article by Hadassah Egbedi via venturesafrica.com
Adepeju Jaiyeoba is the founder and CEO of Mother’s Delivery Kit (MDK), a Lagos-based social enterprise established to promote and enhance safe births, instigate behavioral change and economically empower women in Nigeria.
Her enterprise supplies birthing kits to health centres, hospitals, traditional birth attendants as well as maternal and child health organisations across the country. Prior to the establishment of MDK, the death of a friend from birthing complications in 2011, inspired Jaiyeoba to set up a non-governmental, non-profit organisation called the Brown Button Foundation.
“Her death put a face on every maternal and child death statistic I had heard,” Jaiyeoba said on the loss of her friend. “She was educated and brilliant, and she sought out health care services during her pregnancy. Yet she became one of the 13 women who die daily during childbirth in Nigeria. The health care system had failed her and her unborn baby.”
Maternal and child mortality has always been an issue in developing countries around the world. Many pregnant women are exposed to several risks and complications because they lack easy access to healthcare facilities, skilled doctors, or even an ambulance or vehicle to transport them when in labour. This is why each year, reducing infant and maternal mortality is a major part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in many countries.
To read more, go to: This lifesaving delivery kit designed by a Nigerian woman was inspired by the death of a friend – Ventures Africa
Posts published in August 2016
article by Amber Mckynzie via essence.com
Black Lives Matter doesn’t mean only Black people think black lives matter. And New York’s Jewish community proved that last Thursday when Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) marched and rallied in the name of BLM in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood.
According to ParkSlopeStoop.com, JFREJ held a successful and peaceful rally “protest police violence against people of color, and demand police accountability through the passage of the City Council’s Right To Know Act.”
Beginning at Jay Z’s formerly-owned Barclay’s Center, Yehudah Webster, JFREJ member and leader of Jews of Color, began a call and response chant on his microphone. “Even though we are angry at the injustice of police brutality,” Webster said, and the crowd responded, “we gather here for love, for lost brothers and sisters, our communities and each other.”
JFREJ explained why they were marching by saying, “Jews say Black Lives Matter not only because we know what it is to be oppressed, but also because police violence against Black people is deeply personal for Black members of the Jewish community.”Take a look at the march moving from Brooklyn to New York’s Bond street below. ParkSlopeStoop.com also reports that while also rallying to let people know Black Jews Matter, protestors also “called for the fair passage of the Right to Know Act, which has two primary components: “Requiring NYPD officers to identify themselves” (Intro 182) and “Protecting New Yorkers against unconstitutional searches” (Intro 541).”
Source: Jewish Community Holds Black Lives Matter Rally in New York | Essence.com
article by Shenequa Golding via vibe.com
Four Georgia teens are receiving a virtual standing ovation from the Internet after Zsa Zsa Heard praised their tenacity on Facebook. The LaGrange Housing Authority CEO uploaded a photo of the young men after they walked into her office and asked for a job to avoid gangs.
Heard spoke with Fox 32 and recounted the entire story. After they walked into her office asking for a job Heard asked why they wanted to work for her. “We do not want to be in a gang!” they said. She then inquired if they had been approached by a gang and the teens replied with a resounding yes.
Determined not to allow these young men to fall peril to gang life, Heard hired them on the spot. Since Wednesday (July 27) the young men have been keeping busy by passing out mail, working in the community garden and helping out in the kitchen.
Source: Four Georgia Teens Ask For A Job To Avoid Gangs And Get Hired Immediately
article by Bruce Goodwin II via theurbandaily.com
Phife Dawg of A Tribe Called Quest passed away this past March due to complications from diabetes. And now, after a series of powerful memorials, Phife’s getting a street named after him in his old Queens neighborhood.
OkayPlayer got confirmation from Phife’s manager that New York Mayor Bill de Blasio will sign a bill to co-name a portion of Linden Boulevard at 192nd Street in St. Albans “Malik ‘Phife Dawg’ Taylor Way.”
The signing is set to take place on Wednesday, August 3 at 10 a.m. inside City Hall.
The intersection of 192nd Street and Linden Blvd. is a huge nod to the group’s beginnings as Phife mentioned the location in tracks like “Steve Biko” and “Check the Rhime.” Alongside Q-Tip, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Jarobi, the group was formed in that neighborhood in 1985.
To read more, go to: http://theurbandaily.com/2016/08/01/phife-street-own-street-named-after-him/