Buffet Money Raises Hopes for Women's Health

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Buffet Money Raises Hopes for Women's Health

Run Date: 07/13/06
By Malena Amusa
WeNews correspondent

Maternal health advocates estimate that an additional $9 billion a year is needed to address serious worldwide health problems afflicting mothers. The news of Warren Buffett's massive gift to the Gates Foundation raises their hopes.

Isobel Coleman

NEW YORK (WOMENSENEWS)--The day after money manager Warren Buffett announced he was giving $31 billion of his personal fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, about 60 people happened to be gathered for a forum on maternal mortality at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

The June 27 meeting had been scheduled well in advance but the philanthropy news helped spotlight discussions of how to solve the world's maternal mortality problem.

The maternal health field needs about $9 billion more a year to mount a realistic attack on the problems of maternal deaths and disabilities, panelist and Columbia University professor of clinical population and family health Lynn Freedman told the audience, relying on the estimate from the World Health Organization.

That attack, Freedman said, could go a long way toward alleviating the specter of 500,000 women dying each year during pregnancy or shortly after childbirth.

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