Government-initiated Family Planning Program Violates Women’s Rights, FPOP Claims
… Family Planning Organization of the Philippines] FPOP and their RH [reproductive health] advocates learned that the government has launched a massive campaign to promote Natural family planning that are decried by RH NGOs as a blatant attack to the right of women to decide freely on the method of their choice.
… Alcantara added that dwindling supplies of contraceptives in many LGUs have forced women to resort to drastic measures such as abortion. Besides, with close to half of the Filipino women living in poverty, many couples, it said are unable to buy contraceptives which used to be available in government clinics for free.
… FPOP also observed that very few LGUs have really initiated steps like engaging in social marketing schemes to ensure the stable supply of contraceptives in their communities.
New CEO for ALAC
The Alcohol Advisory Council (ALAC) today announced the appointment of Gerard Vaughan as ALAC’s new Chief Executive Officer… He is currently based in the Public Health Directorate at the Ministry of Health in Wellington where he is national project manager for Like Minds, Like Mine - a social marketing campaign to reduce stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness.
Grassroots Prevention
…There’s definitely more sexual silence, in particular in Latinos who are practicing Catholics, or who are newer immigrants. There is also a high degree homophobia — there’s a prevalence of the old stereotype that HIV/AIDS is a gay disease. The Latino population don’t see themselves at risk; information that researchers are finding out is not getting translated to community norms and beliefs.
One of the exciting aspects of this project was the HIV/AIDS Latino Leadership Summit, where about 130 community members and activists came together. Out of that, the HIV Latino task force has formed — a dozen community members focused on taking the research findings and creating a social norm campaign to de-stigmatize HIV/AIDS in the Latino community, increase condom usage, increase HIV testing, do some social marketing.
Penn State Institute to Lead National Effort to Combat Childhood Obesity
…I-CAAN [The Institute for Collective Advancement of Activity and Nutrition], an outgrowth of Pennsylvania Advocates for Nutrition and Activity (PANA), will employ PANA's successful social marketing model of bringing together many different public and private partners to create simultaneous change in school, community and health-care settings. Unlike many of the isolated programs that occur at one school and hope behavior change will spread from there, PANA has created one of the only coalitions in the country that has applied CDC funding at a statewide and multi-sector level for obesity prevention projects.
Established by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and supported by federal funding from the Centers for Disease Control, PANA has been in operation since 2003. Its accomplishments include the innovative and widespread Keystone Healthy Zone (KHZ) schools campaign, a free annual program that provides schools with access to resources, promotional events and mini-grants for improving nutrition and increasing physical activity. In only three years, KHZ has enrolled an impressive 79 percent of Pennsylvania's 501 school districts, reaching 1,677 schools and 913,000 students in 2006.
Women More Likely to Receive Subprime Home Loans; Disparity Highest for Women with Highest Incomes
Women are more likely to receive subprime home mortgage than men and these higher rates of subprime lending make it harder for households headed by women to build wealth through homeownership. In 2005, about a third of women took out mortgages with interest rates over 7.66 percent (well above the average prime mortgage rate of 5.87 percent) compared to about a quarter of men, according to a new study released today by the Consumer Federation of America.
“The high levels of subprime lending among women compromise their ability to steadily accrue equity by paying off their mortgage – one of the easiest and most effective pathways to building wealth in America,” said Nancy Register, Associate Director of Consumer Federation of America and National Director of America Saves, a social marketing campaign to encourage lower- and moderate-income households to save and build wealth.
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