Canada can take the global lead on this – our country is hosting the G8 and G20 Summits next June. We can show the way by deepening our support for livesaving interventions.

Please take action now by copying the following letter or writing your elected representative.


As your constituent, I believe that every human being is entitled to good health. I am proud of Canada’s strong track record in support of child and maternal health in developing countries and the contributions we have made towards ensuring access to safe, high-quality, essential health care services for people around the world. But I believe that there is much more we can do to help meet the international targets, as outlined in the health focused Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), set to reduce child and maternal mortality by 2015.

The cost of inaction is dire - today alone, 24,000 children under the age of five will die from mainly preventable causes. Every day around the world 8,200 newborns die before they are one month old and 1,500 women die from pregnancy related causes. . In many places, girls are disproportionately affected as they are less well fed and more undernourished than their brothers. These women and children are dying because of a lack of access to the most basic health services

Here in Canada, we take many of these services for granted; essentials like pre and post-natal care, vaccines for ourselves and our children and health care when we fall ill with the flu.

I believe that Canada can do more to prevent these deaths by building on its successes with the Catalytic Initiatives to Save a Million Lives. This innovative program has made important advances for the health of women and children in the developing world. Internationally, the upcoming G8 Summit in June 2010 presents Canada with a unique opportunity to increase investment in maternal, newborn and child health by:

-- deepening Canada’s own investment in the Catalytic Initiative to support a broader range of interventions to save the lives of more mothers and their children; and
-- encouraging other G8 counties to pledge their support for an expansion of this initiative.

I would also like to encourage you to attend the Breakfast briefing of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) and the Canadian Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union on Thursday, Dec 3 7:30-9:30 am in the Aboriginal Committee Room, S160 in the Centre Block.

As my representative in the Ottawa, I hope that you will take action in support of maternal and child health. Thank you for taking the time to read my letter, I look forward to your prompt response.