UNITED
NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / Jane
Roberts is a regular contributor to MaximsNews Network
and is the cofounder of 34
Million Friends of the United Nations Population Fund which since 2002 --
when the Bush Administration refused to release $34 million -- has been
asking 34 million Americans to contribute at least one dollar to UNFPA.
In
2003 she was one of the Women of the Year for MS Magazine, in 2004 one of the
21 Leaders of the 21st Century for Women's eNews and in 2005, was nominated
for the Nobel Peace Prize with the 1000 Peace Women Project under the auspices
of UNESCO in Bern, Switzerland.
Her
book "34 Million Friends of the Women of the World" was published in
2005. She travels around the US talking about reproductive health, population
and development issues. She is a retired French teacher from California.
34
MILLION FRIENDS OF UNITED NATIONS POPULATION FUND: UNFPA: JANE ROBERTS YOUTUBE
VIDEO: 13/09/2008 (MaximsNewsNetwork)
UNITED
NATIONS - / MaximsNewsNetwork / 13
September 2008 -- On July 22, 2002 the Bush
Administration in the person of then Secretary of State Colin Powell announced
that it was not going to release the $34 million Congress had approved for the
United Nations Population Fund.
The excuse was that
UNFPA was complicit in China’s coercive policies. No other country has ever
faulted UNFPA’s small program in China. Powell’s investigative team came
back from China recommending that the funds be released.
Powell, who had testified that UNFPA did
invaluable work in the world, should have resigned on the spot.
At 3:00 am
on July 23, I lay awake, anger simmering in my brain.
Right there
and then I decided to ask 34 million Americans for one dollar.
Lois Abraham
had exactly the same idea.
Over six
years later, 34 Million Friends is alive and well.
Unfortunately
we are no where close to $34 million but a significant amount of money with more
coming in every week, is sending a positive message to the world from the
American people.
Gender
inequality is at the root of many of the world’s ills. The first of the
Millennium Development Goals seeks to cut in half the numbers of people living
in extreme poverty.
Two-thirds
of these people are women.
Two-thirds
of the illiterate people on the planet today are women and girls. Educated women
marry later, have fewer children, educate them and keep them healthy.Women’s equality is a win-win.
Maternal
mortality and morbidity are not falling. Over 500,000 women die in childbirth
every year.
At
the Women Deliver world conference in London last October, a conference whose
purpose was to ask for action on maternal deaths, I heard Dr. Grace Kodindo
recount her struggles in a clinic in Chad. You can read what I wrote at www.34millionfriends.org.
At
first the United States was listed as a co-sponsor of Women Deliver but dropped
its sponsorship when UNFPA took a prominent role.
The
United States likes to make the world believe that UNFPA supports abortion.
UNFPA which does no abortions but which offers the family planning which
prevents abortions is to my mind the most pro-life of all agencies.
Incidentally
Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Great Britain announced a 100 million pound gift
to UNFPA over 5 years, much of the money to go to family planning commodities of
which there is a worldwide shortage. This British endorsement of UNFPA should
tell the American people something.
Most
people have no idea of how many women resort to abortion.There
are approximately 200 million pregnancies every year. Twenty percent of these
end in abortion, i.e. 40 million.
Of
these, at least half are illegal, unsafe, causing 68,000 maternal deaths and
over 5 million injuries and infections. UNFPA states that $34 million would
prevent 800,000 abortions. The world must do better by its women.
We
need 34 million good hearted Americans who will join 34 Million Friends.
We
need an Administration which respects and supports women. Frankly, we haven’t
had one for 8 years. We need an Administration which will join 180 other
countries in supporting the humanitarian work of the United Nations Population
Fund. We need change.
MaximsNews
Network
NEWS NETWORK FOR THE
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
MaximsNews
Network
is a Global News Network
that is read worldwide, in 201 countries and territories. MaximsNews Network is associated with MediaChannel.org and Globalvision News Network, global news and media information services with more than 350 news affiliates in 135 countries.
Established in 1999, MaximsNews Network now publishes in
the six UN working languages: English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and
Spanish.
