June 3, 2005

CARRY THE VISION

The power of a dollar
Grass roots support makes a difference

By Donna H. Eliason
Staff Writer

Editor’s note: This article is one of an ongoing series of “Carry the Vision” Community Conference stories focusing on how to build a culture of peace in our families, our communities and our world.

Most people who disagree with some aspect of our government’s policies don’t become involved. Retired University of Redlands French professor and high school teacher Jane Roberts is an exception.

Jane Roberts is on a mission to raise the $34 million that Congress had passed to give—but President Bush refused to release—for the United Nations Populations Agency in 2002.

When she head that President Bush refused to release $34 million that Congress had passed for the United Nations Populations Agency in 2002, she was not only upset, she took action.

“A letter to the editor or to my congressman wouldn’t be enough. I’ll get 34 million people to donate $l each,” thought Roberts. Unbeknownst to Roberts at the time, Lois Abraham—a Taos, N. M., lawyer—had similar concerns.

Together they formed the 34 Million Friends of UNFPA, designed to raise the needed funds. Roberts feels each donated dollar makes a big difference, since it takes so little to help developing countries.

As a mother, she has supported women’s equality, health, education and rights for many years. Roberts’ views are similar to UNFPA’s goals, which are to help families avoid unwanted pregnancies, provide pregnancy and childbirth safety and educate people about sexually transmitted infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS.

Combating violence against women and promoting gender equity are additional goals. UNFPA’s educational programs discourage early marriage and female genital mutilation.

Roberts started her financial campaign by contacting her tennis friends, book group members, the League of Women Voters, the American Association of University Women and the National Council of Women’s Organi-zations.

Other organizations, such as the Sierra Club, and various senators also endorsed the project. Roberts has spoken at 35 colleges and universities and been featured in newspaper and magazine articles. One of her poems about UNFPA is even the basis of a song by Odetta.

Through May 22, she had raised $2,603,219 in gifts and pledges. “I’d much rather take 1,000 one-dollar bills from a thousand different people than from a single $1,000 donation. However, I’d still take the $1,000 check,” said Roberts.

Overwhelming needs
The grim statistics reveal the staggering female needs in more than 140 developing countries involved with UNFPA.

“Too often little girls aren’t appreciated, starting with their birth,” noted Roberts. “Little girls deserve as much food, health and education as little boys. Women’s welfare and health should be the top priority, because when the world takes care of women, women take care of the world. When you think that 500,000 women die yearly from pregnancy related issues, something is wrong.”

Lois Abraham and Jane Roberts with the 34 Million Friends’ Action Kits. (Photo courtesy of UNFPA)

Being fluent in French, Roberts chose to visit Senegal in 2003 to see UNFPA at work. Senegal has a high birth rate as well as a high maternal and infant mortality. A highlight for Roberts was seeing a woman in labor riding in a donkey cart driven by a young boy to the UNFPA center six miles away. The woman wanted a safe place to deliver her baby.

The doctor with Roberts drove the woman by truck to the center. This experience emphasized the importance of providing care in a country where “few women receive pre- or post natal care and few have trained health attendants.”

UNFPA trains community health care workers to work in remote villages. After completing their classes, they return home and become the area’s health care providers. In East Timor, UNFPA purchases motorcycles for midwives to reach women in rural areas. For $l.25 each, the organization also purchases millions of Safe Birth Kits consisting of a sterilized plastic sheet, a bar of soap, a razor blade to cut the umbilical cord and a string to tie the cord.

Childbirth is a terrifying thought for many in the third world. A Chad expression says, “A woman who is pregnant has one foot in the grave.” UNFPA tries to reduce that threat.

Part of the raised money will help the problem of obstetric fistula, which affects 50,000 to l00,000 women worldwide. Because of malnutrition, the baby’s position in the uterus or the mother’s small size, the baby’s delivery is obstructed.
If the baby’s head rips a hole in the bladder or rectum, the mother may be in labor for days but the baby dies.

Because of the rip the mother can’t control her body discharges. Often this results in the husband and family deserting the mother. Inexpensive surgery is possible, but often unavailable, to these women.

Population growth is another UNFPA concern. There are now 6.5 billion people in the world. At least one-fifth of these people are between l0 and l9 years old. Serious scholars wonder about meeting the physical needs of the booming population explosion ahead. One of UNFPA’s goals is to help women prevent unwanted pregnancies.

People respond
Thousands of people have given to the 34 Million Friends of the United Nations Population Fund. At the peace conference held in Evergreen recently, one person said, “Thank you for making a fabulous initiative to right a horrific wrong in the funding allotments of our country. Here’s my birthday money from my grandma. I can’t think of a better way to spend it.”

“My husband and I just had our first daughter last week. It was the most wonderful experience of our lives,” said another attendee. “I hope some day all women throughout the world will have access to hospital care and medicine so their experience will be nothing less than ours. Thank you for caring enough for this cause. God bless you and your work and the women and children who will benefit from the kindness.”

Jane Roberts meets a young woman and her one-hour-old baby boy in Senegal. (Photo courtesy of UNFPA)

A third person commented, “I am still unemployed, but I think my contribution to a good cause helps me to care about something larger than myself. I hope to keep sending a dollar each month. Please keep up the good work. Individual Americans can change the way the world feels about it [our country].

“There are many important causes, but yours is surely a significant one, and I appreciate you doing it ‘dollar by dollar.’ Here’s mine,” he added.

Even though the government isn’t involved, the American people are reaching out to the world saying, “We care,” says Roberts. “May all the world’s girls, women and mothers have access to love, food, education, health care and a full range of choices.”

Her associate Abraham says, “The best Mother’s Day present for the planet is that its inhabitants would give all the mothers a voice in shaping the world they will leave to their children.”

Tax-deductible contributions can be mailed to The U.S. Committee for UNFPA Processing Center, 34 Million Friends of UNFPA, P.O. Box 68l, Toms River, NJ, 08754-9922.

For more information, go to the Web site: www.34millionfriends.org or e-mail UNFPA at info@34millionfriends.org.
Jane Roberts meets a young woman and her one-hour-old baby boy in Senegal. (Photo courtesy of UNFPA)