NEW YORK CITY — On May 7, 2014, women from all around the world participated in the second annual Moms +SocialGood, an event that celebrates the power of motherhood and how social media can improve conditions for moms and children worldwide.
The event, put on by Global Moms Challenge, was held in New York City, but was broadcasted virtually to allow women from all countries to participate. More than 13 million people joined the conference online and more than 7,000 tweets were posted about the event.
The speakers at the event consisted of celebrities and other female leaders. Included in this list were Olivia Wilde, actress and activist; Anna Maria Chavez, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA; Her Royal Highness Princess Sarah Zeid of Jordan; and Melinda Gates, Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among others.
Speakers discussed issues including global education and how to expand it to women, problems and possible solutions of pregnancy and childbirth, ways to influence the next generation of women to become global thinkers and the importance of social media and other simple acts to increase awareness of these issues.
The motivation behind this event stems from the desire of women and mothers to help other mothers, particularly those who have few resources to sustain a healthy lifestyle while pregnant and ensure a healthy lifestyle for their children during motherhood. Every two minutes, a woman dies due to pregnancy or childbirth. Organizations like Global Moms Challenge work to raise awareness of the poor health conditions to which women are subjected around the world.
“When moms come together, they have the power to make an impact and create change,” said Sarah Colamarino, Vice President of Corporate Partnerships at Johnson & Johnson.
Moms +SocialGood was the conclusion of the two-month long project called Global Moms Relay, which lasted from National Women’s Day on March 7 through Mother’s Day on May 11. The goal of this project was to connect women from around the world through social media interactions. Through this project, Global Moms Challenge raised over $275,000 to support the United Nations’ Every Woman Every Child initiative.
Every Woman Every Child was created in 2010 with the goal of saving 16 million lives by 2015 through advocacy and action by people all over the world. The movement hopes to encourage women and children to practice healthy lifestyles.
The power of social media was reinforced during the entire Moms +SocialGood project. By using the hashtag #GlobalMoms, women were able to form relationships with other women from thousands of miles away. “I feel so connected to mothers around the world and I’m committed to helping them any way I can,” Olivia Wilde said. Wilde was a new mom only two weeks prior to the conference.
Empowering and supporting women worldwide is a key factor to reducing global poverty. By increasing education about health and wellness, the number of children dying from disease will decrease. In turn, this will help to mitigate the problem of overpopulation. When overpopulation ends, poverty in these places will lessen drastically. The key factors are education and resources. When women from all around the world are adequately informed of the problems and are given resources to correct these problems, then the world will see a decrease in global poverty and its negative effects.
Sources: Look to the Stars, Global Moms Challenge 1, Global Moms Challenge 2, Every Woman Every Child
Photo :ABC News