U.S. FUNDING FOR THE U.N. POPULATION FUND

President Bush has not yet made a decision on U.S. funding for U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA). The Washington Times reported February 1 that a bipartisan group of 126 House lawmakers had sent a letter to the president on Jan. 30, defending UNFPA and urging him to release the funding. The Feb. 1 story was a follow-up to the Times’ January 29 story about a push by conservative Republican Reps. Christopher H. Smith of New Jersey, Mike Pence of Indiana and Joseph R. Pitts of Pennsylvania that asked fellow House members to join in a letter urging the president to withhold the funds.

According to the February 3 The Sunday Telegraph (London), Beijing is furious with Mr. Bush for listening to reports of abuses of China’s one-child policy. China's foreign ministry told The Sunday Telegraph that the United States had not made the "correct choice." "The allegation by some American congressmen on UNFPA's support for China's forced abortion and sterilization operations is totally groundless," said a spokesman. The Boston Globe reported February 4 that the $34 million on hold for UNFPA is a source of concern for the government of Afghanistan’s interim leader Hamid Karzai, because $600,000 of that money is slated for Afghan women refugees. “It's outrageous that Afghan women should be punished,” said Adrienne Germain of the International Women's Health Coalition. “This is hamstringing an agency that could make a difference.” UNFPA would like to start investing $5 million to refurbish Afghanistan’s maternity hospitals and retrain the staff in hope of driving down the mortality rate. Read in: The Washington Times: Feb. 1 and Jan. 29, The Sunday Telegraph, The Boston Globe, Newsweek

The Washington Post’s February 8 In the Loop column by Al Kamen noted, “Odd things seem to be happening” when UNFPA supporters call the White House comment line. Callers who wanted to urge Bush to release the UNFPA funds report that “the operator or operators have argued with them rather than taking notes.” Kamen concluded, “Opponents of the family planning funding boast that calls to the White House are running 4 to 1 against funding. You wonder who's counting.” Read in: The Washington Post

[NOTE: See how Bush’s fiscal year 2003 budget affects UNFPA in PLANetWIRE’s latest feature story, at: Bush FY’2003 Budget Guts International Family Planning Funds.]

SAVING WOMEN’S LIVES

The Afghanistan Conflict

In Afghanistan, maternity health care is rudimentary at best and non-existent at worst. Reuters reported January 31 that some 200 patients go daily to Malalai, Kabul’s only maternity hospital, for treatment, and between 40 and 80 babies are delivered. “We still don’t have an ultrasound machine, and anesthetic and other medicine for pregnant women are still lacking,” said Dr. Fahima Sikandari Khalid, head of Malalai. WHO said rural areas have the poorest health care, citing a case where a baby’s head was cut off when the head remained blocked in the mother’s abdomen. “The mother was living in the Hindu Kush, and traveled for three days to get to Jalalabad, and was operated on to remove the head from inside her,” a WHO official told the United Nations information network IRIN. Read in: Reuters

Natural Disasters

In Goma, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, UNFPA has sent more than five tons of emergency reproductive health commodities to meet the health needs of thousands of people displaced by a volcanic eruption last month, according to a February 4 story by China-based Xinhua General News Service. Supplies for an estimated 300,000 people include kits for basic personal hygiene, and equipment and drugs for safe delivery and post-partum care.

FOREIGN AID AND GLOBAL HEALTH

The February 4 Newsweek cover story featured Bill and Melinda Gates’ goal of bridging the yawning human health gap between rich and poor countries. Their foundation seeks to cut maternal mortality in poor countries, where women die during pregnancy and childbirth at rates up to 200 times those in the United States; to expand access to traditional childhood vaccines in 74 countries; to speed introduction of new vaccines in the developing world (high prices normally keep them out until patents expire), and to develop effective vaccines against AIDS and malaria, which together kill 4 million people a year. In an interview with Newsweek, Melinda Gates said: “During the next decade I'm hopeful that an effective microbicide will be produced and inexpensively delivered to put the power of stopping AIDS into the hands of women.“ Read in: Newsweek: Bill’s Biggest Bet Yet and 'I Told a Friend: Africa Changed Me’

On a panel at the World Economic Forum, Gates warned that the United States must increase foreign aid because private donors, such as his $24-billion Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, cannot meet the health needs of impoverished countries. According to a February 3 story by Newsday, Gates said, "If the U.S. doesn't do it, it is not going to happen.” He said the United States was “the laggard" in international fundraising efforts to reduce the 4 million annual deaths in poor countries caused by diseases preventable by vaccination or medication. He also said voters in the United States and other developed nations should pressure politicians to dramatically increase the amount of money spent on public health, according to a February 3 story in The Washington Post. Read in: Newsday, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times

On January 31, The Washington Post reported that the World Health Organization and several United Nations agencies seek a major new push against malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS -- three infections that killed 5.7 million people last year and accounted for about one-tenth of the world's deaths. In a report released Feb. 9, the agencies said deaths from tuberculosis and malaria could be cut by half and deaths from AIDS by one-quarter by 2010. The major obstacles, the authors say, are insufficient will and money. The cost of "going global" is about $12 billion a year, more than what is now being spent by rich countries and charitable organizations together in health care in poor countries. Read in: The Washington Post

THE WELFARE OF YOUTH

The World’s Young People

On February 1, the Financial Times (London) ran a comprehensive look at the world’s young people. “Time to press on with youth development: With about 60 per cent of the world's population below the age of 25, it is imperative to invest in their long-term future,” it said. Nemat Shafik, Vice-President of the World Bank for private sector development, infrastructure and guarantees, said, "Young people are potentially the most productive workers, with 40 to 50 years of working life to come. If you neglect that age group, you increase not only poverty but the chances of political instability and crime." Don Mohanlal, Executive Vice-President of the Baltimore-based International Youth Foundation, said: "You cannot isolate young people from the society which produces them. You cannot expect children who have grown up in a refugee camp in Gaza to become peaceful democratic citizens. What society does to young people, young people do to society." Read in: Financial Times: Time to press on, Long-term global strategy

In Afghanistan

In an extraordinary act of desperation, some Afghan parents say they have sold their children for about the price of a restaurant meal in the West. According to a February 8 story by the Associated Press, poor Afghan families have historically sent children to live temporarily with better-off relatives. But now that system may be eroding because of the twin hardships of warfare and drought. A pushcart porter and his wife said they sold their 4-day-old son eight months ago for about $30 to neighbors because they couldn't afford the medicine to treat the mother's postnatal bleeding and other complications. ''We used to go see the boy, but the family now has told us to stay away,” said the mother. “The money was soon gone. I am still sick, and our child is gone forever.” This tragedy results in part from what the International Red Cross describes as "shocking poverty" in remote valleys in western Afghanistan, areas bypassed by aid for years, according to a February 8 story by Agence France Presse. During a 14-day mission, John Watt, Operations Manager at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said, "We saw children digging in the fields for roots to eat and use as firewood. Leaves from the trees were also being eaten." Read in: The Associated Press

In a bid to help rebuild Afghanistan's education system from the devastation of Taliban rule, the U.N. Children's Fund is mounting a campaign to provide and equip schools and get children back to class. The Associated Press reported on February 5 that in preparation for the March 21 start of the new school year, UNICEF has purchased 9,400 "school in a box" kits of basic materials for teachers and about 80 children, spokeswoman Lynn Geldof said. Where no school building exists, UNICEF has ordered 500 school tents and 1,000 toilets. Other orders include 750,000 school bags. Geldof said Afghan educators and the British Broadcasting Corp. will run radio spots giving information on school openings and asking parents to enroll their children.

In Ethiopia

A 12 year-old girl is the new face of a UNICEF-sponsored campaign called, “Say Yes for Children.” A February 4 story by Africa News reported that Leah Abebe said, "We require care and support in order to become educated adults...Yet, in our surroundings, we witness children being insulted, beaten, and abused. There are also many orphans who spend their nights on the street. It is us, the children of today, who will become the teachers, doctors, engineers, judges, and national leaders of tomorrow." So far more than 50,000 pledges have been collected from schoolchildren in Ethiopia. They will join millions collected internationally for presentation to the UN's Special Session on Children in May. Read in: Africa News

In South Africa

A popular myth in this AIDS-ravaged country, where most infected people die without hope of treatment, is that a cure lies in sex with a virgin. Some experts say the belief accounts in part for a surge in reported rapes of children and infants. The New York Times reported January 29 that South Africa has long had one of the world’s highest per capita rates of rape and sexual assault, according to Interpol, part of a burst of violent crime that has accompanied worsening unemployment and the AIDS epidemic. More people have AIDS here than in any other country. "We are getting more and more [rapes] from the younger group, infants and toddlers," said Thoko Majokweni, South Africa's special director for the prosecution of sexual offenses. "We are appalled. What kind of society is this indicative of?" Read in: The New York Times

HIV/AIDS

On January 30, ABCNews.com featured a commentary that criticized Bush’s State of the Union address for failing to mention HIV/AIDS. It said the combination of U.S. financial neglect and Bush’s hesitation to fund overseas family planning threaten the fight against AIDS. In KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Lionel Mtshali, who runs the provincial government, shipped out a press release last week and the political establishment shook, according to a February 5 story by The New York Times. Mtshali said he would defy the national government and distribute lifesaving drugs to every pregnant woman infected with HIV/AIDS in his province in an effort to save their newborn babies. Mtshali, 66, quickly became the most prominent figure in a widening campaign to challenge the government policy of restricting distribution of AIDS drugs in public clinics and hospitals. Earlier, on January 31, the Associated Press reported that the Treatment of Action Campaign asked the Pretoria High Court to enforce a ruling that infected pregnant women must have access to the AIDS medicine nevirapine. Read in: ABCNews.com, The New York Times

In Kenya, UNFPA reported that about 20 percent of young people age 15 to 19 have been infected by HIV/AIDS – the majority secondary school students, particularly girls. A February 1 story disseminated by Africa News reported that Country Director Dr. Wangui Njau blamed health providers' negative attitude toward youth in Kenya for the rapid spread of the scourge. She said youth-friendly services are lacking and that young people seeking reproductive health services are stigmatized rather than helped. Read in: Africa News

OPINIONS AND EDITORIALS

Editorials and opinion pieces continued to run on President Bush’s hesitation over funding UNFPA. The February 5 The Pocono Record (Stroudsburg, PA) described UNFPA’s "Safe Delivery Kit" that aids pregnant women facing a delivery, often in remote locations with little or no access to professional medical care. The kit contains a bar of soap, a disposable razor, a surgical blade to cut the umbilical cord, umbilical string to tie the cord, 12 rolls of gauze bandage and a large plastic sheet, possibly the only clean surface available for the mother-to-be to deliver her baby. In its February 5 editorial, The Charleston Gazette (WV) concluded, “Decency requires that the White House release this much-needed funding for a humanitarian cause.” Read the latest editorials in: Pocono Record (Stroudsburg, PA), San Jose Mercury News, The Toledo Blade (OH), Atlanta Journal and Constitution (GA), Boston Globe, Star Tribune (MN)

See the latest columns on U.S. funding for UNFPA in: Boston Globe, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Toronto Star.

See the latest letters on U.S. funding for UNFPA by: Sarah Clark of the Packard Foundation, in the February 2 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle; and Werner Fornos of the Population Insitute, in the January 31 issue of The Washington Times.

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.

If you would like your name to be added to their email service, please e-mail your request to popmedia@ccmc.org.