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THE POWER OF ONE – Meet Two Remarkable Women Who Live the Power of One on June 25!

Have you ever asked yourself: I’m only one person, what can I possible do to make a difference in the world?” On Friday, June 25 at 7:30 we had the opportunity to meet two remarkable women who show us the power one person has to change the world:  Pat McCully, founder of Circulo de Amigas and Jane Roberts, founder of 34 Million Friends of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).

There is a Chinese proverb that states: Women hold up half the sky. Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, authors of Half The Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity For Women Worldwide, quote a report from the early 1990’s from the World Bank: “Investment in girls’ education may be the highest-return investment available in the developing world.  The question is not whether countries can afford this investment, but whether countries can afford not to educate more girls.”  A 2001 report  from the World Bank states that promoting gender equality is crucial to combat global poverty.  UNICEF issued a major report arguing that gender equality yields a “double dividend” by elevating not only women but also their children and communities.  The United Nations Development Programme summed up the mounting research this way: “Women’s empowerment helps raise economic productivity and reduces infant mortality.  It contributes to improved health and nutrition.  It increases the chances of education for the next generation.”

Have you ever asked yourself: I’m only one person, what can I possible do to make a difference in the world?” On June 25th we have the opportunity to meet two remarkable women who will show us the power one person has to change the world:  Pat McCully, founder of Circulo de Amigas and Jane Roberts, founder of 34 Million Friends of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).

The story of Circulo de Amigas (Circle of Friends) is the story of how one woman’s resolve to teach a group of rural Nicaraguan women to sew has grown to encompass much more.  Today Circulo is improving health, stimulating minds, building homes, empowering communities, and even saving the rain forest.

Circulo’s work takes place in Jinotegta, Nicaragua, a small mountain community about four hours north of the the Nicaraguan capital, Managua.  Their mission is to alleviate poverty by helping women acquire skills and the tools needed to improve their lives, enabling their children to attend school, providing community health services and giving direct aid to victims of severe family hardship or regional crisis.

Pat McCully taught Spanish in California for 20 years.  In 1983 she visited Nicaragua for the first time, returning again in 1984 and 1985.   It was during these last visits that Pat traveled to the more remote areas of the country where she spoke with the poor and observed how they lived.  Standing in the ruins of a burned-down, one-room schoolhouse, she felt compelled to do something to  help with the extreme poverty she witnessed.

A lot of the women Pat saw had nothing but rags to wear.  She decided she would teach them how to sew clothes for themselves and their children.  In 1993 she purchased a house on the edge of Jinotega.  The parlor of that house is a classroom where local women are taught to sew using donated machines and supplies.

Circulo has also adopted a preschool, is helping to save eyes and lungs (and rain forest) from harsh wood cooking, and is providing computers to public schools that formerly did not even have typewriters.  Through Amigos del Estudio, Circulo has found sponsors for dozens of students who would not have otherwise gone to school (JOY Ministry is one of those sponsors).  It has also provided a much needed library for the barrio’s residents, who have no books in their homes or in the little school up the road.

Go to camigas.org to learn more and how you can help.

Born in San Diego, Jane Roberts, a retired French teacher and tennis instructor, knew that when the world takes care of women, women take care of the world.  In 2002, Jane and Lois Abraham, a grandmother from New Mexico, were thinking the same thing at the same time.  Then President Bush had withheld $34 million from the UNFPA, barring funds to any foreign aid group that counseled women about abortion options or had any link to abortions.  Their solution?  Ask 34,000,000 American  women to send one dollar each to the UNFPA to help the Fund continue its invaluable work and at the same time confirm that providing family planning and reproductive health services to women who would otherwise have none is a humanitarian issue, not a political issue.

UNFPA works in over 150 countries at their invitation to help women survive childbirth and the help families practice family planning.  It educates the world’s adolescents about the dangers of HIV/AIDS.  It stresses girls’ education and discourages harmful cultural practices such as female genital mutilation and child marriage which often lead to long term harm.

As of April 30, 2010, 34 Million Friends has been responsible for $4,158,612. in donations to the UNFPA.   Even after President Obama announced in January 2009 that he would restore funding to the UNFPA, Jane has said: “With population pressures and environmental pressures, and economic pressures in much of the world, women will bear the brunt of gender-based violence even more than now.  So for me 34 Million Friends is my work.  It is my passion.  I don’t think any cause is greater in the long term for people, the planet, and peace.  So for me, on we go!”

Go to 34millionfriends.org to learn more and become one of the 34 Million Friends of UNFPA.