Today is almost the 100th international women's day (the centenary will be next year), in 1910 a woman named Clara Zetkin (Leader of the 'Women's Office' for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) suggested the idea of an international day for women to press for our demands. The conference of over 100 women from 17 countries greeted Zetkin's suggestion with unanimous approval and thus International Women's Day was the result. Despite celebrating nearly 100 years of economic and social development for women around the world, we are tragically still witnessing the needless deaths of thousands of women every day in child birth or from pregnancy related factors.
Amnesty International are working to lobby world leaders to show real commitment to improving the situation and making sure an improvement in global maternal health is priority. Ten years ago world leaders committed to a millennium development goal of cutting the rate of maternal deaths by 75% by 2000 and 2015, we are way of track. Recent statistics reveal that in some parts of the world pregnant women are no better off than they were in 1910, a statement that shocked me when I read it earlier.
You can help by uploading a photograph of yourself and your mother to their flickr group here (or emailing it directly to them from this page) and they will be used to make giant card they will give to the prime minister later this year. If you don't have picture of yourselves together in a digital format you can use a picture of yourself with any mother you know, and you don't have to be from the UK to take part. You can also take action by sending an email Gordon Brown (The Prime Minister) Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrat leader) and David Cameron (The Conservative leader) visit this page to send your email.
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