PledgeForMoms.org » Save A Mother http://www.pledgeformoms.org Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:44:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Artists for Moms: New Year Kick-Off http://www.pledgeformoms.org/2010/01/14/artists-for-moms-new-year-kick-off/ http://www.pledgeformoms.org/2010/01/14/artists-for-moms-new-year-kick-off/#comments Fri, 15 Jan 2010 01:27:05 +0000 Mariya Nikiforova http://www.pledgeformoms.org/?p=1111 It has been a wonderful year thanks to the kindness of our resident artists, and I would like to take a moment to recap 2009 for my readers. It was a very bumpy ride earlier this year! PledgeForMoms.org was getting a major face-lift, and migrating its “brains” to a completely different platform, WordPress, which would allow for smoother updating, better user interaction, and great widget capability (that would take months to figure out how to program using good ol’ DreamWeaver and my imagination). In December, all of the changes were finalized, and on February 6th the first article was released using the new WP interface. Needless to say, I was still in the beta phase, mourning the loss of posts from the initial site (pre-WordPress) and trying to get familiar with handling my new site. In March and April the very first posts for Artists for Moms project began to pop up. The project was in its infancy here (still quite small with no real direction), and I have decided to use DeviantArt and Flickr to recruit new participants as well as collaborate to find new ideas on how to improve this project and actually give it some depth and purpose.

Hundreds of artists were interested in supporting PledgeForMoms.org, but I think the main road-block was trying to figure out how exactly I wanted to leverage a network of over 200 artists into a positive and relevant force to help make a difference for women. Pledge for Moms is not driven by donations, or even by actual pledges of service to the site or to anyone. No! The site was never a supposed to be a preachy blog based on widely-known, ambiguous statistics… but it is a call for compassion. No matter who you are, you came from a mother. Each of us had very distinct experiences with our mothers (some not at all), but if you cannot bring yourself to feel compassion for women in need, then pledge to make a difference just because you love the woman who gave you life (even if you never met her). Ultimately, we are all children of women, and we are all connected through this most basic association. With this in mind, I decided to allow Artists for Moms to become an open source project: open to any individual wishing to participate, and open to interpretation and discussion. I have made various galleries to accommodate different issues and views suggested by the members of the project; I have also been approached about doing auctions to benefit charities for cancer research, reducing maternal mortality, and other worthy causes.

The motivation behind the site was to raise awareness, and I achieved this to a certain extent by syndicating this blog on Yahoo and making it widely available via RSS and email subscriptions (in addition to starting Twitter and Facebook accounts, which have had some success as well). However, Artists for Moms has helped me gain a clear perspective and vision for the site – let’s come together to support and celebrate women, mothers, femininity, innocence, and wisdom.

I am proud to feature some of our new artists for January in this post!


Glazzdoll, Canada
simplicity_glass_bead_by_glazzdoll

Mshindo I. Kuumba, United States
lovely_rhoena_by_mshindo9

Gonzalo Martínez, Spain
Gonzalo Martinez - Portrait

Anastasia Saidova, Malaysia
daily_news_by_tizrael

Hans Martin, Spain
rajput_princess_by_martinicio

Sumi, Italy
blooming_dance_by_blumina

Tiffany Mills, United States
tiffany-mills-africa

madmoiselleclau, Mexico
krisha_by_madmoiselleclau

Abhimanyu Vyas, India
experiment_went_wrong_by_7ucky

Kinsey Past, United States
lucky_rhino_by_pandy_heart

Vassantha, France
sur_la_plage_de_grand_anse_by_vassantha

titouri, Andorra
groom__s_sister_by_titouri

shera-li, Germany
victoria_the_proud_grandmother_by_shera_li

Amy McDonald, United States
a_cry_for_help_by_purple_skunk

]]> http://www.pledgeformoms.org/2010/01/14/artists-for-moms-new-year-kick-off/feed/ 1 Saving Moms With Save-A-Mother http://www.pledgeformoms.org/2009/12/19/saving-moms-with-save-a-mother/ http://www.pledgeformoms.org/2009/12/19/saving-moms-with-save-a-mother/#comments Sat, 19 Dec 2009 23:00:20 +0000 Mariya Nikiforova http://www.pledgeformoms.org/?p=1093 Save-A-Mother.org for more information on how you can help increase (and eliminate!) maternal mortality rates in some of the most affected areas in the world.]]> save a mother 1
Big thanks to Rima and Rahul for allowing me to become a contributor to their monthly SOLUTIONS newsletter. You may find my first article featured in the December 2009 Issue.

“We crossed our target of training 400 new health activists in 2009 by November. Over 1,000 women have attended training sessions in 2009 and 412 have been designated as health activists” – Dr. Shiban Ganju

The Solutions newsletter provides a comprehensive monthly overview of the organization’s accomplishments in the fight against maternal mortality in Uttar Pradesh, India, as well as interesting related articles from various contributors who have come together for this wonderful cause. Every day, over 160 women die in India from pregnancy and complications of child birth. Save-A-Mother programs educate women about pregnancy, nutrition, immunization, delivery and care of the child. Please take a minute to watch the footage from the latest visit to Sultanpur:


There is no reason for a woman to have to bury 7 children in her lifetime; there is no reason for a boy to lose his mother to infection that could have been easily prevented with proper hygiene. Please visit Save-A-Mother.org for more information on how you can help decrease (and eliminate!) maternal mortality rates in some of the most affected areas in the world.

]]> http://www.pledgeformoms.org/2009/12/19/saving-moms-with-save-a-mother/feed/ 0