Monday, March 3, 2008

Videocast Answers

Thank you everyone for participating. Here are your video responses below each question.

Jenny, New York asked...
"I can’t make it to Washington, DC, and I don’t have a lot of money to contribute, so what can I do from home to help change this situation?"


Mary Kate, New York asked...
“I understand the importance of maternal death, but why focus just on that? What about a problem like fistula, in which woman is physically and socially hurt and which may last years?”

Abby asked...
"Do you have examples of countries where UNFPA's Safe Motherhood work has been particularly successful? "

Emily asked...
"Angeline, I am also curious about how UNFPA decides which projects it will fund and which countries it will work in."

Vicki asked......
"I'm pretty sure the U.S. does support some efforts to improve the status of women and their health (USAID does some of this work, I'm pretty sure the U.S. does support some efforts to improve the status of women and their health (USAID does some of this work, for example); is there something essential about UNFPA's methods which aren't practiced by US gov't efforts, or is the issue simply one of quantity and not quality?"

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

safe motherhood is definitely an importnt issue. How can we as individuals help to raise awareness about this critical issue?

Anonymous said...

What are you doing to educate the Presidential candidates about your issues?

Anonymous said...

Angeline, you discuss UNFPA's commitment to providing contraception and family planning services and improving health care facilities. Does UNFPA address basic necessities for safe motherhood like access to adequate nutrition and clean water?

Anonymous said...

Angeline,
I am also curious about how UNFPA decides which projects it will fund and which countries it will work in.

Americans for UNFPA said...

That’s a great question and an important point, Emily about basic necessities for safe motherhood. You can’t provide women’s health care in a vacuum. When UNFPA was established, it provided women’s health care but it became obvious over the years that you can provide access to contraception and build facilities but if women are no empowered to access them, nothing has been accomplished. So, where there was an absence of programs to address girls’ education or prevention of violence, UNFPA began to provide assistance to those programs. While there are probably UNFPA funded programs that also address nutrition and clean water, those challenges are more widely addressed by other organizations like the UN’s World Food Program.

Jesse said...

In response to anonymous:

We are working to educate the Presidential candidates, in a couple of ways. First, we've sent all of the candidates, in both parties, a series of fact sheets about UNFPA and we've asked them to go on the record supporting UNFPA. Some have.

Second, we're planning an action which all our supporters can take part in some time later this spring or summer, in which you'll be able to contact the two parties' nominees and ask them to make their commitment to Safe Motherhood more clear.

Stay tuned for more, and thank you for your question.

Anonymous said...

Jesse,

Are there any champions of this issue in D.C? Are there Senators or Representatives that we can thank for their work on this issue and encourage to rally their colleagues?

Anonymous said...

Vicki,

Yes, there are some champions for UNFPA in Washington. In fact, I can't list all of the Senators and Representatives who have voted the right way and spoken out for UNFPA.

I can, however, highlight a few Reps who have sponsored key pieces of legislation that support UNFPA, or Safe Motherhood, or women's health in general, in the last year:

Rep. Joe Crowley
Rep. Carolyn Maloney
Rep. Nita Lowey
Rep. Betty McCollum
(and most recently)
Rep. Lois Capps
and
Senator Hillary Clinton

The various bills and resolutions they've introduced have been or will be the subject of legislative updates and action alerts in our Action Center: www.americansforunfpa.org/takeaction