Yesterday, I had the great privilege of attending day one of the first ever African First Ladies Health Summit at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles. This magnificent event, held over a two-day period, will attempt to tackle the complicated issues of HIV/AIDS and malaria, maternal health, girl’s education and most importantly, leadership.

As a Californian woman (and an attendee of the the Women’s Conference), it was exciting for me to witness First Lady of California Maria Shriver welcoming 17 African First Ladies to the Leadership for Health Summit today. Maria Shriver said that she understands the challenges and difficulties of being a first lady but remarked on how the position presents an incredible opportunity to make a difference. She said that this Summit is a launching pad for longer-term partnerships and an open dialogue for connecting and sharing journeys, lessons, challenges and successes. In fact, she mentioned that they are exploring ways to expand the Women’s Conference model into the African continent. In her speech, she also made references to existing initiatives and partnerships that work to save and improve lives, such as (RED), which raises millions of dollars for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

As a hunger/poverty activist and an advocate for ONE, I try to seize every opportunity I can to gain a deeper and more thorough knowledge about the issues I advocate. Up until now these have primarily been centered around more and better aid, ensuring that all children have access to health care and education and advocating for a more comprehensive approach to fighting HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis and other deadly but preventable disease. I had never tackled the issues surrounding maternal health. At the end of the day today, I had learned exactly where maternal mortality fell in to the fight against global poverty and disease and how it is the one MDG that has not shown progress. The issue of maternal mortality is an urgent one and was the key theme of today’s events and discussions.

As I watched these beautiful and powerful women speak to one another and to us, I was inspired by the passion they showed for their countries and could see in them a very common bond and wish for their people, especially their women and children. They want their mothers to have healthy and safe pregnancies and births. They want their girls to grow up educated and not fall victim to too early motherhood or false information fueled by inadequate information and age old taboos. They don’t want their women to have to walk 50km to the nearest clinic to seek medical care. They don’t want their doctors and other health care providers that they have paid to train, leave them for better-funded health facilities in other countries because their own health facilities are ill equipped. 70% of disease in Africa is preventable so why not invest in prevention?

One of the First Ladies remarked that there is an old African adage, “Every pregnant woman has one foot in the grave.” How sad.

The consensus amongst the First Ladies was that what was lacking in Africa was the will of the people. This is where the First Ladies can find their true power. By demonstrating their will, they can be a beacon to the women of their countries. Social change must take place from inside Africa and leadership is needed for this to occur. They stressed the need to mobilize their own communities as well as the need to educate girls to delay their first birth and first marriage. These are just a couple of simple and cost effective ways to fight disease, maternal and infant death and, in the end, poverty.

The African First Ladies Health Summit is the vision of US Doctors for Africa and African Synergy, whose hope is for a broader partnership amongst the wide range of partners attending the summit and the First Ladies themselves. Hopefully together, they can provide these leading women with the tools and support they need to make real and lasting change in Africa.

-Amy Quinn, ONE Volunteer