In her post yesterday, Andrea included a link to 34 Million Friends of UNFPA. Its founder, Jane Roberts, wrote a poem which was then set to music by Odetta. Check out this music video featuring beautiful women around the world and have a happy Friday.
Robert F. Kennedy once said, "Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not." I like this quote because it challenges those of us working in the reproductive health field to ask the vision question - - the question that begins with "why not?"
Why not a society where young people are valued rather than stereotyped, prized as assets rather than discounted as liabilities? Why not a society where sexuality is viewed as a normal, positive aspect of being human, of being alive, rather than as forbidden fruit to be locked away in a fortress of shame, fear, and denial? [img_assist|nid=2088|title=Watch the Video|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=144|height=93]Why not a society where public policy is based on science and research rather than politics and ideology? Why not a society where values, morality, and character are used to infuse sexuality with meaning - with its truly human dimension - rather than misused to deny young people information that could one day save their lives.
Great news this week for UNFPA, the UN agency responsible for promoting and protecting reproductive health and ensuring safe motherhood in 140 countries worldwide. The agency has just announced that it received a record $360 million in 2006 contributions from 180 countries in total—the highest number of donor countries supporting the agency since 1969, when it started its work. In 1999, only 69 countries supported UNFPA. But today, in addition to top donors Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, the UK, Japan, and Denmark, every country in Latin America and the Caribbean, and every country in sub-Saharan Africa, pledged to support the agency.
Naina Dhingra is the Director of International Policy at Advocates for Youth and serves on the Developed Country NGO Board Delegation of the Global Fund.
The drive is one you don't forget: a terrible pot-holed road from town usually filled with bumper to bumper traffic. But the destination is well worth the price. Karen, a wealthy Nairobi suburb of mizungus (Swahili for "white people") is usually not a destination for those working in international development. Kangemi and Kibera, the slums of Nairobi, are more up our alley. But tucked away in Karen is an inspiring program called Nyumbani. Nyumbani, which means "home" in Swahili, is a home for HIV+ children who have been orphaned or abandoned.
Desperate Housewives" is not shy about dealing with sexual relations. And for a second, I thought that they would even take advantage of the opportunity to give condoms the thumbs up when partaking in sexual relations -- especially when the issue comes up with a character who, as the voice over from heaven reminds us, is "two-timing" on his girlfriend.
Car crashes are the #1 cause of death among American teenagers. A terrifying statistic to contemplate for parents with children of any age. But what is the remedy? Do we withhold information on safe and responsible driving for teens hoping if they don't have the information they just won't drive? Like it or not, cars are an integral part of American life. Partners for Safe Teen Driving, a Virginia-based nonprofit organization, would like to reduce the number of teen car crashes by creating (gasp!) "educated and responsible teenage drivers with a commitment to safe and responsible driving." In most high schools around the country, a drivers' education course is offered. Parents talk to their teens about how to drive safely; they give them pointers based on their own driving history. Parents and educators work collectively to give our young people the tools they need to literally navigate the roads of life. This couldn't be farther from the truth when we talk about reducing the rates of unintended pregnancies or the incidence of sexually transmitted infections among teens. Yet instead of ensuring that our youth have access to researched, proven and effective sexual health education, we continue to withhold the information they need to lead healthy lives.
Marcy Bloom does U.S. advocacy and capacity building for GIRE - El Grupo de Informacion en Reproduccion Elegida/The Information Group on Reproductive Choice.
I recently had the honor of hearing the powerful remarks of Maria Luisa Sanchez Fuentes, a prominent Mexican feminist and the executive director of the Mexico-City based GIRE. This amazing organization, Grupo de Informacion en Reproduccion Elegida/ The Information Group on Reproductive Choice, has been advocating for reproductive justice and the decriminalization of abortion in Mexico since 1992. GIRE's mission is to contribute to the recognition, respect, and defense of reproductive rights, in particular abortion rights, which upholds women's free choice. Ms. Sanchez Fuentes describes her inspiring work as an extraordinarily difficult battle for a more humanitarian world that truly respects women's rights and lives.
"There is no human circumstance more tragic than the persisting existence of a harmful condition for which a remedy is readily available...In our struggle for equality we were confronted with the reality that many millions of people were essentially ignorant of our conditions or refused to face unpleasant truths. The hard-core bigot was merely one of our adversaries. The millions who were blind to our plight had to be compelled to face the social evil their indifference permitted to flourish...We knew that there were solutions and that the majority of the nation were ready for them. Yet we also knew that the existence of solutions would not automatically operate to alter conditions. We had to organize, not only arguments, but people in the millions for action. Finally we had to be prepared to accept all the consequences involved in dramatizing our grievances in the unique style we had devised."
- MLK upon accepting the Planned Parenthood Federation of America's Margaret Sanger Award. Read the entire speech.
Ok, so I feel like a bad lesbian for missing the season premiere of The L Word last Sunday. I had to find out about the pro-choice theme of the show via Feministing. (The cable gremlins disconnected my neighborhood's premiere cable channels... what's a girl to do?) Anyway, the first episode picked up the storyline of Kit (played by Pam Greer) and her boyfriend Angus deciding what to do about her pregnancy. Unlike other popular TV shows (*cough* Scrubs), The L Word dealt with the topic of abortion in a very nonjudgmental way. But what the buzz really centers around is that Sunday's show highlighted the hypocrisy of crisis pregnancy centers.
Wednesday, January 10, the day I returned to Nicaragua after a one-month hiatus in the States, was a significant day in contemporary Latin American politics. Selected heads of state from the region and around the world had gathered in Managua to celebrate the presidential inauguration of left-wing Sandinista party leader Daniel Ortega, reelected for the first time in 16 years. Ortega's discourse has changed significantly since he was president in the 1980s - on Wednesday, his remarks focused on building strength through unity and reconciliation. He condemned the 16 previous years of conservative leadership that had widened inequalities between the rich and the poor and undermined many of the successes of the Sandinista era. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and Bolivian president Evo Morales, George Bush's most outspoken critics in Latin America, also spoke at the inauguration, pledging economic and political solidarity with Nicaragua, and celebrating Ortega's victory as an important step against the marginalization of Latin American countries, and the neglect of their poorest citizens.
