over if, when, where, how and with whom they bring a child into the world. A basic human right would you not think? Millions of women all over the world do not possess this right. There are so many organisations out there that are working to rectify this, Marie Stopes International, Women and Children First, Gates Foundation and many more.
July 11th, will be an important day in history, the Family Planning Summit, to be held in London, hosted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to discuss the pledge to double the number of women they serve from 10 million to 20 million women by 2020 that will have access to modern forms of contraception that is right for them.
This would then aim to reduce maternal deaths by 72000, prevent 7 million unsafe abortions and avoid an amazing 55 million unintended pregnancies! The pure number of lives this can affect is an achievement.
By focusing on women and girls everywhere, we can affect the lives of millions. We do however need to remember that we need to include everyone in the initiative. For the success of any intervention no one should be discarded, from the village heads to the state heads, from the young girls to the grandfathers. With everyones inclusion and support will come the success of the pledge.
I personally will be following the updates from the Family Planning Summit as they come through. Waiting to hear on how they plan to achieve this aim, as well as looking for ways to get involved! Join me in this mission to make the world a better place.
References: Marie Stopes International http://www.mariestopes.org/LondonSummit
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