Canadian Doctors Join Global Health Challenge to Save Lives

TORONTO, ON, April 06, 2013 (Press-News.org) Access to maternal, newborn and child health care is a growing global health and human rights concern. CPAR's World Health Day challenge is an annual event that provides physicians with the means to demonstrate their commitment to global health beyond the boundaries of their community. This year's campaign will be on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health in Tanzania, where every day 23 women die in child birth. Their support builds on the efforts of the project that launched in 2012.

On World Health Day, April 7th, we are challenging Canadian Physicians to rally in support of healthy communities and safe motherhood in countries like Tanzania. Physicians and other health care professionals - or any member of the Canadian public - are asked to make a donation towards to campaign or donate their time to fundraise on our behalf to help prevent maternal and child death in rural Tanzania.

Women and children living in remote areas experience multiple barriers to health. Factors such as poverty and distance prevent women from seeking the care they need before, during and after child birth. This is further complicated by the lack of skilled care and the inadequate health services available in rural areas. Partnership with the Canadian health community will help to provide the care needed to save lives.

Physicians from cities including Vancouver, Winnipeg, Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, and Ottawa have signed up for the Challenge are lending their support to this critical cause.

Dr. Vance Pegado, a physician based in Burlington, Ontario who donated a day of his income in past challenges, believes that the World Health Day Challenge is an effective way to reach out to communities in rural Africa.

"Always having said that I would give back when I could and finally having done so, it was a wonderful feeling," says Dr. Pegado.

He goes on to say, "Every mother and child in this world deserves the care and safety that my beloved Mom had in giving birth to me. What she gave me I can never repay, and so too may every mother and child know health. May we do our best to make this happen".

Each year on April 7th, the world celebrates World Health Day. On this day around the globe, thousands of events mark the importance of access to primary health care services. Support from this event will deliver the gift of safe motherhood - and give mothers and newborns a chance to thrive.

Canadian Physicians for Aid & Relief (CPAR) is a non-profit development organization that supports community efforts to ensure access to clean water, adequate food, primary health services and a safe and healthy environment.

CPAR works with community members in some of the most remote rural areas in Malawi, Uganda, Ethiopia and Tanzania to implement long-term sustainable programs that are focused on real grassroots change. CPAR goes where the need is. We work with community members to provide access to life's most basic needs despite challenges that might be posed by the environment or infrastructure.

CONTACT: Dusanka Pavlica
416-369-0865 ext 28
dpavlica@cpar.ca