Africa's Plight: Open Your Eyes

Letter to the Editor

Re "Thousands Died in Africa Yesterday" (editorial, Feb. 27)

To the Editor:

The majority of the more than 20,000 people who perished of extreme poverty yesterday were women and children, and that will continue to be the case unless we act now.

In 1995, at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, the world, including the United States, committed to a plan that would save these lives by providing emergency obstetric care, ending the sex discrimination and sexual violence that drive the H.I.V.-AIDS epidemic, closing the gender gap in education, and ensuring economic opportunities for girls and women.

The United Nations is reviewing progress since Beijing. The current United States administration has said it does not want the final declaration to include financial resources for carrying out the Beijing agreement.

The United States must be an ally in the renewed commitment to Beijing, not an adversary; women's and girls' lives depend on it.

ADRIENNE GERMAIN
President, International Women's Health Coalition
New York, Feb. 28, 2005

Originally published in the New York Times, March 2, 2005. Reprinted with permission.

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