The Institute for OneWorld Health, the US-based non-profit pharmaceutical company that develops drugs for people with neglected infectious diseases in the developing world, today announced a Mother's Day-themed awareness initiative to raise visibility around the issue of access to essential medicines for mothers and children in impoverished communities worldwide.

This issue awareness campaign is being supported by PANDORA Jewelry, which created a "OneWorld Health charm" inspired by OneWorld Health's mission to develop safe, effective and affordable medicines for the world's poor. For every OneWorld Health charm sold, PANDORA will donate $20 to OneWorld Health, and sales of the OneWorld Health charm have yielded more than $220,000.00 in contributions to date. PANDORA is also running a special two-week Mother's Day promotional campaign in support of OneWorld Health's work.

This Mother's Day initiative is the current effort in a year-long campaign to raise awareness about neglected diseases afflicting the world's poor and the tremendous need for life-saving medicines in developing countries. OneWorld Health launched its awareness-building campaign earlier this year with an ad inspired by the Oscar winning film, Slumdog Millionaire. The full-page ad ran in the New York Times on Monday, February 23, the day after Slumdog Millionaire won eight Oscars, including Best Picture. Over 1 billion people a year suffer from neglected diseases and it is poor children like the film's characters who are most likely to die from these preventable and treatable illnesses.

"Each day, more than 25,000 children under the age of five die from preventable causes, and hundreds of thousands of mothers die needlessly from preventable diseases each year. As we celebrate Mother's Day this year, we encourage those who can to help mothers and children in developing countries who need medicines the most but can least afford them," said Dr. Richard Chin, M.D., OneWorld Health's Chief Executive Officer. "OneWorld Health is proud to be working in collaboration with PANDORA Jewelry and our other partners to develop safe, effective, and affordable drugs to treat families in the world's poorest communities."

OneWorld Health will unveil new awareness-building initiatives throughout the year via online advertising, social media initiatives and visibility activities in partnership with other global health organizations.

More information about OneWorld Health's awareness-building initiative can be found at www.oneworldhealth.org/pandora  

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About the Institute for OneWorld Health

The Institute for OneWorld Health, the first US nonprofit pharmaceutical company, develops safe, effective and affordable medicines for people with neglected diseases of the developing world. The Institute for OneWorld Health, headquartered in San Francisco, California, USA, is a tax-exempt 501 (c) (3) US corporation. (http://www.oneworldhealth.org/). Media resources are available at http://www.oneworldhealth.org/media/index.php/ <http://www.oneworldhealth.org/media_center