SAVING WOMEN’S LIVES: AFGHAN WOMEN

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is coordinating an emergency relief campaign to provide basic hygiene and reproductive health care to more than a million Afghan refugee women this winter. The Detroit Free Press reported on October 23 that Dr. Oliver Brasseur, UNFPA staffer coordinating refugee efforts from Peshawar, Pakistan, said, "Women are arriving totally exhausted. Many are sick and hungry after four years of drought in Afghanistan and 23 years of war.” In Afghanistan, one in four children dies in the first year of life – one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world. Pam DeLargy, manager of UNFPA’s humanitarian response group, said many of the women fleeing to Iran or Pakistan arrive with infections from miscarriages. Others are victims of sexual violence and need emergency obstetric care or blood transfusions. Still others require basic hygiene or nutrients like iron to preserve their health, according to an October 23 story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. DeLargy specified, “One basic need is a home-delivery kit, containing a clean plastic sheet, a razor to cut the umbilical cord and string to tie it off.” Covered by Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Orlando Sentinel, Philadelphia Inquirer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, San Antonio Express-News and Scripps Howard News Service.

[NOTE: For the full transcript of UNFPA’s audio press briefing on its relief efforts, go to: link.]

Human Rights Watch, the largest human rights organization in the United States, published a report titled “Humanity Denied: Systematic Violations of Women's Rights in Afghanistan.” Agence France Presse reported on October 29 that Widney Brown, an author of the report, said, “US-sponsored food drops are not reaching many women because under the Taliban rule, women are not allowed in public without a male relative and many have no male relatives to help retrieve food aid.” The report also called on the Taliban to "immediately cease violations of humanitarian law," including rape and other forms of sexual assault and violations against women.

One woman working to improve Afghan women’s rights, education and health care is Faranaz Nazir of the Khwaja Bahauddin Afghan Women's Association. The Christian Science Monitor reported on October 29 that Nazir’s organization is teaching its three dozen members basic health care, English, and literacy. Nazir listed health care as one of the most pressing issues, along with the lack of education, in a nation where the overall life expectancy is just 43 years, according to the United Nations. Christian Science Monitor

Thirteen women of the U.S. Senate, led by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), put aside partisan differences and signed on to proposed legislation that would authorize the president to direct humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan’s women and children, according to an October 25 story by the Associated Press. "We felt we should make a statement on behalf of the human rights of women," Hutchison said. “Before the Taliban took control of the government, women accounted for 70 percent of the teaching work force.”

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH: EDUCATION AND ASSISTANCE

“One of the greatest challenges confronting Ghana is how to manage the high level of population growth,” said Ghana President Kufuor at the launch of “Life Choices” campaign. In an October 18 story disseminated by Africa News, USAID/Ghana Director Dr. Frank Young said, “the new campaign addresses the need for Ghanaian women and their families to manage their fertility and determine the timing and number of children they raise.” The campaign is a private/public sector partnership between the Ghana Social Marketing Foundation (GSMF), John Hopkins University Centre for Communication Programs, Ministry of Health, the National Population Council and other non-governmental organizations. USAID provided $2.2 million to launch the project. Africa News

In the face of stern Catholic Church opposition, President Alvaro Arzu of Guatemala signed into law in mid-October the country’s first official reproductive health policy. The Christian Science Monitor reported on October 26 that Zulema Paz de Rodriguez, president of the congressional women's committee that drafted the law, said, "We made the best of efforts to work with the church and incorporate their suggestions into the law, but we cannot halt something that is necessary for the nation's development." The Social Development and Population Law "would make support of reproductive health programs a policy of the state, and one that would have to be respected and continued in future administrations," said Hector Colindres, who heads the Health Ministry's reproductive health program. “The law will enable congress to assign funds specifically for the program, which currently subsists largely on ever-dwindling foreign aid.” In news about U.S. reproductive health assistance, the Senate passed a bill (HR 2506) providing $40 million to UNFPA, according to The Washington Post’s October 28 “Roll Call.” It was an increase of $15 million from last year’s $25 million allotment. Christian Science Monitor; The Washington Post

As part of World Population awareness Week Oct. 21-27, Werner Fornos, president of the Washington DC-based Population Institute, spoke at the University of Wisconsin to urge family planning in developing countries. “The best way to guard against uncontrolled growth of the world's population is to educate women and make them more employable,” he said, according to an October 26 story by The Capital Times (Madison, WI). “Smarter women are more likely to want to work and have smaller families,” Fornos added. “The desert is growing in Africa as the population increases. Eight hundred million people live on the continent now; in 25 years, two billion are expected to live there. The devastation in that continent will go unabated unless they can find the means to slow their population growth."

POPULATION AND POVERTY

According to Dr. Stella Goings, representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), "Poverty is why some 11 million children die every year before their fifth birthday of preventable causes like measles, acute respiratory infections and tuberculosis." In an October 18 story by Africa News, Goings said education for girls was a vital weapon for tackling poverty, as it equips them with skills and confidence to avoid being trapped in child abuse. According to an October 29 story disseminated by Africa News, the European Union has given Tanzania an $84.6 million grant to support efforts to combat poverty, as half its 32 million people live below the poverty line on $0.65 a day, while another 12.5 million live in abject poverty on less than $0.50 a day. With the support of bilateral and multilateral donors, Tanzania aims to combat poverty by accelerating economic growth rates and allocating more funds to education, water supply, health and preventing HIV/AIDS. Africa News: UNICEF; Africa News: Tanzania

POPULATIONS AFFECTED BY FOOD SHORTAGES

In continuing coverage of food shortages, countries such as Uganda, Zimbabwe and Somalia have taken a hard hit.The president the Uganda National Farmers Association revealed at World Rural Women’s Day that six million people do not have access to sufficient food, according to an October 17 story disseminated by Africa News. At the event, Janet Museveni, first lady of Uganda, urged the government to reduce maternal deaths as one way to ensure food security. Agence France Presse reported on October 18 that several factors--including a devastating cyclone in early 2000, a January drought, and war--caused about one-fifth of Zimbabwe’s population or 12.5 million people to request food relief. In Somalia, 40,000 tons of food are urgently needed to feed some 300,000 people at risk of immediate starvation after seasonal rains failed to materialize, according to an October 24 section of World Scene in The Washington Times. In Korea, aid from the World Food Program (WFP) now reaches about 7.6 million people affected by starvation and malnutrition, or about one-third of the population, according to an October 20 story by Agence France Presse. It said WFP has provided aid to North Korea for the past six years, and government officials estimate that one million tons of food will be needed next year despite outside support. Africa News; The Washington Times

OPINIONS AND EDITORIALS

“If we are truly to rise from the ashes of the World Trade Center, we have to take our sense of community to a new level,” wrote Nafis Sadik, former Executive Director of UNFPA in an October 24 op ed in The Pioneer Press (St. Paul, MN). “We must find ways to forge that wonderful impulse, that great surge of feeling into a real and lasting coming together of all nations and all cultures. And in this global community we must create the means to save and support each other, even people we have never met and never will meet, whose languages we do not speak, whose cultures we do not share.” The Pioneer Press

The world is mobilizing its resources to provide relief to the millions who are fleeing conflict in Afghanistan, especially as winter arrives. Tents, food, medicines and water are being readied. However, “women's reproductive health needs are often overlooked,” wrote Abubakar Dungus, spokesman for UNFPA, in an October 21 op ed in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Of the 7 million refugees seeking safety within Afghanistan, more than 300,000 are pregnant women, with 50,000 at high risk. Judy Mann stressed the need for UNFPA’s emergency reproductive health campaign in her October 22 column in The Washington Post. “The health and well-being of Afghan women will be crucial to any effort to rebuild a country that has had four years of drought and 23 years of war. For many, the return to health will begin in refugee camps where the special health needs of women and girls will get the attention they so desperately need.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer; The Washington Post

“The ravages of poverty and hunger in much of the developing world threaten social and political stability and provide a fertile field for those who seek to generate and exploit anti-Western hostility,” warned food security expert Michael Taylor of Resources for the Future in an October 18 op ed in The Christian Science Monitor. Taylor advised the administration to review its game plan for fighting hunger, commit resources to help cut global hunger in half by 2015, and give food security greater political priority. He concluded, “With these changes, the US can fulfill its promise in the fight against hunger and help people who are less fortunate than we are, but whose futures are inextricably intertwined with ours.” The Christian Science Monitor

In an opinion piece in Science on October 19, Richard P. Cincotta of Population Action International and Barbara B. Crane of Ipas emphasized their “hope that President Bush, in pursuing his goal to ‘find common ground to reduce the number of abortions,’ is serious about continuing to support what public health experts conclude are the only strategies proven effective in reducing the demand for abortion: improving couples’ access to family planning services and expanding educational and communications efforts that inform adults and adolescents about reproductive risks, responsibilities, and contraceptive choice.” Science

The Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL), ran an October 16 op ed by Gloria Feldt, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), that marked the 85th anniversary of the opening of the first family planning clinic in the United States by Margaret Sanger, founder of PPFA. Feldt quoted Sanger’s dream: “No woman can call herself free until she can own and control her own body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not become a mother." Feldt also called on those who want their daughters and granddaughters to have reproductive choices: “We need to elevate women's reproductive rights to their deserved place among other cherished fundamental civil and human rights, and then help create universal access to reproductive health services and education.”

The above analysis was written by Elena M. H. Cabatu and Kathy Bonk at the Communications Consortium Media Center, 1200 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20005, 202/326-8700.

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