Mothers Matter

Food for thought:

"••A typical female in Afghanistan, Angola, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea and Guinea-Bissau
receives less than five years of formal education. In Niger, women receive less than
four years. In Australia and New Zealand, the average woman stays in school for
over 20 years.

••Forty-five percent of children in Djibouti and Papua New Guinea are not enrolled
in primary school. Out-of-school rates are 48 percent in Eritrea. In comparison,
nearly all children in Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands,
Spain and Sweden make it from preschool all the way to high school.

••1 child in 5 does not reach his or her fifth birthday in Angola, Chad, Democratic
Republic of the Congo and Somalia. In Afghanistan, child mortality rates are higher
than 1 in 4. In Finland, Iceland, Luxembourg, Singapore and Sweden, only 1 child
in 333 dies before age 5.

••Over 40 percent of children under age 5 suffer from malnutrition in Bangladesh,
Madagascar, Nepal, Niger and Yemen. In India and Timor-Leste, nearly half of all
children in this age group are moderately or severely underweight.

••More than half of the population of Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Madagascar, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria and
Papua New Guinea lack access to safe drinking water. In Somalia and Afghanistan,
71 and 78 percent of the population, respectively, lack access to safe water.

**In Afghanistan, the average woman does not live to see her 45th birthday
while in Japan women on average live over 86 years.

**In Afghanistan, Jordan, Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan,
Syria and Yemen, women earn 25 cents or less for every dollar men earn. Saudi
Arabian and Palestinian women earn only 16 and 12 cents respectively to the male
dollar. In Mongolia, women earn 87 cents for every dollar men earn and in Mozambique
they earn 90 cents.

••In Belize, Comoros, Micronesia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the Solomon Islands and
Qatar, not one seat in the lower or single house of parliament is occupied by a
woman. In Bahrain, Papua New Guinea and Yemen, women have only one seat.
Compare that to Rwanda where well over half – 56 percent – of all seats are held by
women. (Go Rwanda!). In Sweden, women hold 46 percent of parliamentary seats.

Source: http://www.savethechildren.org/atf/cf/%7B9def2ebe-10ae-432c-9bd0-df91d2eba74a%7D/SOWM-2010-Women-on-the-Front-Lines-of-Health-Care.pdf

Mother and child mortality are linked to access to safe drinking water, access to health care (particularly female health workers), and education among other things. This is not to minimize the role that father's play, but we must recognize the role that mother's play in their child's wellbeing and life. 

Why should [we] be so concerned with mothers? Because research has shown . .  "that the quality of children’s lives depends on the health, security and well-being of their mothers. In short, providing mothers
with access to education, economic opportunities and maternal and child health care
gives mothers and their children the best chance to survive and thrive." (see above reference)

Go moms!