Something important
May. 4th, 2003 01:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hel_anaSomething that's been largely lost in the shuffle of 9/11 and the War on Terrorism is the $34 million pledged to the United Nations Population Fund that Bush cut as one of his first actions as President.
Apparently, however, it hasn't been forgotten by everyone. In this weekend's Salon, there's a fantastic article about two women, Jane Roberts and Lois Abraham, who have formed a group called 34 Million Friends in response to the funding cut. So far, they've raised a million dollars.
In Timor, it will be used to equip the country's only two hospitals that provide emergency obstetric care with two-way radios, train three doctors to perform Cesarean sections and buy 80 motorcycles for midwives so that they can reach rural areas. In Rwanda, it will buy ambulances and HIV/AIDS testing kits. In Eritrea, it will train 1,000 health assistants in basic emergency care. It will also pay for similar programs in Ghana, Mongolia and Bhutan.
Perhaps most significantly, half of the money will be used to fight fistula in the West African countries of Mali, Senegal, Nigeria, Benin and Malawi. One of the most devastating of all pregnancy complications, fistula has been eradicated in the West, but it continues to plague millions of women in Africa. The condition occurs when a woman suffering obstructed labor is unable to get a Cesarean section and her rectum, urinary tract and vagina are ruptured. Usually the baby dies and, if the woman survives, she is left torn and incontinent, often shunned by her husband and unable to work.
I'd encourage everyone to go read the article at Salon. And for those of you Americans who are reading this, and starting to think about who you'll vote for in the next election, and are mostly weighing Bush's performance in the wake of 9/11, I'd ask you to think about how he'd likely have governed if that tragedy had never happened.
The full article is available at Salon, though you'll need to watch an ad to get the day pass.
Apparently, however, it hasn't been forgotten by everyone. In this weekend's Salon, there's a fantastic article about two women, Jane Roberts and Lois Abraham, who have formed a group called 34 Million Friends in response to the funding cut. So far, they've raised a million dollars.
In Timor, it will be used to equip the country's only two hospitals that provide emergency obstetric care with two-way radios, train three doctors to perform Cesarean sections and buy 80 motorcycles for midwives so that they can reach rural areas. In Rwanda, it will buy ambulances and HIV/AIDS testing kits. In Eritrea, it will train 1,000 health assistants in basic emergency care. It will also pay for similar programs in Ghana, Mongolia and Bhutan.
Perhaps most significantly, half of the money will be used to fight fistula in the West African countries of Mali, Senegal, Nigeria, Benin and Malawi. One of the most devastating of all pregnancy complications, fistula has been eradicated in the West, but it continues to plague millions of women in Africa. The condition occurs when a woman suffering obstructed labor is unable to get a Cesarean section and her rectum, urinary tract and vagina are ruptured. Usually the baby dies and, if the woman survives, she is left torn and incontinent, often shunned by her husband and unable to work.
I'd encourage everyone to go read the article at Salon. And for those of you Americans who are reading this, and starting to think about who you'll vote for in the next election, and are mostly weighing Bush's performance in the wake of 9/11, I'd ask you to think about how he'd likely have governed if that tragedy had never happened.
The full article is available at Salon, though you'll need to watch an ad to get the day pass.
