AIDS leading cause of death, disease in women

From the Washington Post:  “In its first study of women’s health around the globe, the World Health Organization said Monday that the AIDS virus is the leading cause of death and disease among women between the ages of 15 and 44.  Unsafe sex is the leading risk factor in developing countries for these women of childbearing age, with others including lack of access to contraceptives and iron deficiency, the WHO said. Throughout the world, one in five deaths among women in this age group is linked to unsafe sex, according to the U.N. agency… WHO chief Dr. Margaret Chan noted that women enjoy a biological advantage because they tend to live six to eight years longer than men. But in many parts of the world they suffer serious disadvantages because of poverty, poorer access to health care and cultural norms that put a priority on the well-being of men, she said.”

Read the full article.

Marilee Pierce Dunker speaks about AIDS in Africa

On our October 19 blog, we shared that the Grove Community Church in Riverside , CA, hosted World Vision’s “Step Into Africa” exhibit during the week of October 18.  Over 4100 people walked through the multi-media exhibit that recreates the true experiences of 4 different children whose lives have been severely impacted by AIDS.  At last count 838 children were sponsored during the week-long AIDS exhibit but sponsorships are still coming in!  Marilee Pierce Dunker, a Senior Advisor for Women of Vision and the daughter of World Vision founder, Bob Pierce, spoke at the Sunday morning services to launch the week.  Click here to watch her message entitled, “Step Into Africa…Putting a Face on the AIDS Pandemic.”

New WOV chapter starting in Dallas!

We are delighted to annouce the start of a Women of Vision Dallas Chapter.  If you are located in the Dallas area, please join us for an upcoming introductory lunch.  If you have family or friends who would live in the Dallas area, please refer your friends!

All interested women are invited to attend a luncheon and learn about Women of Vision, World Vision’s women’s volunteer ministry as our National Director, Cindy Breilh, discusses the impact Women of Vision chapters are having around the world!

When:  Thursday, November 12, 2009 11:30am – 1:00pm
RSVP:  Please RSVP to bducote@worldvision.org or 214.384.0464

Problem: Poverty. Solution: Lending Small Loans to Women!

In our May 13 blog, we introduced you to “Coffee with Women of Vision,” a conference call opportunity to join with like-minded women from all over the US for a great conversation. Women of Vision is delighted to announce our next Coffee date.

Women of Vision/World Vision welcomes special guest Sean Kerrigan in conversation with Angela Mason.  Sean Kerrigan is World Vision’s Microfinance Sector Lead based in Seattle.  He brings more than 8 years of innovative ideas and cross-cultural marketing and communication skills to the world of microcredit.  Call in for a sneak preview about MICRO (www.worldvisionmicro.org) and learn how one woman helping another woman can be thrilling and empowering for both!

Date: Saturday, November 7, 2009
Time: 7:30am PST/ 8:30am MST/ 9:30am CST/ 10:30am EST

RSVP: At this time we have a limited number of lines available for this nationwide call. Please reply to this post and we will email you the toll-free number and passcode. Friends are welcome!

World Vision’s President Richard Stearns to speak at Messiah College

Richard Stearns, the President of World Vision, is scheduled to speak at Messiah College in Grantham, PA this Thursday, November 5.  Tickets are free and the event starts at 7:30pm.  Click here for more information.

World Vision Forms New Anti-Malaria Partnership to Protect Millions

From The Christian Post: ”International aid agency World Vision and the Against Malaria Foundation (AMF) have formed a new partnership to better protect children in four African countries from malaria – one of the leading causes of death on the continent. The initiative, “Operation Safety Net,” aims to provide three million insecticide-treated bed nets in Zambia, Kenya, Mozambique and Mali, protecting an estimated 6 million people at risk of contracting a preventable, curable disease that kills more African children than does HIV/AIDS. “Malaria is decimating the lives of young children today, claiming nearly a million each year,” noted Craig Jaggers, World Vision’s health policy advisor. “We are working to wipe out this killer, community by community, so we don’t lose a generation of children to a disease that is entirely preventable.” “

To read the rest of this article, click here.  For more about World Vision’s efforts to combat malaria, click here.

Oakland church to launch safehouse for teen girls

First Covenant Church (Oakland, California) has taken on a project to help victims of exploitation and trafficking.  A nonprofit organization has been formed that is planning to start a safehouse/boarding school for teen girls who have been prostituted.

You are invited to attend a meeting and meet the new director this Friday at 7:00 pm at First Covenant Church in Oakland (4000 Redwood Rd., in the Fireside Room).  Find out ways in which you can be involved and help launch this project!

Pakistan’s Forgotten Plight: Modern-Day Slavery

From Time.com: “As Hillary Clinton pays her first visit to Pakistan as Secretary of State, an unfolding hostage crisis will test the Obama Administration’s rhetoric on human rights in the region. Officials at the U.S. embassy in Islamabad say at least three landlords have held as many as 170 bonded farmworkers at gunpoint on their estates in the country’s southeast Sindh province since late September. With U.S. attention focused on getting Pakistan to deal with huge security issues to Washington’s satisfaction, will Clinton be able to press Islamabad’s rulers to address a controversy involving rural poverty and modern-day slavery?”

Read the rest of the article here.

Clinton’s Opening Remarks at Combating Violence Against Girls Event

On September 25, 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gave the opening remarks at a “Combating Violence Against Girls” event.  She called women and girls’ issues “…truly at the core of what we are attempting to do under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that is the guiding message of this organization and what each of us in our own countries is called to do on behalf of equal opportunity and social justice.”

Read her full statement here.

In War Zones, Rape Is A Powerful Weapon

From NPR:  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been putting women’s issues at the center of her work: speaking out forcefully against recent rapes in Guinea, leading a special U.N. Security Council meeting on women and security, and even visiting eastern Congo, where the use of rape as a weapon of war has affected hundreds of thousands of women.

But, as Clinton is discovering, highlighting these issues is one thing — and getting the international community to do something about them is quite another.

Sexual violence against women has been a feature in most recent conflicts — from the Balkans to Myanmar, Sri Lanka to Guinea. At the end of September, the Security Council adopted a new resolution that specifically mandates peacekeeping missions to protect women and children from rampant sexual violence during armed conflict.

Clinton said she hoped the resolution would make a difference. One way to help, the U.S. secretary of state suggested, is to have more women involved in mediation efforts. “The more we know about conflicts, the more we realize that women, who do not start conflicts, are often the victims, but women have tremendous potential to being peacemakers and peacekeepers,” she said.

 To read more from this article, or to listen to the NPR story, click here.