I’m in Davos this week to talk about an issue that I’m especially passionate about: helping mothers and children in the developing world.
Research shows that helping women stay healthy and achieve financial security has an amazing ripple effect. A healthy woman is more likely to give birth to a healthy child. She can earn money to feed her family, send her kids to school and buy medicine when they’re sick. When women thrive, their families thrive and their entire community prospers.
Earlier this week, I visited Benin and Malawi to see some of the great progress the two countries are making. In Benin I had the honour of travelling with Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the first lady of France and an amazing advocate for women and children. We went to the village of Dangbo, where we visited a hospital that provides a full range of free health services for pregnant women. They have a fantastic program that integrates these services with HIV testing, counselling and treatment. We talked to several women there who had come in for prenatal care and then decided to get tested for HIV. If they test positive, they can immediately get drugs that will help keep them from passing the virus on to their babies.
