How You Can Help

Join the growing IWHC international communications network. See IWHC's list of Publications on Women's Health Issues.

Advocate just and effective policies in the U.S. and abroad. Write or call your elected officials. Tell them you support women's health and rights as an integral part of foreign assistance. Ask for international support for women's rights, and the principles of the Cairo and Beijing accords. Spread the word about women's health and rights in your own community.

Support the International Women's Health Coalition so that we can continue to fund innovative programs and expand our advocacy in the U.S. and around the globe.

Why We Care

One in thirteen women in sub-Saharan Africa and one in thirty-five in South Asia die unnecessarily from causes related to pregnancy, unsafe abortion, and childbirth. In Canada, the ratio is one in 7,300; in the U.S., one in 3,300.

One hundred million more women and girls would be alive today, but are not, because they received less health care, food, and attention than their brothers, or were subject to gender-based violence.

Each year 330 million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) occur worldwide. One in four American teenagers contracts an STD. Only half of sexually active American teenagers use condoms consistently, and less than 10 percent receive sexuality education, a pattern common in most countries of the world.

Thirteen million women worldwide will be infected with the HIV virus by the year 2000. If strong action is not taken, as many as 20 million people in India may be infected with HIV by the turn of the century; at least 30 percent will be women.

Globally, the health consequences of violence against women are as great as the health consequences of HIV, tuberculosis, sepsis in childbirth, cancer, and cardiovascular disease combined.

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