Millions of young women, family breadwinners, and children die needlessly every year from easily preventable causes. Simple, affordable health products and services exist that could save their lives.

Unfortunately, such health products and services are not always available, affordable, or understood by the people who need them.

• Over half a million women die each year from pregnancy-related causes (approximately one woman every minute of every day), 99% of them in the developing world. Forty percent of the world’s women do not have access to reproductive health care services; 120 to 150 million women want to limit or space their pregnancies, but do not have the means.

• Malaria has killed more people in the tropics every year than any other infectious disease, while also impairing economic and social development through its debilitating effects on families and communities. It is the leading cause of infant mortality in Africa.

• Diarrheal disease is the second leading cause of mortality in children under age five. An estimated 80 percent of all illness in the developing world is caused by lack of clean water and proper sanitation.

• AIDS has killed over 16 million people. In 2001, five million people became infected with HIV (1.8 million were women and 800,000 were children under the age of 15). Also, three million people died from AIDS, and 40 million were living with HIV/AIDS. Over 70 percent of HIV infections worldwide are the result of heterosexual transmission.

• More than one billion people are disabled by micronutrient deficiencies. Without iron, vitamin A, folic acid, zinc, and iodine, the body ceases to develop and function properly.