Alicia Ely Yamin
Human-rights lawyer, Joseph H. Flom fellow on global health and human rights
at Harvard University
Special adviser on maternal mortality to Amnesty International's Demand Dignity Campaign
Mother of Nicolas, 10, and Sam, 8
"The mission of the Demand Dignity Campaign is to combat poverty-related problems—including maternal mortality—in the developing world by holding governments accountable. I started working on this issue as a faculty member at the Columbia School of Public Health, in New York City. In 1997, before I had my two children, I had a miscarriage, which was, medically at least, not a big deal: I went to a hospital, and I was released the same evening. The very next week, I went on a human-rights mission to Chiapas, Mexico, which had been torn by a civil conflict. I met a woman there who was miscarrying and didn't have access to medical care—it was a life-and-death situation for her. I thought, This could have been me; there but for the grace of God go I. But actually it's not "but for the grace of God"—it's because I'm a middle-class woman with health insurance in the United States that I had access to good medical care and was, therefore, okay. Really it's because of government policies that other women are at risk of dying in childbirth. And that's no time to die."
See how you can join Alicia Ely Yamin and all the current and past Smart Cookie honorees in making the world a better place at ChangingThePresent.org/cookie.
