Altrusa Joins UN World Population Day Observance

11 July is World Population Day

From: http://www.unfpa.org/public/world-population-day/.

Focus is on Adolescent Pregnancy

Join the discussion on Twitter and Facebook  #worldpopday

About 16 million girls under age 18 give birth each year. Another 3.2 million undergo unsafe abortions.

The vast majority – 90 per cent -- of the pregnant adolescents in the developing world are married. But for far too many of these girls, pregnancy has little to do with informed choice. Often it is a consequence of discrimination, rights violations (including child marriage), inadequate education or sexual coercion.

Adolescent pregnancy is a health issue: the youngest mothers face a heightened risk of maternal complications, death and disability, including obstetric fistula. Their children face higher risks as well.

It is also an issue of human rights. Adolescent pregnancy often means an abrupt end of childhood, a curtailed education and lost opportunities.

On this World Population Day, we raise awareness of the issue of adolescent pregnancy in the hopes of delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.

Other UN Observances: World Blood Donor Day

Go on, make a vampire happy. Today is World Blood Donor Day, a day to raise awareness and thank donors who make a personal sacrifice to help.

What a wonderful service project idea, lending itself to lots of creative ways to both raise awareness and get the Altrusa name out there. For example, you could host a blood drive in conjunction with your local blood bank. Make it a contest or give it a theme: Get 2013 donors in 2013, or “Making Every Drop Count.” Dress like vampires. Make it fun!

By the time you read this, World Blood Donor Day will be in full swing. It’s probably a little late to coordinate a project, but it’s not too late to go donate blood today, or even tomorrow. Just walk in! Altrusans don’t need an organized project to be of service. And you can still spread the word about Altrusa: Invite the blood center’s staff members to your next club meeting, both as potential members and as your program or Accent!

Beth Blair
Governor
 
Please let your voice be heard. Write your ideas, and send them to Governor Beth for publishing on “Thoughts From the Mighty Ninth.”

World Environment Day

From the World Environment Day website:

The theme for this year’s World Environment Day celebrations is Think.Eat.Save. Think.Eat.Save is an anti-food waste and food loss campaign that encourages you to reduce your foodprint. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), every year 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted. This is equivalent to the same amount produced in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, 1 in every 7 people in the world go to bed hungry, and more than 20,000 children under the age of 5 die daily from hunger.

Given this enormous imbalance in lifestyles and the resultant devastating effects on the environment, this year’s theme—Think.Eat.Save—encourages you to become more aware of the environmental impact of the food choices you make and empowers you to make informed decisions.

While the planet is struggling to provide us with enough resources to sustain its 7 billion people (growing to 9 billion by 2050), FAO estimates that a third of global food production is either wasted or lost. Food waste is an enormous drain on natural resources and a contributor to negative environmental impacts.

This year’s campaign rallies you to take action from your home and then witness the power of collective decisions you and others have made to reduce food waste, save money, minimize the environmental impact of food production and force food production processes to become more efficient.

If food is wasted, it means that all the resources and inputs used in the production of all the food are also lost. For example, it takes about 1,000 liters of water to produce 1 liter of milk and about 16,000 liters goes into a cow’s food to make a hamburger. The resulting greenhouse gas emissions from the cows themselves, and throughout the food supply chain, all end up in vain when we waste food.

In fact, the global food production occupies 25 percent of all habitable land and is responsible for 70 percent of fresh water consumption, 80 percent of deforestation, and 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. It is the largest single driver of biodiversity loss and land-use change.

Making informed decision therefore means, for example, that you purposefully select foods that have less of an environmental impact, such as organic foods that do not use chemicals in the production process. Choosing to buy locally can also mean that foods are not flown halfway across the world and therefore limit emissions.

So think before you eat and help save our environment!

The World Environment Day website, http://www.unep.org/wed/, has a lot of great information about this U.N. observance day that you can use in your Club meetings to draw attention to the event.

 

Refugees Have No Choice. You Do.

Today is World Refugee Day as recognized by the United Nations. Here is the description from their website:  

For years, many countries and regions have been holding their own Refugee Days and even Weeks. One of the most widespread is Africa Refugee Day, which is celebrated on 20 June in several countries.

The UN General Assembly, on 4 December 2000, adopted resolution 55/76 where it noted that 2001 marked the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, and that the Organization of African Unity (OAU) had agreed to have International Refugee Day coincide with Africa Refugee Day on 20 June.

The General Assembly therefore decided that 20 June would be celebrated as World Refugee Day.

This year the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, will start marking World Refugee Day by rolling out a striking new campaign, "Dilemmas," which is a development of the award-winning "1" campaign launched last year. "Dilemmas" depicts some of the tough choices facing refugees, helping the public to empathize with, and understand, their dilemma.

Click here to read the UN Secretary-General's message about World Refugee Day.

World No-Tobacco Day

From the World Health Organization's website:

Theme: Tobacco industry interference

16 September 2011 -The World Health Organization (WHO) selects "tobacco industry interference" as the theme of the next World No Tobacco Day, which will take place on Thursday, 31 May 2012.

The campaign will focus on the need to expose and counter the tobacco industry's brazen and increasingly aggressive attempts to undermine the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) because of the serious danger they pose to public health.

Tobacco use is one of the leading preventable causes of death. The global tobacco epidemic kills nearly 6 million people each year, of which more than 600,000 are people exposed to second-hand smoke. Unless we act, it will kill up to 8 million people by 2030, of which more than 80% will live in low- and middle-income countries.

As more and more countries move to fully meet their obligations under the WHO FCTC, the tobacco industry's efforts to undermine the treaty are becoming more and more energetic.

For example, in an attempt to halt the adoption of pictorial health warnings on packages of tobacco, the industry recently adopted the novel tactic of suing countries under bilateral investment treaties, claiming that the warnings impinge the companies' attempts to use their legally-registered brands.

Meanwhile, the industry's attempts to undermine the treaty continue on other fronts, particularly with regard to countries' attempts to ban smoking in enclosed public places and to ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.

World No Tobacco Day 2012 will educate policy-makers and the general public about the tobacco industry's nefarious and harmful tactics.

It will also be in keeping with the letter and the spirit of the WHO FCTC. The preamble of the treaty recognizes "the need to be alert to any efforts by the tobacco industry to undermine or subvert tobacco control efforts and the need to be informed of activities of the tobacco industry that have a negative impact on tobacco control efforts".

In addition, Article 5.3 of the treaty states that "in setting and implementing their public health policies with respect to tobacco control, Parties shall act to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in accordance with national law".

Furthermore, the guidelines to the implementation of Article 5.3 state that Parties are recommended to "raise awareness about…tobacco industry interference with Parties' tobacco control policies".

On World No Tobacco Day 2012, and throughout the following year, WHO will urge countries to put the fight against tobacco industry interference at the heart of their efforts to control the global tobacco epidemic.

International Day of Families

While not a political organization, Altrusa places emphasis on many international observances as decreed by the United Nations. Today is the International Day of Families, an occasion to celebrate the importance of families to people, societies, and cultures around the world.

This year's theme is "Ensuring Work and Family Balance."

What Can Altrusans Do?
Change starts at home! Raising awareness in your community can as simple as

• Posting suggestions to balance work and family on your club's or personal Facebook page.
• Sending gift cards (spa, movies, restaurants, etc.) to hard-working folks you know, along with a note reminding them to take some time to be with their familes. 
• Sponsoring family game night or reading night at your local community center or library.

What are your ideas for spreading the word about the importance of family in your community? For more background about the UN's International Day of Families, see the page on the United Nations' website: http://www.un.org/en/events/familyday/.