UNFPA IN THE NEWS - WEEK OF MAY 3-9, 2003

BANGLADESH: UNFPA Donates Ambulances

The Independent reported May 6 that the United Nations Population Fund has donated three ambulances at a cost of Tk 1.50 crore to the three 50-bed maternity hospitals situated at North Kattali, South Halishahar and Badertilla.

BANGLADESH: Adolescent Girls Encouraged Safe Reproductive Health

Speakers at a workshop stressed the need for making the adolescent girls aware about maintaining safe reproductive health through 'peer education and personal social education,' according to a May 5 story by The Independent. The day-long workshop reviewed the draft curriculum of 'Adolescent Reproductive Health (ARH)' prepared by the UNFPA-assisted project on ARH being implemented by the Department of Youth Development, Ministry of Youth and Sports. Deputy Representative of UNFPA Janet E. Jackson was the special guest. Jackson said there has been little improvement regarding young girls getting married. She said, "There is a fantastic opportunity to reach young girls through the project."

EUROPEAN UNION: EC Funds Youth Sexual Awareness Grant in South East Asia

The European Report reported May 7 that the European Commission has cleared a Euro 18.54 million grant to improve awareness among young people in seven South-East Asian nations about sexually-transmitted diseases. The aid - for Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam - will be part of a wider UNFPA program costing a total of Euro 22.4 million, with non-governmental organizations provided some 8% of the total financing.

INDONESIA: UNAIDS Executive Director Visits Indonesia

Antara, the Indonesian National News Agency, reported May 7 that the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Dr. Peter Piot, will pay an official three-day visit to Indonesia from 7 to 10 May, according to a press release from the UN Information Center. The visit is aimed to acknowledge the country's move in implementing the Declaration of Commitment, adopted unanimously at the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS in June 2001. The story also noted UNAIDS is the leading advocate for worldwide action against HIV/AIDS, bringing together eight UN organizations UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and The World Bank.

PAKISTAN: Population Welfare Ministry Fails to Slow Population Growth

The Pakistan Newswire reported May 4 that the Population Welfare Ministry (PWM) has failed to evolve any mechanism to check population heading toward 282.4 million with the galloping growth rate of 3.9 percent by 2020, according to a report by UNFPA. It found that there were barely 32 million meek souls in 1974, but the country now was about to cross the 150 million figures. "In General Ayub era, family planning department made relentless efforts, but the program could not take off. Anyhow the urban areas reluctantly accepted the program with a pinch of salt, while rural areas drenched in orthodox mentality under the influence of illiterate cleric opposed it tooth and nail," the report said.

PAKISTAN: UNFPA Deputy Representative Meets Chief Secretary

According to a May 6 story by Pakistan Newswire, Deputy Representative UNFPA for Pakistan Karl Kulessa met Chief Secretary K.B. Rind to exchange views about the cooperation of Sindh Government for UNFPA projects in Sindh. He stressed for cooperation and guidance for improving efficiency of mobile service units and welfare centers functioning under Country Projects-6 in Thatta and Jacobabad districts.

SOUTH PACIFIC: Safe Games Campaign Launched

The Pacific News Agency reported May 5 that Fiji's Minister for Health, Solomone Naivalu will launch the Safe Games campaign in the capital, Suva. The Safe Games Campaign is a joint initiative between the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, the Ministry of Health and the South Pacific Games Planning and Organizing Committee. The story mentioned that local and regional partners also include the AIDS Task Force of Fiji, Marie Stopes International Fiji, Fiji Red Cross, Reproductive and Family Health Association of Fiji, the Pacific Islands AIDS Foundation, Forum Secretariat, UNDP, UNICEF and UNFPA. The goal of the campaign is to increase knowledge and awareness about the risks and dangers of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted illnesses among the general public including athletes participating at the XII South Pacific Games from 28 June to 12 July this year.

TAJIKISTAN: Reproductive Center for Youth Opens

Reproductive Center for Youth has opened in Khujand, the capital of the Tajik northern Sughd Province, according to a May 7 story by Asia Plus Information Agency. As Dilorom Haidarova, Deputy Head of the "Gender and Development" Public Association, said in her interview with Asia-Plus the Center opened within the joint project of the Youth Committee under the Government of Tajikistan and UNFPA office in Tajikistan. "The objective of opening the center is to disseminate among youth information about harm of early marriages and marriages between near relations, as well as about reproductive health," said Dilorom Haidarova.

TURKEY: Earthquake Disaster Aid Meeting

UN News Centre reported May 6 that the United Nations convened a donor meeting in Ankara, Turkey, today to assess the latest situation in Bingol and surrounding communities hit by an earthquake last week, killing more than 175 people and injuring over 520. The story mentioned that 3 trauma kits, for 100 persons each, have been received from the WHO; 10 emergency rubber halls and 1,000 mattresses from UNHCR; and 48 reproductive health kits covering the needs of 60,000 people for three month from UNFPA. Read: UN News Centre

UNITED STATES: 34 Million Friends of UNFPA Campaign Reaches $1 Million, Expands Operations to Belgium

Coverage on the 34 Million Friends of UNFPA Campaign continued. The Associated Press' May 9 story noted, "When Lois Abraham and Jane Roberts launched a campaign to raise $34 million for the United Nations population agency, they had little idea their cause would go worldwide." Nine days ago, funds from U.S. donors surpassed the US$1 million mark. Now the pair has joined with European and U.S. celebrities to launch a European fund-raising campaign for the agency this week, reported AP. Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported May 7 that Abraham and Roberts were joined by Linda Gray - best known for her role as Sue Ellen Ewing on the 1980s American soap opera "Dallas" - for the launch of their grassroots e-mail campaign in Brussels.

In her May 3 column, Kate Nelson of The Albuquerque Tribune (NM) noted: " Eighty motorbikes are on their way to midwives in the former East Timor. Rwanda is set to get ambulances and HIV tests. About 1,000 Eritreans will receive training in basic obstetrics. Mongolian men, women and teenagers will learn about contraceptives. And women in six Third World countries will be salvaged from pregnancy-related disabilities, thanks to new skills and equipment for doctors and clinics." Nelson posed the question, "Your tax dollars at work?" answering, "No. It should be your tax dollars at work, but instead it's your donations at work. Your $1 donations."

Laura Billings' May 4 column in The Pioneer Press on the 34 Million Friends of UNFPA Campaign urged, "The mom on your shopping list might deserve the diamond tennis bracelet, but chances are she would be just as moved by a contribution to help women across the world survive the passage to motherhood safely, and with dignity." The Charleston Gazette voiced its opinion in a May 8 editorial: "The White House has been eager to spend hundreds of billions for war, and to give trillions in tax cuts to the affluent. It is shameful that the administration halted a small donation that could have saved thousands of foreign lives. But the volunteer action by 100,000 concerned Americans shows that compassion still is strong in this nation. We hope the number of givers keeps climbing." Read: Albuquerque Tribune (NM), Pioneer Press MN), Charleston Gazette (WV), Indianapolis Star (IN), Philadelphia Inquirer (PA), Women's Enews, Daily Barometer (Oregon State University), and European Voice (subscription required)

UNITED STATES: U.S. Funding for UNFPA

The San Francisco Chronicle (CA) reported May 8 that House International Relations Committee narrowly voted to restore U.S. birth control funding for the United Nations Population Fund, which was stopped by President Bush in 2001 amid accusations that the U.N. agency was involved in forced abortions and coerced sterilizations in China. The Chronicle noted that the passage by a 23-22 vote in the House International Relations Committee of the measure co-sponsored by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, sets up another bitter debate on the House floor over international birth control and abortion policy. "These are vital lifesaving funds," Lee said in joining co-sponsor Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., in seeking $100 million over two years for the U.N. agency, which operates across the developing world. Read: San Francisco Chronicle

"At times, President Bush is capable of repudiating the GOP extremists who are willing to sacrifice lives to their abstinence-and-monogamy-only agenda," noted Atlanta Journal and Constitution's (GA) May 9 editorial on the House International Relations Committee vote in favor of funding for UNFPA. AJC advised, "In selling his AIDS package, Bush warned that many people would die and many children would be left orphans if the United States didn't take immediate action. Yet he detains family planning funds that doctors said would have prevented 4,700 maternal deaths, 800,000 induced abortions and 60,000 serious maternal illnesses this year. Those mothers and children need help, too." Read: Atlanta Journal and Constitution

UNITED STATES: Conservatives Oppose U.S. Funding for UNFPA

According to a May 9 story by conservative news service, CNSNews.com, " Critics of the U.N. Population Fund are assailing the House committee passage of an amendment that would restore funding to the beleaguered agency and reverse a Bush administration decision to withhold nearly $70 million over the past two years. Conservatives say the U.N. Population Fund condones forced abortion and sterilization in China and elsewhere." U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), chairman of the House Pro-Life Caucus, said of the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, "It is despicable to me that proponents of this amendment are so extreme in their support for UNFPA that they are trying to weaken 17-year-old human rights law. Instead of lowering the bar on human rights, they should be trying to get the UNFPA to increase its efforts to meet fundamental human rights standards." Read: CNSNews.com

In a May 9 op ed that ran in The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Stephen Moore, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank, claimed, "For at least 30 years, the United Nations Population Fund has been a complicit partner in some of the most unspeakably brutal population control programs around the globe - including China's genocidal one-couple, one-child policy. Almost universally, women and children - at least hundreds of thousands of them - have been the victims of this fanatical crusade." Moore urged, "The UNFPA should not be re-funded. It should be universally condemned for the evil acts in which it has participated." Read: Atlanta Journal and Constitution

UNITED STATES AND CHINA: Population Institute Defends Its Support for UNFPA Werner Fornos, President of Population Institute, wrote a May 3 letter, " Setting the Record Straight," in The Washington Times that said, "I have never opposed President Bush's withholding of funds to support abortion, but I vehemently oppose his denial of funds for family planning. This is precisely what he has done in refusing to release the $34 million congressional appropriation for the United Nations Population Fund [UNFPA] this year on grounds that the agency supports or participates in force and coercion in China's family planning program. Mr. Bush's action came despite three investigations, including one by his own handpicked team, that concluded that UNFPA is, in fact, the best hope for ensuring volunteerism in the Chinese program." Read: Washington Times

VIETNAM: Reproductive Healthcare Standards Set

Vietnam has begun to implement national standards for reproductive healthcare services with the assistance of the Health Ministry and UNFPA, according to a May 5 story by The Voice of Viet Nam. Reproductive healthcare services include maternal health, family planning, prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, adolescent reproductive health and safe abortions. Read: Voice of Viet Nam

ZIMBABWE: HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health Training for Journalism Students

As part of its social and developmental skills training, UNFPA will start offering a training program on HIV/AIDS and reproductive health for journalism students at Harare Polytechnic this month, according to a May 3 story by The Daily News. Elizabeth Karonga, a UNFPA official said, "Together with the Division of Mass Communication, we have worked out a new curriculum which is quite important for mass communication students. UNFPA thinks this is important for these students because they need to be well-versed with reproductive health and HIV/AIDS issues because they will eventually graduate from college and have to report on these issues, hence we feel they have to be well-equipped with reporting skills." Read: The Daily News

Back to top