$34 Million Friends Campaign Spreads Around the World

Grassroots campaign catches fire in effort to raise $34 million for the UN Population Fund—making up for lost U.S. funding, one dollar at a time.

For more information on the campaign, click here.
View the State-by-State breakdown of letters received

Women and men across the United States are joining Lois Abraham of New Mexico and Jane Roberts of California in voicing their strong support for the work carried out by UNFPA. In August 2002, Lois and Jane independently initiated their own email campaigns urging people to donate $1 or more to UNFPA to help bridge the funding gap created by the United States withdrawal of $34 million.

Although they had never met, Lois and Jane were both outraged by the funding shortfall and decided to take action. Their goal is to find 34 million friends to help UNFPA continue its invaluable work as the largest international provider of family planning and maternal health care. The grassroots campaign has taken flight and the emails sent out by Lois and Jane are being forwarded to colleges, list-serves, club memberships and more. Thanks to the Internet, thousands of men and women are becoming aware of the campaign and its simple message: the provision of family planning and reproductive health services to women in need is a humanitarian issue, not a political one.

As of 13 December, UNFPA has received $145,257.00 in support. Funds raised from the “34 Million Friends” campaign will go towards UNFPA’s core programme budget, to compensate for the loss of United States support. This includes giving women and men in over 140 developing countries access to quality reproductive health information and services. These services are desperately needed. Today, 350 million couples lack access to a range of safe and affordable family planning methods and 42 per cent of women in less developed countries deliver their babies without skilled medical assistance, which puts their lives and those of their babies at risk.

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