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34 Million Friends of UNFPA: Campaign Milestones

CAMPAIGN MILESTONES

2002
August Jane Roberts sends a letter to the Sun newspaper in San Bernardino, CA, asking that, "as an exercise in outraged democracy, would 34 million Americans please send $1 each? This would right a terrible wrong".

Lois Abraham independently emails 40 friends asking them to donate one dollar to UNFPA and to tell ten more friends about the impact of the U.S. funding cut on women's lives and the need to take immediate action.

UNFPA begins to receive donations (12 August), including a check for $25,000 from an anonymous donor in Maine.

Best-selling American author Barbara Kingsolver sends a dollar.

September First foreign donation received: Canadian $18,000.

October Syndicated columnist Molly Ivins urges readers to support campaign (Creators Syndicate, 22 October); contributions jump from 100 to 500 letters per day by end of November.

Campaign receives unanimous endorsement of the National Council of Women's Organizations.

Oct-Nov Letters sent to every chapter of the League of Women Voters and to every Women's Studies department in the United States. Emails circulated by members of the Audubon Society, People for the American Way and the WorldWatch Institute.

December Syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman features the campaign (Boston Globe, 22 December) and contributions soar to between 1,000-2,000 letters per day in January and February.

2003
January Campaign reaches Australia and columnist Pamela Bone encourages support: "…all women's rights are dependent on that most fundamental right of all: the right to control their fertility." (The Age, 17 January)


February Jane Roberts travels to Senegal and Mali and Lois Abraham travels to Nicaragua to see the work of UNFPA first hand. While visiting a youth centre in Bamako, Mali, where sports and a cyber-café are combined with a health clinic, Jane learns that the campaign has surpassed $500,000.

May Campaign reaches $1 million mark, supported by more than 100,000 people.

 


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