After a busy Christmas and New Year, I thought I'd do a quick catch-up on a few of the things I squeezed into December - while also supporting our by-election campaign in Regency.
Brighton hosts a number of voluntary sector organisations that focus on international development issues. Maternity Worldwide and the International HIV/Aids Alliance recently invited me to meet with them and hear about their work.
Maternity Worldwide held a reception on Saturday, December 8, to mark the 20th Anniversary of the Safe Motherhood Initiative. The organisation exists to help reduce the number of women dying or injured in childbirth throughout the world and as someone who has campaigned for better maternity care in the UK, this is a subject I feel passionately about.
I learned that every minute of every day, a woman dies needlessly during pregnancy or childbirth, most in the developing world. This equates to 10 million women lost in every generation.
I attended the launch of "Communities for Life" organised by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance on November 29. The alliance is a global partnersip of organisations reaching out to communities most vulnerable to HIV or most affected by it. We saw their amazing exhibition outside the Jubilee Library and heard about their partnership projects to prevent HIV infection, facilitate access to treatment, care and support, and lessen the impact of AIDS.
Over the coming years, I plan to support the efforts of both organisations to achieve their goals.
I had great fun helping out on the cake stall at Balfour Junior School’s fundraising Christmas fayre on Saturday, December 15. I was very lucky to be in the warm all afternoon, surrounded by delicious home-made cakes and entertained by the young people on karaoke (what talent!) – it doesn’t get much better than that!
A complete contrast in the evening when I went out on patrol with Sussex Police to see what they have to deal with on a busy Saturday night in Brighton.
Tags: HIV, Maternity Worldwide
Posted on January 12, 2008 in Health.
