Feminists Join "34 Million Friends" Campaign, Send $1 Bills to U.N. Population Fund

October 10, 2002

by NOW Staff

When the Bush administration earlier this year denied the $34 million approved by both Houses of Congress for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which provides voluntary family planning and other health services to people in developing countries, two women took matters into their own hands.

Independently of each other, Jane Roberts of Redlands, Calif. and Lois Abraham of Taos, N.M. sent email messages to dozens of friends asking them to put a $1 bill or check in an envelope and send it to the UNFPA, then forward the email message on to other friends. Their friends responded quickly: Envelopes filled with dollar bills began to pile up in the New York City office of the UNFPA, and an official with the fund named the campaign "34 Million Friends."

The campaign that started as a grassroots endeavor has since raised tens of thousands of dollars that will go directly to the UNFPA to provide voluntary family planning and reproductive health services, prevent sexually-transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, reduce violence and discrimination against women and offer other support to women, men and children around the world, according to Peter Purdy, president of the U.S. Committee. The campaign has been endorsed by organizations including NOW, the National Council of Women's Organizations and People for the American Way.

NOW President Kim Gandy called on women's rights supporters in the U.S. to send a $1 bill to the UNFPA as an expression of support for women in developing countries, and called it "deplorable" that taxpayers must come to the rescue because the Bush administration defaulted on its commitment to the U.N.

"The UNFPA estimates the $34 million in lost funds will translate to two million more unwanted pregnancies, 5,000 maternal deaths and 77,000 deaths of children under five," Gandy said. "If every feminist in the United States contributed a $1 bill, we could show the Bush administration that we won't stand by while women in developing countries are denied the support and services they desperately need."