Press Releases

RHODE ISLAND CELEBRATES UNITED NATIONS DAY

Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Rhode Island State House Rotunda
12 Noon to 4 P.M. 

Providence, RI  October 19, 2006 –  “Each year more than a half million women die throughout the world due to complications from pregnancy and childbirth with the overwhelming majority of such deaths occurring in developing nations,”  states Jametta O. Alston, Rhode Island Child Advocate and Honorary United Nations Day Chair for Rhode Island, in announcing the program for the State’s observance of United Nations Day on October 24, 2006,  in the Rhode Island State House Rotunda from 12 Noon to 4 P.M.   The theme for this year’s United Nation’s Day is Maternal Health and Well Being:  A Cornerstone of the Millennium Development Goals.   Susan Dickstein, Ph.D. director of the Early Childhood Clinical Research Center at Bradley Hospital will speak at 2:30 P.M. in a short program featuring a parade of world flags carried by Johnson and Wales University students.

             “When women die, children are left motherless,” states Ms. Alston.  “The world can ill afford to ignore the significance of maternal health and the enormous consequences it has for the social economic structures needed for children to survive and thrive,” she adds.  “The fact that sustainable health care infrastructures in local communities in the developing world has the potential to prevent 500,000 maternal deaths annually, and the deaths of the 7.1 million infants who die each year gives reason to applaud the United Nations and other government and voluntary organizations working to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of creating such structures to improve maternal health and make emergency obstetric care available to all women,” adds Ms. Alston.

 “It is gratifying to chair the Rhode Island celebration of United Nations Day for a second year in a row because this Millennium goal seeks to improve maternal health and in so doing reduce the maternal mortality rate by two-thirds by 2015, “ states the Child Advocate.  Today, 58% of women in developing countries give birth without the assistance of a trained midwife or doctor.  With the improvement of access to emergency obstetric care, family planning services and other information regarding nutrition and disease, lives can be saved.

            In 1945, the United States was one of fifty original signatories on the United Nations Charter.  Across the country on October 24, states will hold events to recognize United Nations Day.  The Rhode Island celebration will include face painting and autumnal arts and crafts activities for children with free materials and instruction, and blood pressure and diabetes screening for adults.  Textile cloths from around the world
 will be on exhibit.  Rhode Island has partnered with Plan USA, Women and Infants Hospital, Johnson and Wales University, International Institute of Rhode Island and the Greater Providence, Rhode Island Chapter of The Links, Incorporated in planning this event.  The event is open to the public and all are invited to attend.  For additional information, contact Marianna Almeida at (401) 222-6650 or malmeida@gw.doa.state.ri.us