Does Buying Pink Stuff Make A Difference In The Fight Against Breast Cancer?

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Oct 052010
 

It’s October and you know what that means–time to keep your eyes open for the most inappropriate pink thing being sold in an effort to raise awareness about breast cancer. Yes, it is important to be aware, but does it have to be so pepto pink to get our attention? And what about products that make more money for the company selling them than they generate for breast cancer programs? And in the seriously despicable department, what about products that have been linked to cancer that are pink-washed? Breast Cancer Action’s Think Before You Pink campaign points to pinkified alcohol products as a contender in this year’s contest. If you see something you want to share, please send a link in the comments.  BCA also has this excellent list of questions you should ask before you buy something pink:

  • What is the company doing to assure that its products are not contributing to the breast cancer epidemic?
  • How much money actually goes toward breast cancer programs and services? Where is the money going?
  • What types of programs are being supported?

Also, be sure to check out Breast Cancer Fund’s 2010 State of the Evidence report on breast cancer that,

summarizes and evaluates the scientific evidence linking exposures to chemicals and radiation in our everyday environments to increased breast cancer risk. It also links the science to actions we can take to reduce the risk.

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 Posted by Fempeace on October 5, 2010

Tubal Ligation In The Aftermath Of Pakistani Flood

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Sep 152010
 

As we have already highlighted several times on the Feminist Peace Network blog, maternal health care in the aftermath of the Pakistani flooding is a huge concern with estimates of some 500,000 pregnant women being impacted by the disaster.  However, the wording in this article is disturbing:

(Dr Nighat) Shah, (secretary-general of the Society of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, Pakistan (SOGP)) says that at the very least, with many of the camps now being visited by health professionals, women there are benefiting from reproductive-health information that they would have otherwise missed. This, says the doctor, may help the women break free from what she calls the “death trap” of frequent pregnancies.

Now, says Shah, “We can provide them the much-needed family planning services”.

(Dr. Azra) Ahsan (of the National Committee for Maternal Neonatal and Child Health (NCMNH))  herself notes that with only 22 percent of married Pakistani women using a modern family-planning method, this may be an “opportune time” to introduce the intrauterine contraceptive device (IUCD) to the women in the camps.

She does not think pills would be a successful intervention, reasoning, “They will either forget to take it, or when the dose finishes they may discontinue (taking it).”

Shah favours tubal ligation for those who already have more than three or four children. She even suggests offering counseling to women who come to deliver their babies at hospitals, and encouraging them to opt for ligation after their family is “complete”.

“When they return home,” says Shah, “their lives will hopefully be better off if such interventions are made.”

So because these women’s lives have been decimated by flooding, sterilization should be suggested?  Aside from that smacking of sounding like population control, not maternal health care, many of these women have been displaced, their homes destroyed, they are living in refugee camps in very difficult conditions and it is being suggested that in addition to recovering from childbirth they are being asked to consider undergoing and recovering from elective surgery?  The implications of this report are disturbing and should be investigated.

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 Posted by Fempeace on September 15, 2010

In Pakistan 85% Of Those Displaced By Flooding Are Women, Including 500,000 Pregnant Women

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Sep 142010
 

As we’ve pointed out many times on this blog, there are women-specific impacts of environmental disasters.  Given the enormity of the Pakistan flooding, those impacts are particularly stark.  Via MADRE,

That the overwhelming impact of the floods on Pakistani women is largely invisible in the media, however, is no claim to its nonexistence. So far,  According to the Reproductive Health Response in Crises Consortium (RHRC), 85 percent of those displaced by the flood are women and children. In the aftermath of the floods, Pakistani women and children continue to face monumental hardships in an already conservative society. Overcrowding and flimsy tents force women and girls to bathe and sleep in close proximity to unrelated males. For women who have lost sons and husbands in the floods, they are offered little protection under conditions that already constrain women’s freedoms.

An added element to the hardships Pakistani women are now facing? An estimated 500,000 pregnant women are currently in their second or third trimesters. Of these, 100,000 women are due to give birth in the next month – most of them in crowded shelters unfit for childbirth, not far from stagnant and disease-ridden waters. As UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Pakistan Martin Mogwanja aptly stated, “This disaster has affected almost 18 million people. We don’t want it to also affect half a million babies who are not born yet”.

While we don’t usually post information multiple times, because of the severity of the situation, here again are links to some of the  organizations working in Pakistan or doing resource mobilization to support relief efforts there with particular sensitivity to women-specific needs:

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 Posted by Fempeace on September 14, 2010

Helping The Women Of Pakistan

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Aug 262010
 

As is always the case in the aftermath of an environmental disaster, women and children are particularly vulnerable and there are women-specific needs that are generally inadequately addressed by aid organizations, such as protection from violence in refugee camps, maternity needs, and providing feminine hygiene supplies.  There are a number or agencies working full tilt to provide aid to those affected by the flood (CARE, Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, the Red Cross).  Organizations that are particularly responsive to the needs of women include the Global Fund for Women and Madre.

Photo courtesy of Aware Girls

In addition, via Isis International, I received an email about the efforts of a young Pakistani women’s organization, Aware Girls, that is working to meet the needs of young women impacted by the flood. Gulalai Ismail, the organization’s Chairperson writes,

The Flood affected communities are struggling for their survival. Their habitats have been destroyed, they have lost their livelihood. In such circumstances in the patriarchal societies adolescent girls do not get proper attention to fulfill their specific needs, they are ignored by the Humanitarian support programs and even local philanthropists as their needs are not taken as an important issue. Diarrhea and other water related diseases are very common, the water has become contaminated, access to safe sanitation lacks. The young women and adolescent girls have little access to nutritious food. This program is focusing on these specific issues of young women. This program will supplement the ongoing support programs by UN agencies and other Support Programs in the area.

AWARE GIRLS is membership Organization and it has membership from the flood affected areas. The members from the target area have asked the organization to work for addressing the specific needs of the young and adolescents women. AWARE GIRLS is young women led organization working for the rights and development of young women of the Province.
The young women can feel the sufferings and problems of young women. AWARE GIRLS has already worked for Internally displaced Young women by providing them support KITS, raising voice for Gender Cluster, and developing Research Report for Mainstreaming Gender in Humanitarian work in the North Western Pakistan.

In the Gender neutral relief, rehabilitation efforts the specific needs of Adolescents Girls are ignored such that the use of unhygienic cloth for sanitary purpose during menses period may cause of spread of further diseases among the affected population. The young women have a little access to the relief and support provided by the Relief organizations because of patriarchal culture.

There is an urgent need to move from gender blindness to gender sensitivity in helping the victims of this disaster. it is imperative to ensure that a gender perspective is included in the disaster management programs so that the relief efforts are able to properly address Young women’s needs such that;

  • Fulfilling women specific requirements, such as sanitary pads /towels and clean white cloth and underwear,
  • Providing Contraceptives, blankets and clothes,
  • Toiletries: toilet rolls, soaps, shampoo, Towels,
  • Nutritional supplements (multi vitamins, iron etc)
  • Clean drinking water
  • Ware cleaning tablets

We have developed a KIT fulfilling these specific needs of young women. One KIT Costs 30 USD. We are Generating resources to approach 5,000 Young women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province and fulfil their needs.

Gulalai Ismail
Chairperson
AWARE GIRLS

If you are able to help with this effort, please contact Aware Girls here.  At this time, the best way to donate money to Aware Girls is via Western Union, please contact them for details.

Photo Courtesy of Aware Girls

Many thanks to Aware Girls for sharing these photographs which were taken in Northwestern Pakistan by Aware Girl supporters.

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 Posted by Fempeace on August 26, 2010

Faulty Assumptions In Assessing Impact Of Gulf Contamination Put Children At Particular Risk

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Aug 242010
 

Despite  the official spill over mantra regarding the BP Gulf oil disaster, it is becoming abundantly clear that it is anything but over as more and more evidence mounts of oxygen dead zones, oil and dispersant in seafood and the chemical stench and oil residue that is still painfully visible along and in the gulf.  Not only is the damage to the environment ongoing, but the full impact on human health will be unknown for years.  However, there is every reason to be very concerned, particularly for our most vulnerable populations including pregnant women and children (something I pointed out back in early June).   Dr. Gina Solomon of the NRDC explains further why this is so crucially important and why we need to change our assumptions about how we view this problem:

The FDA used faulty assumptions (described below) to determine how much contamination is OK to eat in Gulf seafood. This means that they set the bar too high and lower levels of contaminants could pose a risk to vulnerable populations – like pregnant women, children and communities who eat a lot of Gulf seafood.

  • By using an adult average body weight of 176 pounds the FDA does not adequately protect children, or even many women

The average body weight of a 4-6 year old child is about 47 pounds and half of American women weigh less than about 155 pounds. These smaller people would be getting a bigger dose of contaminants per pound of bodyweight than the FDA is estimating they’re getting. Not all of us are big men, after all.

  • FDA fails to account for the increased vulnerability of the developing fetus and young children

Children are particularly vulnerable to contaminants in seafood because their bodies are still developing, they ingest a larger portion of contaminants relative to their size, and they often don’t process chemicals as well as adults.  Human epidemiologic studies have found that fetuses can’t clear the genetic damage from PAHs as easily, and also that babies may be at increased risk of neurological effects from these chemicals.

There is nothing new in this one size fits all approach to measuring human impact.  For years Reference Man, who was

was born in 1974, but he remains perpetually between 20 and 30 years old. He stands 5 feet seven inches (170 cm), weighs 154 pounds (70 kilograms) and is a Caucasian from Western Europe or North America.

was used to assess the impact of X-rays on the human body.  It apparently didn’t occur to researchers that what was good  for Reference Man might be lethal to women or children.  It is unfortunate to see that ignorance once again playing out in data assumptions about the gulf.

In addition to Solomon’s blog, to fully understand what is happening in the Gulf, I highly recommend the ongoing coverage by Alexander Higgins Blog, this article on Sign of the Times and BP Oil Slick and Mother Jones’ Mac McClelland, Kate Sheppard and Julia Whitty.

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 Posted by Fempeace on August 24, 2010
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