No Mothers Day Campaign
Maternal mortality is an issue people tend not to recognize even though 360,000 women die each year around the world due to complications in pregnancy and childbirth. Their deaths create a ripple effect that devastates children, families, and communities. What’s worse? Almost all of those deaths are preventable.
But only solvable if we come together and make it a priority. That’s why we’ve launched a campaign to raise awareness about the global tragedy. This Mother’s Day, when people are thinking about their moms the most, we’re asking moms around the country to ‘disappear’ in order to underscore just how missed a mother is when she is gone. We’re calling our campaign “No Mothers Day.”
The cornerstone of the campaign is a short social issue film that features moms encouraging other moms to join in solidarity by disappearing May 13th, Mother’s Day, because “our silence can speak the loudest for all mothers.”
The film features mothers between the ages of 24–80 expressing the belief that together, “our silence will speak the loudest, for all mothers.” The women remain silent for the final minute of the film except for the beautiful song performed by Eddie Vedder that’s part of the second-annual Every Mother Counts/Starbucks compilation CD. Some of the high profile mothers featured in the film include, Christy Turlington Burns, Jennifer Connelly, Kelly Rutherford, Ann Curry, Blythe Danner, Debra Messing, Dayle Haddon, Tonya Lewis-Lee and Heather Armstrong (Dooce). And while you may not recognize all the others, many have been EMC’s best “super-volunteers” over the past year sharing their voices, their time and their energy to building our campaign.
Our ask is that if you are moved by the facts, as we hope you are, you will think about what you can do this Mother’s Day to raise awareness. If you’re a mom, think about changing your Facebook profile picture or ask that your loved ones make a donation in your name instead of flowers this year. If you’re not a mom but just love one, spread the word and share the talking points about maternal health. We all have a way to get involved and that’s what Every Mother Counts is about.
