FEB. 27,2011-RH Supporters Hold Memorial March for Mothers at the CBCP

PRESS RELEASE

RH Supporters Hold Memorial March for Mothers at the CBCP

Appeal to Bishops' Empathy Regarding 11 Preventable Maternal Deaths per Day

Manila, Feb. 24 – The Reproductive Health Advocacy Network (RHAN) and supporters are planning to deliver a letter to the CBCP via a march on February 27 at 4pm. In addition a peaceful action will be performed by the assembled supporters at the CBCP building (details undisclosed). The letter does not request that the CBCP stops preaching, “But we do expect you to care as fellow Filipinos who preach about love, especially love for the poor" it reads. “We expect that although all of you are men, you have learned empathy and affection from your mothers, your sisters, and your women friends."

Supporters will assemble at 4pm across from the Manila Hotel at the Cory & Ninoy monument, Bonifacio Drive corner Padre Burgos Street. After a one hour program, supporters will march to the CBCP, where eleven candles will be lit, memorializing the eleven women who die every day of reproductive health complications, the vast majority of which are preventable. The letter will be read and supporters will perform a mass action to call the Church's attention to the more than four thousand mothers who die every year from maternal complications that could be prevented by RH education and services, demonstrating “the lives lost, the children left behind, the hopes and relationships cut short, the contributions to society that have ceased.”

Supporters will then leave peacefully. “We only leave behind the 11 candles with their dying flames. May the memories of the eleven women who died today touch your hearts and minds.”

This RHAN event is part of the “RH, Ipasa Na” campaign, a nationally-coordinated effort that began with a rally at Congress in mid-February. Dr. Junice L.D. Melgar, the Executive Director of Likhaan Center for Women’s Health and the secretary-general of RHAN said “We hope that the bishops can feel our pain, and that they will appreciate the full value of women’s lives."

For more information on RH Bill advocacy activities, visit http://rhbillph.wordpress.com
For more information on the RH Bill, visit  http://www.rhbill.org ; http://www.likhaan.org/ 

ABOUT RHAN:
RHAN is the country's largest network of organizations and individuals working for over 10 years now for the passage of a reproductive health law. 

CONTACT:
For further information, contact the current RHAN Secretariat: 
Likhaan Center for Women's Health 
Tel: 926-6230 • Fax: 411-3151 • office@likhaan.org • www.likhaan.org  
Contact person: Joy Salgado(0915 407 9894) ; Ellen San Gabriel (0916 602 5203)

  



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Likhaan
Center for Women's Health Inc.
88 Times St., West Triangle Homes
Quezon City 1104 Philippines
Tel: (63 2) 926-6230
Fax: (63 2) 411-3151
E-mail: office@likhaan.org
        likhaan.mail@gmail.com (backup)