SAVING WOMEN’S LIVES
Condoms Needed
A recent report by Population Action International (PAI), found that world's poorest countries need between 8 billion and 10 billion condoms a year to help stem the spread of the AIDS virus. According to an October 9 story by The New York Times many factors create the condom shortfall: little public discussion of the situation, shifting foreign aid priorities, laws that drive up prices, distribution problems in poor countries and religious opposition. Along with billions more condoms, the report said, poor countries need another $1.2 billion to help distribute them and teach their use. Illiteracy and unfamiliarity are major barriers to condom use, and even now, two decades into the epidemic, it is difficult in many societies to talk about condoms. PAI's Vice President, Terri Bartlett, argued, "Cigarettes can get to the most remote corners of the world—so should condoms." Read: The New York Times, The London Times and PLANetWIRE’s feature story: Condoms Count: Meeting the Need in the Era of HIV/AIDS

WHO Report: Violent Deaths Include Violence against Women
A World Health Organization report found that violence is often “predictable and preventable” and called on countries to find ways to reduce violent deaths and injuries to women who are uniformly vulnerable to attacks. According to an October 3 story by The Boston Globe, “Every country is dealing with violence one way or another, but we are always dealing with it after the fact,” said Etienne Krug, director of WHO's injuries and violence prevention department, who led the project. The report, a three-year effort and the first compilation of far-ranging statistics on violence, is aimed at dispelling the notion that violence is an inevitable part of life. It also listed the categories of violent deaths, ranking war last. In analyzing the statistics, Krug and others spotlighted the high rates of violence against women. ''The message on violence against women is that it is everywhere,'' Krug said. ''It is in high-income countries, Muslim countries, Catholic countries, east, west, north, and south.'' Read: The Boston Globe, The New York Times and The Washington Post. Read about Save the Children’s initiative dedicated to helping protect women and children from war: One World, One Wish Campaign.

Educating Women to Raise Economy
Business Week featured an October 14 story on a program by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) that involves 770,000 girls taking part in an innovative informal education system in 60,000 villages. “Programs such as these, supplement public schools, are a big reason behind the rise in the share of Bangladeshi children receiving primary education – from 55% two decades ago to 85% now,” noted Business Week. “Rising literacy and interest in careers has also led to a sharp drop in fertility and infant mortality as women practice birth control.” One beneficiary, Elina Yasmin, 18, resisted pressure from her parents to marry young, and she trained as a photographer at BRAC. Now, her parents appreciate the $53 she earns monthly shooting weddings and festivals. Bangladesh could be an especially good role model for other conservative Muslim countries, where exclusion of women has contributed heavily to economic stagnation. In fact, encouraged by Western donors, BRAC in July opened its first foreign office in Kabul, Afghanistan. Read: Business Week and its international-edition cover story: Global Poverty

NEWS ABOUT UNFPA
“34 Million Friends of UNFPA”
On Oct. 10, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) honored two American women Jane Roberts and Lois Abraham who launched "34 Million Friends of UNFPA" to make up for the $34 million that Congress appropriated for the U.N. Population Fund but that President George W. Bush eliminated in July. The Associated Press reported on October 10 that Abraham and Roberts, e-mailed, phoned and wrote to friends, acquaintances and organizations. Roberts said she began with a letter to newspapers asking that "as an exercise in outraged democracy, would 34 million Americans please send $1 each to UNFPA? This would right a terrible wrong." UNFPA Director Thoraya Obaid said she was "truly moved" by the women's work. "It is heartwarming to hear of this grassroots initiative. It reminds us of how deeply the American people support our principles." AP also noted a related photo exhibition called "Family of Woman" opened in New York and will move to Los Angeles and Minneapolis next year. Read: Associated Press, Chicago Tribune and Santa Fe New Mexican

Collaboration Needed to Fight HIV/AIDS and Poverty
At a private meeting with World Bank officials and church leaders in London, UNFPA Director Thoraya Obaid said the leaders of faith groups had great influence in communities grappling with issues such as female circumcision, HIV/AIDS and family planning. "We would like to use the moral position that they occupy in the minds and hearts of people to deliver the message of development and halve poverty by the year 2015," she said. "If [these leaders] don't give their blessing, often is very difficult and there's more confusion in the society." Obaid said Africa remained a major focus of U.N. concern but other areas were getting more attention. "Africa is a tragedy, it's an economic crisis, it's war-torn...but we also have to look at other areas where HIV/AIDS is becoming a big threat, as also is infant mortality," she said. "India is one place where there could be an explosion in HIV/AIDS. If we have learned a lesson from Africa it is that you need to remove stigmatization." Read: Associated Press

TAIWAN POPULATION POLICY
China Post (Taiwan) reported October 15 that the Taiwan government is considering taking a series of measures to spend about NT $12 billion a year to lift its continuously declining birth rate—1.16 percent last year, one of the lowest in the world, from the average of 2.29 percent in 1981. The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) is working on a plan to give NT $30,000 in cash as an incentive to each couple that decides to have a third child in the family. But officials said yesterday the cash award is not enough to encourage more childbirths. The MOI is also working with the Council for Economic Planning and Development to draft other measures as encouragement. The Post noted experts said the trend of having smaller families, heavy financial burden for raising children, reduced income, readily available contraceptive measures, and convenient abortion operations are all factors for the declining birth rate on the island. Read: China Post

HIV/AIDS WORLDWIDE
HIV/AIDS as Security Threat
The U.S. National Intelligence Council predicts that by 2010 there will be between 50 million and 75 million cases of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in India, China, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Russia, according to an October 1 story by The Washington Post. That is double or triple the estimate of 25 million cases an international team of experts projected for those countries as part of a study published last summer. The new document, titled "The Next Wave of HIV/AIDS: Nigeria, Ethiopia, Russia, India and China," follows up a report the council released two years ago assessing publicly for the first time the issue of the global AIDS pandemic as a threat to U.S. security. In other AIDS-related news, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria estimates that it will need $8.1 billion from rich countries and the private sector over the next two years in order to keep up with the demand from poor countries burdened by fighting the diseases. The Globe reported October 9 that the new estimates will be debated in Geneva this week by the fund’s board to illustrate both the immensity of the health problem and the gap between current levels of spending and what the fund says will soon be needed. Read: The Washington Post and The Boston Globe

Leaders Urge Action against HIV/AIDS
On October 14, the Associated Press reported that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan was in the eastern city of Hangzhou, China, where he sounded a health alarm for the world's most populous nation, warning that China has "no time to lose" in preventing a massive outbreak of AIDS and must take decisive action to prevent it from hurting the country's economy. "China stands on brink of an explosive AIDS epidemic," Annan told students at Zhejiang University. Failure to tackle the problem would saddle China with burdens ranging from an exponential growth in numbers of AIDS orphans to development-sapping loss of efficiency, he warned. The Boston Globe reported October 10 that Bill Clinton argued at a speech in Washington for debt relief and a greater US focus on health policy in the region, warning that ''all of Africa's promise can be destroyed by AIDS.” Read: Associated Press and The Boston Globe

BUSH APPOINTMENTS TO POSITIONS IN REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
“W.W.J.D. (What Would Jesus Do) at the F.D.A.?” wrote Maureen Dowd in her October 9 column for The New York Timesin response to Time Magazine’s October 5 report that “a quiet battle raging over the Bush administration's plan to appoint Dr. W. David Hager to head the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel on women's health policy.” Time reported Hager, an obstetrician-gynecologist, wrote with his wife, Stress and the Woman's Body, which puts "an emphasis on the restorative power of Jesus Christ in one's life" and recommends specific Scripture readings and prayers for such ailments as headaches and premenstrual syndrome. FDA advisory panels often have near-final say over crucial health questions such as the key recommendation in 1996 that led to approval of the "abortion pill," RU-486—a decision that abortion foes are still fighting. Hager assisted the Christian Medical Association last August in a "citizens' petition" calling upon the FDA to reverse itself on RU-486, saying it has endangered the lives and health of women. Read: The New York Times and Time Magazine

EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS
“The White House is right that Iraq is by far the most repressive country in the entire Middle East—but that's true only if you're a man,” wrote Nicholas Kristof in his October 1 New York Times column. Kristof cited examples where: 54 percent of Basra University's students are female; Iraqi women who work typically get six months' maternity leave at full pay and another six months at half pay and; female circumcision, still common in American-allied countries like Egypt and Nigeria, is absent in Iraq. He concluded, “So as we invade Iraq for its barbaric and repressive ways, our allies in the Muslim world should feel deeply embarrassed that a rogue state offers women more equality than they do.” Read: The New York Times

“The Bush administration never met a family-planning issue that it couldn't use for political gain,” wrote The Tennessean in its October 3 editorial. On two issues last week, the administration showed that it's much more interested in helping foreign and immigrant women if they're pregnant, than if they're not: the president formally signed away $34 million originally intended for UNFPA to USAID and the Department of Health and Human Services issued final rules that would permit states to define the fetus as a child for purposes of the Children's Health Insurance Program. The Tennessean explained that the designation affects all low-income women eligible to receive pre-natal care that happens to include illegal immigrants. In fact, it's the only way illegal immigrants can get health care. The editorial concluded, “the actions of the Bush administration are much more troubling than even those issues: It is using women to push an agenda. No one around the world can be assured this administration cares more about women's health than it does making a point.” Read: The Tennessean

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The above summary was written by Elena Cabatu and Kathy Bonk at the Communications Consortium Media Center, 1200 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20005, 202/326-8700. Redistribution is encouraged with credit to CCMC.