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Friday, May 02, 2003

By Sally Kalson, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

When the Bush administration refused in July to release $34 million appropriated by Congress for the United Nations Population Fund, two American women who'd never heard of each other came up with the same response. They'd start a grass-roots campaign to replace the money by getting 34 million people to contribute $1 apiece.

Independently, Jane Roberts, 61, a retired teacher from California, and Lois Abraham, 68, a lawyer from New Mexico, began to e-mail friends with their idea. Soon they learned of each other's efforts and the "34 Million Friends of UNFPA" campaign was born.

Now the campaign has reached its $1 million mark, with contributions from 100,000 donors across the country. Donors gave anywhere from $1 to $25,000 each; the top 10 states for donations were California, Minnesota, New York, Washington, Massachusetts, Oregon, Colorado, Texas, Florida and Illinois. About 200 letters with contributions continue to arrive daily.

"Even though our government has chosen not to participate, we the people are participating," Roberts said yesterday.

The money is already at work, said Thoraya Obaid, executive director of the population fund. Contributions are going to about a dozen countries in Asia and Africa to make pregnancy and childbirth safer, reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS, equip hospitals with essential supplies and prevent and treat obstetric fistula, a debilitating condition that results from obstructed labor during childbirth.

The campaign's co-founders are so heartened by the results, they'll be going to Belgium soon for a pitch to the European Union.

The U.N. program works in 140 countries providing reproductive health care and education for the world's poorest women. It sets up maternal and child health clinics, trains medical personnel in emergency obstetrics, and provides medicines and family planning counseling in cities, refugee camps and rural villages.

None of the fund's programs includes abortion procedures, counseling or referral. But conservative Republicans object to the organization's presence in China, charging that the Chinese government coerces women into ending pregnancies against their will.

Obaid said that because of the accusations, no U.S. money was going to China anyway, even though almost a fourth of the planet's women live there.

"We are in China to demonstrate that when women have access to a wide range of voluntary family planning services, you don't need coercive policies," she said, adding that reducing unwanted pregnancies also reduces abortions.

Abraham, the campaign's co-founder, called yesterday's $1 million achievement "joyous" and said the fund raising would be ongoing.

"We still have a $34 million goal," she said. "We're going to ask people to earmark a donation every year."

Campaign details are available online at: www.planetwire.org.

Correction/Clarification (Published May 3, 2003): A story in May 2, 2003 editions about a national campaign to raise $34 million for the United Nations Population Fund indicated the $1 million raised so far had come from only 10 states, which were listed in the story. While those states were the top-10 in terms of donations, contributions have come from states across the country.