Wow. Just....wow.

Is it condescending to say, I'm proud of you?
Too bad, because I'm proud of you.

That was beautiful, but I just keep thinking, she would buy her underwear at WALGREENS?!?!?! You wouldn't find a Gap to get some undies at??????

anybody all upset about you using your fame to get discounted shingles (SHINGLES!!!) can suck it long and hard, because that same fame has made you a part of something important and impactful, and anyone with half a brain can see which means more to you. also, the 50 cent part? not gonna lie. i kinda teared up there.

congratulations. keep up the good work. and thank you.

Sounds like an incredible experience.

@ChickWhitt - no shame in Walgreen's undies. They even carry Hanes (discovered after working all night and deciding that even though I was unshowered and wearing yesterday's clothes, I would at least have on clean underwear).

Heather_O, I don't think it's condescending to say that you're proud of Heather (Heather Armstrong, that is).

However, I don't think that you have standing to be proud of someone that you didn't have anything to do with. You're proud of things you did or people you raised or taught or otherwise influenced. IMHO, you ADMIRE people that you didn't raise or teach or otherwise influence, instead of being PROUD of them. However, it's only my very humble opinion.

And Heather A., I sure do admire you!

Everybody has a voice, on here Heather yours is comes through dooce. I'm so glad I discovered your site. It has inspired me in many ways. And it always great when people don't judge 50cent because the man got some sense, along with know how to shoot and automatic weapon

I think what you are doing is amazing. I think name dropping Christy Turlington every chance you get is not...

Seems like an amazing weekend Heather! Thanks for bringing attention to such an important but often forgotten cause. Will be nice to know a little bit more about the other amazing people in the 'every mother counts' team and their contributions as well.

kappadarling @14, when you are working with Christy Turlington, like working with her, side by side, on trips and conferences and events and stuff, you are not name-dropping, you are talking about your day on the job. I do not find that problematic.

if you believe a word that came out of stephen harper's mouth i have some land in florida you might want to buy. it has a slight drainage problem but the long, green, scaly neighbours are very friendly.

seriously, stephen harper has done more to damage the status of women in canada than anyone could possibly ideate. he's dismantled status of women canada to the point where it's totally useless.

no, if stephen harper spoke about maternal health, he was blowing air up your skirt.

What has been built in Bangladesh for the women in the last year? I wonder in situations like this, How much $$$ is spent on all the seminars, travel, trips, conferences, and hype vs' how much is being spent on the fixing of these problems...I realize you have to put problems "out there" in order to get attention but it seems like there could have been many clinics, prenatals, exams, vaccines, and education given for the PR costs thus far ...
This is a deep rooted cultural problem. It will take generations to fix, if it is fixable at all... IMO it would be more helpful to throw the money at fixing more and publisizing less. I have a feeling that the people that are helping this already know about this and the promoting of it via blogs isn't going to bring in extra $ for the cause. If Every Women COunts wants real results they are going to have to put every single dime into building and doing and Christy needs to hoope she can get a great big Multi Million dollar Corporate sponsership- which is doubtful since this is a cultural problem and corporations usually are not interested in fighting a fight against cultures...

PS-- did you see the surfing dogs picture yet that The Internet has been passing around? TELL ME YOU SAW THE DOGGSSSSSSS... http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-best-picture-fr...

Having been there a few times doing work, most of the problems seem to stem from the thinking of the men... Men are the "almighty power" in that culture,THE decision makers, and give the women no respect, or power of their own. It is a very very deep, ingrained part of their culture. If the women totally disagrees with the man, she is "taught" to do what the man says anyway... This is a culture that used to throw themselves into fires when their husbands died because they felt they had no "power" or inner voice without men. Hence my thinking it is more of a cultural problem. Can cultures change, yes, EXTREMELY slowly....Like over many generations . There are no doubt a monetary problems, but getting past the culture is what is so much harder in my mind and it won't be American models or bloggers that will change that. That is why I say that they should use the money in the short term to fix and allivieate the problem, but work on the culture from the inside through their own heads of church and beliefs systems.

@sherylwx4 I understand and appreciate your point. We saw the patriarchal nature of the system in Bangladesh and how it holds back progress for girls and women. But we also saw systems that had changed things. We visited a village that was empowering girls to start their own businesses, and in doing so their fathers saw how this could help the whole family and then encouraged those girls to continue their work.

We saw actual change.

Attention needs to be heaped on that program so that it can be rolled out to many more communities, and all this publicity is raising that awareness AND raising money. I can't get into specifics, but all those meetings I mentioned were with corporations who have set aside millions and millions of dollars to causes like this, and they need organizations like Christy's to point them in the right direction.

I'm glad to see sherylwx4's thoughts, and Heather's response too, as I also struggle with what sherylwx4 writes. I've been in the nonprofit/philanthropy field for a long time, and it's becoming increasingly difficult for me to see how another speech by another celebrity actually translates into measurable change for good.

I also had trouble figuring out from the website exactly what it is that EWC does in terms of programs. Heather if you have extra insight in terms of "boots on ground" stuff, that'd make me more inclined to support them.

The bottom line is always the impact on the beneficiaries, here the women and children. If we truly want to do good we can't permit "awareness" to be good enough - we must insist that this is only a means to an end: clear, end-of-the-day results for the beneficiaries.