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Feature Story:
Since 2003, the Sierra Club's Global Population and Environment Program has conducted international study tours to visit and learn from integrated Population/Health/Environment programs in the field. These trips provide population activists with the opportunity to see first hand the connections among population growth, environmental conservation and access to voluntary family planning services. Read more about how the following two volunteers visited projects in Madagascar and the Philippines, and upon their return, were inspired to become pro-active messengers in their communities in support of international family planning and sustainable development policies! Madagascar
Together, we learned that Madagascar is considered an environmental hotspot -- that is, an area of extraordinary biodiversity that is threatened by a growing human population. Ninety percent of the forests have been destroyed to grow crops, herd cattle and make charcoal. What is more, Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world. Annual income averages $300 per person with three-quarters of the people living on less than $1 a day. Saving this unique environment is a delicate balancing act -- short-term the people need food (one-third are severely malnourished), but long-term the environment must be preserved so that people can continue to live on the island in a sustainable way. Those ten incredible days will stay with me forever, but the experience didn't end with my return to the U.S. We were charged with going out and telling others about what we saw. Upon my return, I have given numerous presentations about how the people of Madagascar are working to save their forests, but they need our help. Through USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) we are all lending a hand, but that contribution is just $3.85 per person per year for all international family planning programs -- about the price of a designer cup of coffee. Surely we can do better, and I urge people to contact their representatives in Washington, asking them to increase funding for USAID health, population and environment programs like those we saw in Madagascar and in the more than 100 other countries where USAID works. This is one of the best investments our country can make. Population issues have long-term goals, so the other thing I emphasize is that there are things we can do today to help. One of them is to contribute to 34 Million Friends -- even $1 helps -- another is to host Green-Pink parties, in which friends come together to raise awareness and funds toward helping women who suffer from obstetric fistula, a devastating child-bearing injury that occurs in developing countries. To date, the New Jersey Chapter has collected $690 towards this initiative that protects women and the environment, worldwide.
By supporting access to voluntary family planning services, the health of women, children, and the magical island of Madagascar are all protected for generations to come. The Philippines
In March 2006, volunteer activists from the Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, Audubon, and Izaak Walton League were invited to attend the 2nd National Conference on Population Health and the Environment in Cebu City, Philippines. Along with attending the conference, we also visited three integrated population/health/environment (PHE) projects. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to the Philippines representing the Sierra Club. One of the PHE projects we visited was in the village of Cabacnitan on the island of Bohol, way up in the boondocks. (Boondock means mountain in several Filipino dialects, and was brought back to the United States by GIs after World War II.) I was very impressed with the group of women who welcomed us to the village, many wearing T-shirts sporting a family planning logo.
In addition to family planning, Cabacnitan receives help in several other ways. Economic conditions are improved through better agricultural methods, micro credit and job training. Some women have learned to be massage therapists, and are bringing in extra income to their families. A daycare center has received many new books, helping children in the community get a head start on a good education. The volunteers of Cabacnitan inspire me as I continue my volunteer outreach in Oregon. A letter to the editor of my local paper, The Oregonian, mentioning the PHE approach and my trip to the Philippines was published in July. I've given talks at local colleges, and more are planned for the future. Recently, I showed slides of my trip at the Sierra Club's Conservation Governance Committee meeting in Portland. I will never forget the passionate, generous and dedicated PHE professionals and volunteers I met in the Philippines. Improving the health and well-being of the human population is a vital component of any effort to protect biodiversity and the beautiful wild places of the planet. Photos used with permission. Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
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In October 2005, I had the opportunity to travel to the magical island of Madagascar located in the Indian Ocean off the southeast coast of Africa. I came from New Jersey and was joined by Sierra Club population activists from California, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Washington state, and Pennsylvania. A trip to Madagascar? It wasn't a tough sell for me.
These women are the volunteer family planning outreach workers in their community. They teach others the benefits of modern family planning methods, and of spacing and timing the births of their children. The women of Cabacnitan had prepared a generous buffet of local foods for us, served on banana leaf platters and accompanied by a fresh coconut to drink.