UNFPA – Request for a donation: Today, I received an email from the UNFPA Individual Giving Team, which said: “In many parts of the world right now, temperatures are soaring. Up to 51°C in some places. But did you know that climate change disproportionately impacts women and girls? 

Image: Esther, a midwife, leads a hygiene awareness session at the Kigonze displacement camp, Ituri province.

A temperature increase of 1°C can increase chances of losing a baby by 6%.

Every two minutes, a mother dies giving birth somewhere in the world, and the heat is only making it worse. 

Your donation today can help save a mother’s life.”

So I asked myself, “How is it that a United Nations agency is reduced to having to beg for donations of $10 from how many millions of individuals like me, instead of receiving grants of hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars at one time, when there are so many donors for whom the money UNFPA needs is small change. I have to ask, who are those donors giving their money to instead, and why have they stopped funding a UN agency whose purpose in life is to save the lives of women giving birth and the lives of their newborn babies.  

“SHAME ON YOU!” IS ALL I CAN SAY TO THOSE DONORS. Because there are so many VERY RICH countries and VERY RICH donors who would rather spend their time bombing other countries and killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people than helping to make life safer for pregnant women and their newborns. 

Photos from UNFPA website:

A UNFPA-supported midwife in North Kivu explains the risks for pregnant women and precautionary measures that can be taken to prevent or reduce transmission of Ebola virus.

PLEASE WRITE TO YOUR DONORS, THOSE OF YOU WITH A LOT OF MONEY, SEND THEM THIS REPORT AND THE REQUEST FROM UNFPA AND SHAME THEM INTO GIVING SERIOUS FUNDING WHERE IT IS BADLY NEEDED. MB