On Monday, January 10 at 6pm, at the Sun Valley Opera House, St. Luke’s Wood River Foundation will present a talk by Dr. Thomas Burke on international women’s health issues. Dr. Burke is the Chief of the Division of Global Health and Human Rights at Massachusetts General Hospital and is a senior faculty member at Harvard Medical School. His life’s work focuses on transforming health care and human rights in vulnerable populations around the world, including Zambia, Liberia, Uganda, Mali, Kenya and Southern Sudan.
The evening will also feature “No Woman, No Cry,” a documentary film directed by Christy Turlington-Burns. After delivering her first child, she suffered a serious complication, but was fortunate to receive prompt and competent care. “I was shocked to learn that more than 500,000 women die each year during childbirth—and 90% of these deaths are preventable.”
Ms. Turlington-Burns is now enrolled in the Masters of Public Health program at Columbia University and has formed the organization, “Every Mother Counts.” Her film tells the stories of four pregnant women: in Tanzania, Bangladesh, Guatemala—and in the United States, which ranks 17th in the world in safe childbirth for mothers, behind such countries as Croatia and Greece.
After the screening, Dr. Burke will be joined for a question and answer session by Arlene Samen, Founder and President of One Heart Worldwide, who has designed and implemented successful birthing models in China, Nepal, Mexico and Tibet.
The evening’s presentation complements the work of St. Luke’s Wood River Foundation to support women’s health initiatives, as well as that of UNFPA (the United Nations Population Fund).
Dr. Burke has worked extensively with UNFPA and Ms. Turlington-Burns was recently honored by Americans for UNFPA.
The Fourth Annual Family of Woman Film Festival promoting the work of UNFPA will be held this February 18-20 at the NexStage Theatre in Ketchum. Films will include documentaries from Turkey, India and Iran, and discussion panels on the subject of women and the environment. Details can be found at: americansforunfpa.org.
