I have two pleas for cash and/or help for everyone this morning, both things I think that everyone, of every conceiveable stripe, can get behind.

The first came through my email box from the Feminist Majority Foundation this morning. Here’s the email, with some extra information I’ve tossed in to round things out (in italics):

I am writing to ask for your help with a dire situation for women and girls in Afghanistan. One in six women will die as a result of childbirth or pregnancy-related complications. Maternal mortality rates in Afghanistan are simply unacceptable.

What are those rates? According to UNICEF, about 120 to 600 out of every 10,000 Afghan mothers (numbers vary by region) die while giving birth or because of related complications. To put that into perspective, here in the states, the maternal mortaility rate is around one in every 10,000 now. The infant mortality rate in Afghanistan is also one of the highest in the world.

I don’t think that this readership needs me to explain that there’s just no bad in midwifery. While often we hear that prostitution is the world’s oldest women’s profession, that’s a pretty substantial blurring of the truth: it’s midwifery (duh). Midwifery — obviously — not only is vital when it comes to healthy pregnancies and deliveries, but also for educating mothers on doing what can be done to keep themselves and their infants healthy after birth. Suffice it to say, midwifery in any case, but certainly in third world nations, also provides women with a way to connect with and aid each other, which is perhaps secondary, but incredibly critical for any oppressed class. This training also provides education for men on how to be supportive of trained midwives, to boot.

Experts believe that the most effective strategy to reduce these needless and tragic deaths is to train more midwives to assist in pregnancy and childbirth. For only $3,000, a new midwife can be trained in Afghanistan. One midwife will in turn be able to promote the health and well-being of countless Afghan women and their new infants. This is extremely important in a country where the healthcare system in most provinces has been devastated and is not functioning. Electricity and supplies are often scarce. Many medical professionals have fled the country. Most Afghan women, even if they are pregnant, have never seen a doctor. Family planning is rarely available.

And all of this is under U.S. watch — after we promised to provide Afghanistan with a “Marshall Plan” and to free Afghan women.

Understand that despite the promise of that plan, Afghanistan received less assistance per capita than did postconflict Bosnia and Kosovo, or even desperately poor Haiti, according to a RAND Corporation study.

We have an opportunity to help Afghan women and girls by providing funding to train midwives. Please, donate now — as generously as you can — to help train a midwife in Afghanistan. Your support will save lives.

Half of your generous contribution will go toward a midwife training program run by the Shuhada Organization — an Afghan women-led non-profit organization, founded and led by Dr. Sima Samar, which operates hospitals, clinics, and schools in Afghanistan.

This is a pretty amazing organization. And if, for whatever reason, you don’t want to donate to the FMF to help with this issue, but still want to help, you might consider donating to Shuhada instead.

The other half of your contribution will support the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Campaign for Afghan Women and Girls. Our public education campaign works to increase funding and resources for Afghan women-led non-profit organizations, as well as education and health programs, and to provide support for some 25 Afghan refugee women a year to attend college in the U.S.

Please, while this email is in front of you, make as large a donation as you possibly can. The lives of Afghan women and girls depend upon it.

To donate through the FMF, click here.

Next up: While I was in Ohio, we spent an evening out with Mark’s brother Andy, who is an utterly amazing and visionary public school educator of special needs, middle-school inner-city kids in the worst part of the Kentucky/Ohio border. If I’m recalling the conversation correctly, around 70% of his students wind up in the criminal justice system in adulthood without intervention and education, and these are the kids of kids (especially given many of them aren’t white) that conservatives in that region label “dead-end” kids and would just throw away. He’s come up with this insanely smart mixed-age classroom idea for this year (and there I sat, the ex-Montessori teacher, smirking to myself to see another inner-city teacher, like Montessori herself was, come to that conclusion), as well as an additional system that I won’t recount here yet so that he can get it all implemented first. We were talking about how vocabulary is a real problem, and I had an idea that I think might be helpful. Yes, I was the materials-making queen when I was a classroom teacher: it was one of my favorite parts of teaching. I love this sort of brainstorming.

Know those word magnets you can put on your fridge and make silly poetry and the like with? What if those were made to be far bigger, so that they could live on a magnetic-paint wall, the kids could see them easily from pretty far away, and also enjoy the fun, oversized nature of them? You put basic words in there to make basic sentences with, but you also put some synonyms and antonyms in there too, with more complex words. So, let’s say that one kid has already used the word “good,” and another kid wants it for their sentence, so a teacher can easily pull out the word “beneficial” and explain it means the same thing, giving the kid a way to learn some good vocabulary actively and organically, as well as without feeling like he or she just got lectured or schooled.

I’m going to talk to Andy today about the best way to get donations to him — suffice it to say, their budget is beyond dismal — and will add that information when he does. But I also thought I’d pool all of you to see if anyone worked at/owned a print shop, or knew anyone who did, to see if we couldn’t find a shop willing to donate the printing of these full-stop, or provide a discount in creating them.

Addendum:I have had some awesome users with some excellent ideas that are totally doable for this for Andy, sans donations. Thanks so much, y’all!

(More from me later on other things, but just wanted to start the day with these two items: they’re important.)

filed under activism | feminism
posted on Tuesday, August 14th, 2007 at 9:25 am

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