October, 2011

Just as I was finally taking a week to unwind late this summer, I got another one of those calls that changed my life. Our friends at Crowdrise checked in to ask, "Does Every Mother Counts want ten spots in the NYC Marathon?" There was no question that we did, but what I didn't realize was that I would also be running. Crowdrise is a crowd-sourcing platform through that we have been working with since Mother's Day and more recently worked with to raise funds to send a container of medical supplies to South Sudan. Being the great partners they are, they were offered several slots for the marathon to be used for charities and nicely thought of us.

When I set out to make the documentary No Woman, No Cry my hope was that once more people knew the facts and saw the women behind the shocking global statistics, that they would ask, "What can I do?" I had asked myself this very same question when I learned that hundreds of thousands of women die needlessly each year around the world from pregnancy and childbirth-related complications. For me, the part that inspired me to take action, was learning that almost all of these deaths are preventable. In fact, ninety percent of them!