After two weeks of fierce negotiations at the United Nations’ annual Commission on the Status of Women, on March 15 more than 130 governments committed to ending violence against women and girls, and reached strong agreements to promote gender equality and ensure access to sexual and reproductive health services.

The International Women’s Health Coalition and our amazing partners from around the world came out in force to the UN for the negotiations. Our agenda was clear: push governments to commit to concrete strategies to empower women and girls and end gender-based violence.

We met with instant opposition from conservative governments. Countries such as Iran, Russia, Egypt, and Syria joined with the Vatican in what The New York Times called “an unholy alliance.” IWHC staff and our women’s rights caucus of more than 100 activists worked around the clock to support progressive delegations to stand strong and not to cave in to pressure. We would not let a small but vocal minority use culture and religion as excuses to deny women their rights.

Our efforts prevailed and consensus was finally reached to loud applause from supportive governments such as Argentina, Brazil, Denmark, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey, United States, Uruguay, and even the small island of Tonga! As the “agreed conclusions” document was adopted, hundreds of women’s rights activists streamed into the negotiating room to join in the cheers.

For the first time at the UN, governments reached consensus that survivors of rape are entitled to emergency contraception to prevent unwanted pregnancy, and to timely and respectful forensic exams to support prosecution. They called for an end to child marriages. They agreed women’s right to control their sexuality is essential to preventing further violence. And they recognized the role that evidence-based sexuality education can play in reducing the harmful gender stereotypes that lead to violence.

In a sign of just how much was at stake, this year’s meeting received an unprecedented amount of media coverage after the Muslim Brotherhood condemned (and mischaracterized) the negotiations. IWHC featured prominently in many news articles, including in The Washington Post, The Guardian, Associated Press, ABC News, The Globe and Mail, Radio Free Europe, O Estado de S. Paulo, and Reuters.

Once again, we women have shown we’re an irresistible force. But our work is far from over. Now we must be vigilant to ensure that the agreements made at the UN are put into practice in local communities worldwide.

For that to happen, we must continue to support women’s groups to hold their own leaders to account.

Best regards,

Not only does VAWA protect women and girls in the United States from violence, but it also ensures that the U.S. is doing its part to protect girls from being forced into early marriages. Ending early and forced marriage is vital to the goal of ensuring that girls around the world are able to lead healthy, empowered, educated, and safe lives. As Senator Durbin, a champion on this issue, stated just after the vote, the bill’s “new mandate for a multisectoral strategy to end child marriage is an important step forward and now we must focus our efforts on ensuring it is developed without delay and its implementation is fully funded.”

The passage of this bill is a testament to how various communities that care about the health and safety of women and girls can come together to fight for what is necessary and what is right. It is also a testament to the hard work of steadfast leaders in the United States Congress on this issue, such as Senator Durbin (D-IL), Congresswoman McCollum (D-MN), Congressman Aaron Schock (R-IL), and former Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME). We congratulate them on this accomplishment and thank them for their service to women and girls around the world.

For more reactions from communities and Congress, please see:

• Reps. McCollum and Schock Applaud House Passage of Child Marriage Prevention Strategy in Violence Against Women Act
• Interagency Working Group – “Congress Passes Violence Against Women Act”

Leaving no stone unturned, women’s health opponents are working again to eliminate funding for international family planning and reproductive health programs, as well as funding to UNFPA, the global agency that supports a breadth of reproductive health services for women in extreme poverty in more than 140 countries.  The funding bill for the State Department and foreign assistance programs around the world brought before the House Appropriations Committee on May 17 includes provisions to reinstate the Global Gag Rule as well as defund UNFPA.  As expected, the committee rejected three amendments offered by women’s health supporters to try and fix these problems in the bill.

The one surprise was that the amendment to restore funding to UNFPA, offered by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), failed in a tie after four Republicans broke with their party line and supported the amendment.  (There are 29 Republicans on the committee and 21 Democrats.)  Her amendment was an attempt to gain support from Members that don’t support a breadth of reproductive health issues provided by UNFPA, and so would have targeted a $39 million U.S. contribution only for efforts to prevent and treat obstetric fistula, to promote the abandonment of female genital mutilation and other harmful traditional practices including child marriage, and to ensure safe childbirth and emergency obstetric care.  Who could object to meeting those health needs?  Evidently most every Republican on the committee, except for Representatives Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ), Steven LaTourette (R-OH), Charles Dent (R-PA) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY).  The amendment failed on a tie vote of 24-24.  We applaud and value the principled position taken by these members – and if you have a chance, we encourage you to share the news about their strong positions in your networks or by giving their offices a call through the capitol switchboard (202-224-3121). (Emails are only accepted from their constituents.)

In another effort to directly target at U.S. contribution to UNFPA for specific activities only, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) offered an amendment stating that it would be directed to only family planning services and contraceptive supplies in low-income sub-Saharan African countries where USAID this type of assistance, specifically Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Togo.  Again, the amendment was defeated – this time by a vote of 22 to 27.

And yet one more attempt to strengthen the bill for women’s health, Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) offered an amendment striking the draft bill’s provision codifying the Global Gag Rule and prohibiting a U.S. contribution to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and replacing with language designating a $39 million contribution to UNFPA with the current restrictions on that contribution that are already in place to appease some member’s concerns about the fact that UNFPA works in China, even though its efforts there are to end coercive family planning practices.  Again, the amendment failed – this time on a vote of 23 to 27.  Thanks to the vocal support during consideration of the amendment from Reps. Jim Moran (D-VA), Sam Farr (D-CA), and Steven Rothman (D-NJ).

The base bill is problematic on the funding levels as well, including a $149 million cut to international family planning means about 8 million fewer women in developing countries would have access to contraceptives and other health needs.  This completely undermines the kinds of progress being made in reducing death from pregnancy and childbirth.

As an endurance athlete, coach, runner, and fundraiser for Girls on the Run International, I arrive in South Africa in late May to run the Comrades Marathon via GOTR’s nonprofit organization SoleMates. I then plan to travel and study which South African cities and schools could be prime demographics to implement the organization’s running program. My link to the fundraising page that donates all proceeds to the team I am currently coaching in Harlem is at http://www.active.com/donate/SoleMates2010/KStence3. Therefore, the $1000 grant monies would fund my goal to institute Girls on the Run programs in South African schools. GOTR’s motto is Learn. Dream. Live. Run. South Africa is in true need of all of the preceding yet already has a deep passion for the sport.

Our program will strive to prevent childhood malnutrition through primary interventions, while simultaneously ensuring maternal health. The program will help Nicaraguan women maintain their own health during and after pregnancy through health education, nutritional supplementation, and medical support. In addition, we will provide access to rapid HIV tests to all expecting mothers upon entering the program. We believe that the most powerful tool that young women have to combat the systemic inequalities that they face daily is knowledge. With medical support and health education, young women who are aware of their HIV status and connected with resources can make informed decisions regarding their own health and the health of their growing families.

Our project connects resources from the “Global North” to the “Global South”–we will serve as the link between a Rhode Island-based non-profit company that produces Supplementary Plumpy and the organizations that serve women and children in Nicaragua. Supplementary Plumpy has been used in many parts of Africa and Asia to alleviate malnutrition in children and pregnant mothers. We seek to introduce this RUTF to communities that have been overlooked not only by their governments, but also by international aid organizations, as most of the malnutrition alleviation efforts involving RUTF have been concentrated in other world regions. Our project addresses the needs of women in both rural and urban communities in Nicaragua and connects them to one of the most effective RUTF products available today.

In addition, by involving young Nicaraguans as community health promoters, the project will build a future generation of young community leaders that will fight for the health of women and children in Nicaragua. It is in this way that citizens, the ones who are truly capable of enacting social change, are empowered to speak up for themselves and those that are most vulnerable. We believe that connecting Nicaraguans to one another will forge strong alliances as we collaborate to provide young women with the information and medical resources that they need for a healthy present and future.

In short, we have three target groups of young women whom this project addresses: expecting mothers, community health workers, and infants who will be the next generation of young people. This grant will jump start a project that we see expanding across Nicaragua and beyond to help women guarantee the health of their own bodies, pregnancies, births, babies, and families.

Each microsite will portray a scene in which real-life sexuality education happens, such as a doctor’s office, the back of a school bus, a mobile phone conversation, and many more recognizable places. We would subdivide the $1,000 grant into funding and prize money for the best 5 videos as based on creativity and educational impact, among other criteria. The winning videos would receive $100 and be posted on one of the first 5 microsites along with other vetted entries. There will also be a second phase, in which all entries are tracked over a set period of time. The video with the most views during that period will receive a $150 award for “going viral.”

To make this process easier, I want to start an organization that provides support services to young women during and after their abortions. This would mean the following:

- Providing a safe, free place for women (especially young women) to stay in the city if they’re traveling from another part of the state for an abortion;
- Providing an escort and transportation to take them to and from the clinic if needed;
- Providing a support group for young women who’ve had abortions with a focus on reproductive justice & future activism;
- Offering community outreach opportunities for young women to go into schools and talk about their abortion experience;
- Connecting these women to reproductive health resources that are affordable and accessible to young women.

Giving young women a voice in the reproductive justice movement is an essential element in destigmatizing abortion and empowering women to take control of their reproductive destinies.