W8 delegates with German Chancellor Angela Markel in her office

17 September 2009

Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London SW1A 2AA

Dear Prime Minister,

It is not acceptable that in 2009 that a child dies every three seconds of preventable disease and every minute a woman dies in childbirth or pregnancy. In this context we are very encouraged by your offer of support for free health care for mothers and children in Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Burundi, Malawi, Mozambique and Nepal.

If world leaders meeting on 23rd September at the UN General Assembly in New York agree to follow your example, midwives and doctors can be recruited and trained, and lives will be saved.

We believe countless more will be saved if you:

• Expand your list, and assist other poor countries to do away with fees for health care. Please extend your offer of support to Sierra Leone and Kenya, where some mothers too poor to pay their medical bills are being detained in hospitals.
• Persuade other rich country governments to lend their support. Your personal leadership will go a long way in influencing fellow leaders in Norway, Spain, Canada, Japan and Germany.
• Make sure that aid for free health care comes immediately, and is given for the long-term. Time is running out for poor people who are being turned away from doctors, and for women giving birth to the next generation.

It is essential that this welcome initiative does not supplant your government’s existing aid efforts.

We are eight women from around the world who have come together because we have a shared cause, representing coalitions in the Philippines, Malawi, Bangladesh, Nicaragua, Georgia, India, Mali and Thailand. We work every day to get more families access to good doctors and nurses, the right medicines, and a good education.

We stand ready to celebrate the leadership you have shown in supporting free health care.

Many thanks,

Signed

Miranda Akhvlediani, Coalition Future without Poverty, Georgia
Kady Baby, National Coalition Education for All, Mali
Leonor Magtolis Briones, Social Watch Philippines/ Alternative Budget Initiative, Philippines
Rokeya Kabir, My Rights Campaign, Bangladesh
Jiraporn Limpananont, Free Trade Agreement Watch coalition, Thailand
Dorothy Ngoma, National Organization of Nurses and Midwives of Malawi, Malawi
Elba Rivera Urbina, National Campaign for Education, Nicaragua
Sandhya Venkateswaran, National Coalition Don’t Break Your Promises, India

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