NASHVILLE, Tennessee., July 2,
2014 ? Senator
Bill Frist, M.D., founder of Hope Through
Healing Hands, released a Public Service
Announcement this week as part of a U.S. Agency
for International Development (USAID) gathering
in Washington, D.C. The group met to unveil new
efforts to save millions of women and children from
preventable deaths, including more than $600
million in major public/private partnerships and
awards with 26 partners to improve maternal and
child survival. Unable to attend in person,
Senator Frist produced a video
PSA to
be launched at the meeting, expressing his
support for the efforts and his belief that this
strategy is a key to saving millions of lives.
Senator Frist references his
experiences as both a physician and a U.S.
Senator, visiting communities around the world
as a part of Save the Children's maternal and
child health program. "I have learned that
maternal and child health and global health have
this whole issue that's been under appreciated.
The nexus between the two is this issue of
family planning, of appropriate spacing of
pregnancies and the timing of when those
pregnancies occur," he said.
"Issues become partisan," he
continued, "but this is one issue that is not a
partisan issue, it is a humanitarian issue, not
in the sense of philanthropy, but in terms of
what makes us a people. It comes down to what
is the right thing to do, scientifically
demonstrated, and that is non-partisan."
Senator Frist concludes the video
by stating how successful he thinks this one
strategy could be in saving the lives of mothers
and children worldwide. "By enabling women and
families to engage in family planning, we know
today that we can reduce overall maternal deaths
by 30 percent and neonatal childhood deaths by
as much as 25 percent."
Hope Through Healing Hands (HTHH),
a Nashville-based global health organization,
recently partnered with The Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation to create the Faith-based
Coalition for Healthy Mothers and Children
Worldwide. Its mission is to galvanize faith
leaders across the U.S. on the issues of
maternal, newborn and child health in developing
countries, with an emphasis on the benefits of
healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies,
including the voluntary use of methods for
preventing pregnancy, not including abortion,
that are harmonious with their values and
religious beliefs.
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