The 2011 WHC Garden Brunch featured two great organizations, CURE Epilepsy and the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood. Our honorary co-chairs Susan Axelrod and Wendi Murdoch led the push for advocacy and results.

2011 White House Correspondents’ Garden Brunch from whcinsider on Vimeo.

Thanks to your generous donations, CURE Epilepsy is having a record-breaking year in raising funds to find a cure. Your dollars are making a difference. Recently, a CURE-Funded Project had a major breakthrough. UC Irvine and French researchers identified a central switch responsible for the transformation of healthy brain cells into epileptic ones, opening the way to both treat and prevent temporal lobe epilepsy. Epilepsy affects 1 to 2 percent of the world’s population, and TLE is the most common form of the disorder in adults. Among adult neurologic conditions, only migraine headaches are more prevalent. TLE is resistant to treatment in 30 percent of cases.

“We’re quite excited about this discovery,” UCI neurologist and neuroscientist Dr. Tallie Z. Baram said. “Understanding how previous brain infections, seizures or injuries can interact with the cellular machinery to cause epilepsy is a crucial step toward designing drugs to prevent the process. We don’t want to just treat people with epilepsy. We hope to develop medicines that will prevent epilepsy from occurring – and influence the lives of millions of people around the globe.”

The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood is using the month of July to encourage leaders to recognize the importance of health workers. There is a shortage of more than 3.5 million health workers across the globe and millions of existing health workers lack the support, equipment, and training they need to provide quality care. These nurses, doctors, midwives and community health workers are vital for progress on global health and development and for ensuring the millennium development goals are met.

In September, decision-makers will convene at the United Nations General Assembly to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals. It will be an opportunity for governments to announce substantial and specific commitments to support and invest in health workers. By sharing your voice on these issues, together change can be made.

Here is our photo gallery including David and Susan Axelrod, Rupert and Wendi Murdoch, Sarah and Todd Palin, Matthew Morrison, Jeremy Piven, Bill and Bernie Daley, Tina Tchen, Eric Podwall, Chelsea Handler, T. Boone Pickens and many other notables.

We are proud to support the work of CURE Epilepsy and the White Ribbon Alliance, and encourage you to do the same by clicking on the links below.