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Sample Letter
Below is one of the letters that started the campaign. Please
feel free to pass it on to friends.
Dear Friends:
I am asking you to join in sending
a message from 34,000,000 American
women. The message will help
women living in countries where the lack of medical services
(not to mention the lack of other necessities that we take
for granted
every day) results in hardships beyond our imaginations.
The
US made a commitment of $34 million to the United Nations Population
Fund last winter, with Congress
approving the funds and President
Bush signing the bill containing the appropriation. The Fund provides
family planning and reproductive health services to women in
142
countries. It has a budget of about $270 million worldwide and
does “invaluable work,” as Secretary of State Colin Powell said during
his confirmation hearings. The Fund’s programs help some of the
most impoverished and underserved women in the world.
Our country
has reneged on its commitment. The reason given for refusing
to release the $34 million is that the Fund provides aid
to Chinese government agencies that force women to have abortions.
However,
a State Department fact-finding mission was sent to China in May
to investigate exactly that
allegation. The mission reported
that it found no evidence that the program “knowingly supported
or participated in the management of a program of coercive abortion
or involuntary sterilization” and recommended that the funds be
released. In addition, the Population Fund is barred by law from
using US money in China and, as a U.N. organization, from funding
any abortion related activities.
If 34,000,000 American women send
one dollar each to the U.N. Population Fund, we can 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 one.
PLEASE, NOW: Put a dollar, wrapped
in a plain sheet of paper, in an envelope marked with “34 Million Friends.” If
you wish your gift to be acknowledged on the web address www.unfpa.org,
print your
name on the sheet of paper. Then mail it today to:
Chief, Resource Mobilization Branch
UNFPA
220 East 42nd Street
New York 10017
EVEN MORE IMPORTANT: Send this letter on to at least ten friends--more
would be better!-- who may join in this message.
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