VOLUME 56 | ISSUE 4 | DECEMBER 2024
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Expanding Family Planning Access in Indonesia
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This issue's featured article highlights Ipas Indonesia's work to improve access to modern family planning and reproductive health care in three districts of Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara province. According to the Indonesian National Family Planning Coordinating Board, modern contraception usage in this region was just 42.2% in 2022, falling significantly short of the national average of 59.4%.
To address this challenge, Ipas Indonesia launched the TAKENUSA [[link removed]] (Tekad bersama untuk perempuan Nusa Tenggara, or “Collective Determination for Women in Nusa Tenggara”) program. This initiative focuses on two key strategies to broaden contraceptive access in the region. First, Ipas is providing targeted training for midwives, empowering them to deliver high-quality contraceptive services and support. Second, Ipas is partnering with local organizations to train local leaders and community health workers to disseminate contraceptive information.
Read on to learn more about this important program!
Read More About Ipas Indonesia's TAKENUSA Program [[link removed]]
PROGRAM UPDATES
[[link removed]] #Fight4HER Election Season Summits and Canvasses
The #Fight4HER campaign was in full swing this fall, as we gathered support for the Global HER Act and went door-to-door to Get Out The Vote!
Read Updates From the Field [[link removed]]
[[link removed]] Election Outcomes Dwarf Other Battles
The results of the election put the future of reproductive health and rights across the US and around the world in serious doubt.
See the Latest Updates From the Hill [[link removed]]
[[link removed]] 2024 PopEd Leadership Institutes
This year, we hosted two Leadership Training Institutes to prepare 51 new trainers to share our interactive lessons with K–12 teachers and student teachers in their local areas.
Learn More About PopEd Leadership Institutes [[link removed]]
[[link removed]] A Cornucopia of Virtual Events This Fall
Population Connection members and supporters tuned in for an eclectic variety of events throughout the fall.
Find Recaps and More Here [[link removed]]
[[link removed]] Global Partner Spotlight: Asociación Manos Abiertas
Founded in Antigua in 2006, Asociación Manos Abiertas brings reproductive health care, contraceptive services, perinatal and delivery care, and more to women in Guatemala.
Learn About Their Work [[link removed]]
[[link removed]] Member Profile: John Dwyer
John Dwyer’s life is a testament to his fascination with the universe and our planet, as well as his dedication to finding ways for humans to coexist sustainably with nature.
Learn Why He Supports Our Mission [[link removed]]
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Stay up to date on population news and demographic trends.
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LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
Dear Friend,
“Meanwhile, his men were bridging the Hellespont from Asia to Europe. But no sooner had the strait been bridged than a great storm swept down, breaking and scattering everything. When Xerxes heard of this, he was very angry and commanded that the Hellespont be whipped with three hundred lashes …”
– Herodotus [[link removed]]
This is not the column I planned to present. I’m writing this in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s victory. Given his highly erratic — not to mention bizarre and mean-spirited — nature, there is no way to predict exactly what will transpire once he is back in the Oval Office. It will certainly be very bad news for the priorities we care about deeply. No doubt he will reimpose the odious Global Gag Rule [[link removed]] and take other actions that will severely damage the reproductive health programs that empower women and are vitally needed to meet the challenges posed by overpopulation.
Trump, whose mammoth self-regard knows no limits, will almost certainly choose to ignore any and all facts that do not fit his chaotic agenda. In his own strange way, he may, like Xerxes some 25 centuries ago, seek to visit punishment on the planet itself by canceling efforts to address climate change, among other things.
In the United Kingdom, there is a long-standing political sideshow called the Monster Raving Loony Party. One of its candidates called for repealing the Law of Gravity [[link removed]] . At times, political pomposity needs to be deflated through humor. But there is nothing funny about electing despotic demagogues to high office.
The presidency is the most powerful office on Earth. But there are things that no president can do. Presidents cannot repeal the laws of physics. Presidents cannot control chemical reactions. Presidents cannot prevent natural disasters or shift the direction of hurricanes with a Sharpie [[link removed]] .
Presidents also cannot alter arithmetic. Every year, we add some 70 million people to our already overcrowded planet. Every year, we deplete and destroy irreplaceable natural resources. Every year, we come closer to all manner of tipping points. Nature always bats last.
The most important lesson I learned during my 20 years in politics was to keep at it. Win or lose, the work still needs to be done. And that is exactly what we will continue to do at Population Connection. Somebody needs to keep raising the alarm about the impacts of overpopulation. And if we don’t do it, no one will.
Electoral victories often provide a false sense of comfort, while defeats are a test of character — a way to determine whether commitment to a mission is truly steadfast.
We will persevere.
[[link removed]] John Seager
PRESIDENT AND CEO
[email protected] [[email protected]]
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