Urgent: Call Your Senators to Save Funding for Development Programs!

Urgent: Your Action Needed to Save Funding for International Development Programs!

During his inauguration speech, President Barack Obama pledged to work alongside the "people of poor nations...to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds."

"We can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders," President Obama said, underscoring the fragility of the world economy. On March 11, he took an important step towards this goal by requesting $53.8 billion for the country's fiscal year 2010 International Affairs Budget, which includes funding for vital development programs for women and families living in poverty.

This funding, while only 1.4 percent of the national budget, could mean the difference between life and death for millions who are struggling to survive on less than a dollar a day, many of whom have been plunged into extreme poverty over the past few months. However, this week the Congressional Budget Committees cut the President's International Affairs Budget request by $5.3 billion in the House and $4.0 billion in the Senate.

Take Action! Tell the Senate to Restore Lifesaving Funding for the International Affairs Budget!

Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) will be offering an amendment this week to restore funding for the International Affairs Budget. As supporters of women's economic opportunity, we must do all we can to gain support for the Kerry-Lugar amendment so that this important support reaches the millions of women and families around the world who are living in extreme poverty. Please take action today by asking your Senators to co-sponsor the Kerry-Lugar Amendment and oppose any further cutting amendments.

Take Action: Call your Senators today and urge them to support the Kerry-Lugar Amendment to restore $4 billion to the International Affairs Budget and oppose any further cutting amendments!

How to Take Action:

1. Click here to look up your Senators' office phone numbers.

2. When an office staffer answers the phone say, "As a consituent of Senator ______, I am calling to urge the Senator to support the Kerry-Lugar Amendment to restore the $4 billion cut to the FY10 International Affairs Budget in the Senate Budget Resolution and oppose any further cutting amendments." Click here for more talking points.

Thank you for taking action on behalf of women and girls worldwide!

Don't Forget: RSVP for Wednesday's Tele-Conference on Pres. Obama & Women!

March 2009 | Women Thrive Worldwide | Photo Credits: Sara Heinrichs, Steve Evans, Sara Heinrichs

Join Us for Our New National Tele-Conference Series!

On International Women's Day, March 8th, Women Thrive Worldwide launched our new free tele-conference series on global women's issues. Join us quarterly to hear from our experts on some of the most important issues facing women in the developing world as well and what's going on in Washington, DC. Ask questions, stay informed, & get involved!

Join us this Wednesday, March 18th from 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm EST for our first tele-conference: President Obama's Priorities for Women Worldwide & Honduras Field Report Hear Ritu Sharma, Women Thrive's President and Co-founder, and Catalina Rojas, Women Thrive's Director of Global Partnerships to discuss the Obama Administration's priorities for women in developing countries. RSVP Now!

Also learn about their recent trip to Honduras where they spent time with Women Thrive's partner COMUCAP. Learn how organizations like COMUCAP are fighting violence and poverty through women's economic opportunity and what the U.S. can do to help.

Click here to RSVP and receive call-in details!

First, North Dakota. Is your state next?

Anti-choice ideologues think you don't care about North Dakota.

But what happens in North Dakota affects women everywhere.

Tell the governor:
Veto any abortion-ban bill.

Anti-choice ideologues think you don't care about women in North Dakota.

That's why they're pushing a so-called "personhood" bill through the North Dakota legislature—a measure that would ban abortion and could lead to bans on birth control, stem-cell research, and in-vitro fertilization.

Stand up for the women of North Dakota and stop this "guerilla warfare" on reproductive choice now.

After losing the White House, critical seats in Congress, and three ballot measures last November, the anti-choice movement launched a new phase of their war on women's freedom and privacy. They vowed to return to their glory days of angry protests by waging "guerilla warfare" against a woman's right to choose.¹

The anti-choice movement is starting in North Dakota because they think no one will notice. And when they're done there, they'll move along to the next state.

In fact, they're working to advance "personhood" measures in 16 states. Personhood USA, one of the organizations leading the fight, hopes their strategy leads to the end of the right to choose: "Establishing personhood closes what we call the 'hole' in Roe v. Wade."

Sign the petition to the governor of North Dakota telling him to veto any abortion-ban bill that comes to his desk.

North Dakota does not have a single pro-choice law on the books that helps prevent unintended pregnancy. Women in North Dakota have no safeguard against pharmacies that refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control. And they have no assurance that they can access emergency contraception at the hospital in the case of sexual assault. This new "personhood" bill would block women in North Dakota from ever receiving those protections.

Thank you for standing with the women of North Dakota—and women everywhere—by taking action today.

My best,

Nancy Keenan
President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

¹ "Pro-Lifers In Obamaland," Newsweek.com, January 27, 2009, http://www.newsweek.com/id/181786

Other International Women's Day Events

Women in Afghanistan: Solutions for a Stable Future

On Tuesday March 10, Women Thrive will host it's first International Women's Day Breakfast on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

President Obama has noted that Afghanistan is currently one of our nation's greatest foreign policy challenges. Afghanistan has taken center stage as a security concern for the United States with a focus on the threat of growing instability, the dangers of terrorism, the potential rise of the Taliban, and other undemocratic forces. Women in Afghanistan: Solutions for a Stable Future will feature the voices of women who have traveled from Afghanistan to share their insights about the critical role women are playing in building peace and security, establishing rule of law, increasing political participation, and educating the next generation to improve Afghanistan's future and global security. Learn More.

Paola Gianturco's Celebrating Women Exhibit: Paris, France

Celebrate International Women's Day at an inspiring March 10-25, 2009 photography exhibit in Paris, France. Photojournalist Paola Gianturco's Celebrating Women exhibit - photographs of festivals that honor women in six countries - will open at a private reception on March 9, 2009 at UNESCO international headquarters in Paris, France. Based on Ms. Gianturco's book Celebrating Women (powerHouse Books, 2004), which featured seventeen festivals in fifteen countries, these traditions honor women for reasons as diverse as kind-heartedness; ferocity; courageousness in the face of social injustice; or simply for being young and fancy-free. Learn More.

Watch A Powerful Noise Live!

CARE invites you to attend its premier event celebrating International Women's Day, featuring the acclaimed documentary, A Powerful Noise Thursday March 5th, 2009.

This one-night event by Executive Producer Sheila Johnson will feature the acclaimed documentary A Powerful Noise, followed by a town hall discussion broadcast live from New York City featuring: former Secretary of State Madeline K. Albright, CARE Advocate Christy Turlington Burns, CARE President and CEO Dr. Helene Gayle, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof and actress and activist Natalie Portman. Learn More.

Poll: Large Majority in All Countries Favor Equal Rights for Women

According to a WorldPublicOpinion.org poll, publics around the world express a widespread consensus that it is important for "women to have full equality of rights" and most say it is very important. This is true in Muslim nations as well as Western nations.

In nearly all of the 22 nations surveyed most people perceive that in their lifetime women have gained greater equality. Nonetheless, large majorities would like their government and the United Nations to take an active role in preventing discrimination. Learn More.

International Women's Day: Join Our New Tele-Conference Series!

Announcing Our National Tele-Conference Series!

In honor of International Women's Day, March 8, Women Thrive Worldwide is proud to announce our new national tele-conference series on global women's issues. Join us quarterly to hear from our experts on some of the most important issues facing women in the developing world as well and what's going on in Washington, DC. Ask questions, stay informed, & get involved!

Save the Date: President Obama's Priorities for Women Worldwide & Honduras Field Report Our first tele-conference will be held on Wednesday March 18 from 3:00 - 4:00 pm EST. Join Ritu Sharma, Women Thrive's President and Co-founder, and Catalina Rojas, Women Thrive's Director of Global Partnerships to discuss the Obama Administration's priorities for women in developing countries. Also hear about their recent trip to Honduras where they spent time with Women Thrive's partner COMUCAP. Learn how organizations like COMUCAP are fighting violence and poverty through women's economic opportunity and what the U.S. can do to help. Click here to RSVP!