Explore, Enjoy and Protect the Planet
Happy Spring!
Welcome Naomi The Global Population and Environment Program (GPEP) has expanded! Naomi Brodkey joined GPEP as a Program Assistant in February, and has been busy organizing the Spring 2013 Fellowship, presenting at the University of North Texas, and helping to update and disseminate GPEP materials ever since. Naomi has been involved with various health and environmental initiatives at the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health at the World Health Organization, Save the Children, the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, and the National Environmental Education Foundation. Naomi has a Masters of Science in Global Health from Maastricht University, with focused research in environmental health, and a B.A. in Sociology and Social Studies of Medicine from McGill University. She is active in the DC bike community and advocates for safer biking in the DC metro area. Naomi is excited to be joining the Sierra Club group and looks forward to opportunities to grow within the GPEP community. You can reach her at 202-495-3035 or naomi.brodkey@sierraclub.org. Spring 2013 Fellowship This March, GPEP hosted 10 university-aged fellows from across the US to learn about the important connections between reproductive health and environment. Fellows had the opportunity to hear from our expert colleagues who work in the Population, Health and Environment (PHE) field, and brainstormed ways to carry the message of family planning as essential to sustainable development back to their campuses and communities. Many of the fellows are already creating awareness around these issues back home: writing health guides for outdoor groups, blogging, promoting PHE themed-movies at local cinemas, and participating in other Sierra Club youth opportunities. We look forward to sharing our Fellows’ initiatives with you on our website and in upcoming issues of PopNews. Stay tuned! Sex, Synthetics, and Sustainability On April 10th, GPEP co-hosted "Sex, Synthetics and Sustainability" with our partners at the Reproductive Health Technologies Project and Women’s Voices for the Earth. The event drew viewers and attendees from across the country in our offices and online. You can watch a recording of the presentations here (please use your name and email address to log in) to learn more about the risks of toxic chemicals in our air, water, soil, and everyday products on reproductive health. We continued to discuss the links during our Earth Day of Action! Participants wrote letters to their congressmen and sent pictures in support of the Safe Chemicals Act (S. 696), spoke about ways they protect their reproductive health and environment during our Twitter chat, and wrote blogs which were published to Advocates for Youth's Amplify website. Obama on Family Planning Last week, President Obama released his budget request for fiscal year 2014, which included $635.4 million for international family planning and reproductive health assistance. The request exceeds the $598 million allotted for these programs in 2013, demonstrating a strong commitment from the president for programs that protect women's health and give them choices about their family size. As we know, access to voluntary family planning is good for families, communities, economies, and the environment. These services help increase women's resilience to climate disruption, slow population growth, and uphold human rights. While President Obama's request does not meet the goal of $1 billion annually for voluntary family planning and reproductive health programs -- the U.S.'s fair share in meeting the unmet need for these services -- it still represents the administration's strong support for these important initiatives. |