Every Partner Counts: CARE

About a year after I became a mom, I got a call from my childhood best friend who now lives in Atlanta. She wanted to connect me with her Aunt who had a friend who worked at CARE, and asked if I would be interested in meeting with them to learn about the work they were doing to address extreme poverty. Of course I knew of CARE. I had always noted their presence in my travels to some of the more remote and impoverished corners of the world, and my mother had long been a supporter as well.

These connections resulted in my taking a trip down to El Salvador, my mom's birth country, in 2005 while pregnant with my second child. This is where I had that "Ah ha" moment of knowing that maternal health would become my focus for years to come. On the final day of the trip, we visited a water project where women had walked miles to access clean water, many of whom were either pregnant or had recently delivered. Both CARE and USAID were providing some basic ante and postnatal care to these women when they arrived. I left that day realizing that had I delivered my first child there and suffered the same complication, without electricity, paved roads, or emergency obstetric care, I would have died.

I returned to New York City and delivered my son a few months later and vowed to do all I could to help other women access the services they needed, allowing them to survive their pregnancies too. I reached out to CARE and asked what more I could do, and that question ignited a quest that brought me to where I am now. I am grateful to CARE for all that they have taught me and all they continue to share as a partner.

Christy in Peru in 2007 with CARE

Christy in El Salvador in 2005 with CARE

More on CARE:

As a leading organization that fights global poverty by empowering women and girls, CARE has made reducing maternal mortality one of its top priorities. With more than 50 years of experience and success in developing and implementing maternal and child health programs, CARE works directly with women and communities, empowering them with resources and information, while also effectuating policies to ensure that safe pregnancy and birth are a basic human right. In 2011, CARE worked to reach 41 million women, men and children with information and services to improve maternal health.

And now, there is something simple you can do to help. CARE is proud to have been chosen to participate in a unique partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the T-shirt design company Threadless, challenging the community to design shirts about empowering women to change the world.

More than 116 artists from around the world submitted designs, which were then voted on in an online challenge. The chosen design, "A Mother is a Daughter is a Mother" is by Israeli artist Shahaf Gurevich. In describing the inspiration for her image, she says: "All mothers are daughters and most daughters are mothers to be. All mothers seek a better future for their children. The key to a better future is to empower the daughters of today."

The shirts are available in men's and women's sizes for $19.50 each and 100 percent of the proceeds will be donated to CARE! Purchase one today!

Christy in Washington DC lobbying on Capitol Hill on behalf of CARE

Christy with CARE in Bangladesh during filming for “No Woman, No Cry” in 2009