By: Jolianna Mbaka (Results volunteer)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I recently read about Hermina, a mother who walked four hours alone just to reach a health clinic. While happy to hold her newborn daughter, she was full of uncertainty because, as she said, \"She's a girl\". It is sad that a child\u2019s gender can still decide if they survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gender inequality is a main reason for poor health. Globally, women spend nine years of their lives in ill health\u2014a quarter more than men. In many places, newborn girls are less likely to get special medical care than boys. When we ignore these gaps, it holds back entire communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Global Financing Facility (GFF) helps countries strengthen health systems and remove legal barriers that keep girls in school. This is smart\u2014closing the health gap for women could add $1 trillion to the global economy by 2040.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This International Women\u2019s Month, I urge Canada to make an early pledge of $340 million over five years to the GFF. We must ensure every child has a fair chance to thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Volunteer Voices articles are penned by Results Canada volunteers, fellows, and staff. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of R\u00e9sultats Canada<\/a>. Click ici<\/a> for more Volunteer Voices articles and learn how you can submit your letter to the editor (LTE) or op-ed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Why is it that even today, women are facing discrimination, simply because of their gender? Canada's support for the GFF can help end it.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":13594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"[Volunteer Voices] the gap in healthcare between genders holds everyone back","_seopress_titles_desc":"Women spend a quarter more of their lives in ill health than men. Newborn girls are less likely to get special medical. Ignoring these gaps, holds us all back.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"[Volunteer Voices] the gap in healthcare between genders holds everyone back","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"Women spend a quarter more of their lives in ill health than men. Newborn girls are less likely to get special medical. Ignoring these gaps, holds us all back.","_seopress_social_fb_img":"https:\/\/cdn.resultscanada.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/Volunteer-Voices-April-2026.png","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":13594,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":795,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":615,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"[Volunteer Voices] the gap in healthcare between genders holds everyone back","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"Women spend a quarter more of their lives in ill health than men. Newborn girls are less likely to get special medical. Ignoring these gaps, holds us all back.","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"https:\/\/cdn.resultscanada.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/Volunteer-Voices-April-2026.png","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":13594,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":795,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":615,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"both","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":301,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"children,child,advocacy,volunteer,rights,global health,#ReachEveryChild,Results Canada,investments","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[127,436],"tags":[69,73,88,96,111,123,124,132,133],"class_list":["post-14187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-volunteer-voices","category-volunteer-action","tag-parliamentarian","tag-results-canada","tag-volunteer","tag-advocacy","tag-children","tag-child","tag-reacheverychild","tag-nutrition","tag-global-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/resultscanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/resultscanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/resultscanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resultscanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resultscanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/resultscanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14188,"href":"https:\/\/resultscanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14187\/revisions\/14188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resultscanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/resultscanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resultscanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resultscanada.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}