| UNFPA IN THE NEWS – APRIL 3-9, 2004
BHUTAN: 7,500 Boxes of Condoms Distributed at Fesival Kuensel (Bhutan) reported April 7 that
during the annual three-day Gomphu Kora festival, about 7,500
boxes of condoms were distributed. The story noted that the condom
campaign was part of the family planning and HIV/AIDS campaign
spearheaded by Her Majesty the Queen Ashi Sangay Choden Wangchuck
the goodwill ambassador of UNFPA, who joined the thousands gathered
for the Gomphu Kora Tsechu. Read: Kuensel
BOTSWANA: Men’s Responsibility to Women The Daily News (Botswana) reported
April 6 that the effect of men's attitude and behavior on women's
health is perhaps most obvious in the HIV/AIDS pandemic and other
sexually transmitted diseases. Speaking at the national workshop
on male involvement in sexual reproductive health, UNFPA representative,
Agathe Lawson said programs that "educate, test and treat only
one partner will not be effective in safeguarding the continued
health of both people.” She said men needed to share the responsibility
of disease prevention as well as the risk and benefit of contraception.
"All over the world, women find themselves at risk of HIV infection
because of their lack of powers in determining where, when and
how sex should take place," she said. Read: Daily
News
GHANA: UNFPA Head Visits Ghana On April 7, Radio Ghana reported the Ministry
of Women and Children's Affairs will re-launch family planning
programs to help curb the ever-growing population in the country.
The sector minister, Mrs. Gladys Amah, said the current growth
rate of three percent annually is alarming and if measures are
not taken, things would get out of hand. Mrs. Asmah made these
remarks when the executive director of UNFPA,Thoraya Ahmed Obaid,
called on her at her office in Accra. Radio Ghana also reported
April 6 that President Kufuor said to successfully cut down on
poverty, countries like Ghana must be able to manage their population
and ensure that their development agenda are people-centered.
President Kufuor was speaking at the Castle (seat of government
in Accra), when he granted audience to the UN under secretary-general
and executive director of UNFPA, Dr. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid. He said
Ghana has been contributing to the U.N. Population Fund in order
to achieve high returns. Obaid praised Ghana for the role it is
playing in population issues. She said a country cannot develop
without knowing its population. Madam Obaid was interacting with
members of the Media and Communication Advocacy Network, Mecan,
in Accra. The meeting was to find out how Mecan members are reporting
on population issues in the country. Read: Ghana News Agency:
April
3, April
8 GHANA: Computer Donation to Police’s Women and Juvenile Unit Ghana News Agency reported April 7 that the
UN Gender System Programme donated a computer and its accessories
to the Eastern Regional office of the Women and Juvenile Unit
(WAJU) of the Ghana Police Service at Koforidua. National Director
of the WAJU, Chief Superintendent Esther Appiah, mentioned that
UNFPA had donated similar items to the national secretariat. Read:
Ghana
News Agency KYRGYZSTAN: Teenage Abortions on the Rise IRIN reported April 5 that teenage abortions
are on the rise in Kyrgyzstan, with young women from rural areas
being particularly prone to unwanted pregnancies due to a lack
of awareness about the risks of unprotected sex combined with
their traditional upbringing. The story mentioned that the United
Nations Population Fund in Bishkek is working to raise awareness
of reproductive health issues in an effort to reduce unwanted
pregnancies. "We explain to young people how to use contraceptives,
how to avoid getting pregnant unnecessarily and how to manage
family planning," Gulnara Kadyrova, a project coordinator for
UNFPA, told IRIN. Read: IRIN NAMIBIA: Women Who Lack Status and Negotiation Skills Vulnerable to HIV/AIDS In an April 8 story by The New Era
(Namibia) on preparations for an October meeting by Network of
African Women Ministerial and Parliamentarian Bureau, Dr. Jacqui
Badcock, the acting representative of the United Nations Population
Fund, which has funded the conference, said the low status of
women in an African context where they have no negotiations skills
for sex, makes them more vulnerable to the [AIDS] pandemic.” Read:
New
Era NIGERIA: A Candid Assessment of the State of Primary Healthcare On April 8, The Daily Champion (Nigeria)
featured an interview with Alhaji Musa Dangana, director of Primary
Health Care and Disease Control in Nasarawa State Ministry of
Health and state team leader. During the interview, Dangana said,
“We are also talking the issue of maternal reproductive health
problems through the support from United Nations Population Fund.”
Read: Daily
Champion TURKEY: Collaboration to Stress Men’s Role in Reproductive Health On April 4, Turkish media reported that at the
4th Council Meeting of Inter European Parliamentary Forum on Population
and Development in Ankara, Minister of Health Recep Akdag stressed
the role of men in reproductive health. According to the news
coverage, a project to reach the male population has been started
in collaboration with the Turkish Armed Forces, Ministry of Health
and UNFPA. In this program, 2,300 military health personnel were
trained in communication and counseling skills and also prepared
a reproductive health-training manual. UNITED STATES: Bush Administration Omits Support for Reproductive Health Care and Services The Boston Globe (United States) ran
an April 8 letter by Peter Purdy, President of the U.S. Committee
for U.N. Population Fund, in response to Ellen Sauerbrey’s and
Arthur E. Dewey's letter "Bush's commitment to women." Purdy wrote:
“Like the administration, the letter omits mention of support
for reproductive health care and services, but without these its
praise for ‘reproductive health’ is meaningless. It neglects to
note that a third of the administration's funding for family planning
is earmarked for programs of education in sexual abstinence, despite
global shortfalls of contraceptives and safe motherhood supplies.
And the letter boasts of funding women's programs in Afghanistan,
but the sums are well below promised levels. The letter is correct
that the list doesn't include AIDS spending—that is because the
administration has refused to fully fund its much-ballyhooed international
AIDS initiative. When it comes to President Bush's international
programs for women, there's no ‘there’ there.” Read: Boston
Globe UNITES STATES: Boston Globe Urged Not to Highlight “Fringe Group” Christian Science Monitor (United States)
ran an April 6 letter by Stirling Scruggs,former director of information
and external relations for the United Nations Population Fund.
He noted: “Your March 30 article "On family planning, US vs. much
of the world" correctly showed US isolation on reproductive health
issues, but did your readers a disservice by quoting the Population
Research Institute (PRI) as if it were a respectable organization.
The PRI is a tiny ideological fringe group whose real agenda is
to end all family planning and contraceptive use worldwide. It
holds, for example, that the intrauterine device (IUD) is a form
of abortion. Its website remarks that "family planning is inherently
coercive in a developing country context.” Scruggs concluded,
“The article also neglected to note that the PRI was the source
of the spurious charge, rejected by four independent investigations,
that the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) condoned forced abortions
in China. The Bush administration chose to listen to its right-wing
ideologues and to the PRI, but your readers should not make the
same mistake.” Read: Christian
Science Monitor UNITED STATES: Bush Criticized for Anti-Women’s Rights Policies An April 5 letter by reader Gloria Wood on Bush’s
anti-women’s rights policies that ran in The Press Journal
(United States) noted, “One of the administration's first
acts was to renege on promised funding for the United Nations
Population Fund. The impact of this has been to deny desperately
needed health care to women in Third-World nations. This has resulted
in the United States being part of the problem, rather than part
of the solution in addressing the poverty associated with over-population.” UNITED STATES: Columnist Wonders Why Bush, “an Advocate for Women’s Rights,” Doesn’t Support UNFPA The Daily Sun (Cornell University newspaper)
ran an April 7 column by Rachel Somerstein who remarked, regarding
the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, that Bush has “milked this
one for all it's worth.” Somerstein asked, “One wonders why an
advocate for pregnant women's health and safety would block the
$34 million the U.S. allotted for the United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA) -- an international organization dedicated to family
planning, combating violence against women, protecting at-risk
populations from sexually transmitted diseases including HIV and
AIDS, and funding maternal and neonatal care. The Fund does not
provide moneys for abortion. Bushniks, take note: one of UNFPA's
main goals is the reduction of infant mortality.” Read: Daily
Sun
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