Women of Vision National Conference - Lobby Day

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

I spent this past week in Washington DC at the National Women of Vision conference.  The theme for the week was "Every Woman Has A Story: Change Her Story . . . Change History".  The bonus of this time for me was that my dear friend and angel, Angela Mason was going to be there.  She was the MC for the conference and opened our time on Sunday night with an event called, "Bedtime Stories with Angela Mason" where she told her story.  Having moved to the United States from Great Britain in the '80's to learn to speak "American", Angela soon found herself doing corporate headhunting.  Then in 1989 when 60 Minutes aired their special on children who were dying in orphanages in Romania simply because they weren't being held, she found her calling as an advocate for suffering children.  She began a non-profit organization called "Touch Romania" and once it was up and running successfully, was asked by World Vision to come to work for them, raising money and advocating for children and women worldwide.

  

That was 20 years ago and today she continues her work with World Vision.  I traveled with Angela to Bosnia in September, and that trip was the impetus for all the change that has transpired in my life during the past 6 months. The added bonus of this week was that four out of the six of us women who traveled to Bosnia were there together.  It was wonderful spending time with Angela, Jeanie and Mary!  We enjoyed reminiscing about our trip and shared many laughs and fond memories. (photo above: Me, Angela, Jeanie, Mary)

The highlight of the conference for me was on Tuesday, when I, along with 250 women converged on Capitol Hill for a total of 100 meetings with our Senators and Representatives.  Now then, for any of you who know me, you know that lobbying is not something for which I have ever been passionate.  You might even say that it is one of the last things I ever wanted or expected to do.  But as you also know, I am not the same person that I was six months ago.  I have fully embraced my newfound desire to try new things, especially if they have anything to do with advocating for women and children. 

So there I found myself on Tuesday, sitting around a table in Barbara Boxer’s conference room, lobbying for two bills to be passed. (photo from Barbara Boxer's conference room)  The first bill was the Child Protection Compact Act (H.R. 2737), which aims to end the trafficking of children.  Typically, poor girls from rural areas are sold or stolen away from their families to serve as sex slaves in brothels.  This problem is compounded in times of economic hardship, as children are often viewed as either a financial burden or a source of income. Human trafficking is essentially a modern slave trade and women and children make up 80 percent of all trafficking cases.  With Senator Boxer, we were urging her to quickly introduce the bill.  She fully supports it and has agreed to sponsor it, along with Senator Cardin and she is working to get Senator Brownback to agree to sponsor it with them.  This particular bill will provide targeted resources to countries that have shown the political desire to combat trafficking but lack the resources to do so.

This bill would require $50 million over three years.  A unique feature of the bill is that the focus countries would be required to enter into a “Child Protection Compact” with the United States that identifies strategies for protecting children and deterring the crime, and benchmarks for measuring progress towards meeting specific goals. The biggest obstacle with this bill is the need for ‘new money’.  We were encouraged to hear that Senator Boxer is fully behind the bill and wants to introduce it as quickly as possible. (photo from Dianne Feinstein's conference room)

The second bill that we lobbied for was the Newborn, Child and Mother Survival Act (H.R. 1410 in the House of Representatives) and the Global Child Survival Act (S. 1966 in the Senate).  This bill will prevent the needless death of mothers and children.  Nearly 9 million children die each year, or 24,000 a day from preventable causes such as diarrhea, measles, malaria, pneumonia and neonatal complications with nearly one-third of them linked to malnutrition.  This is considered a “silent emergency” and the overwhelming contributing factor to these deaths is poverty, with 99% of them occurring in developing countries where access to safe water, essential health services and nutrition is limited or unaffordable. 

Using low-cost solutions can prevent most of these deaths.  Approximately two-thirds of these children could be saved each year if they would be provided with simple solutions such as malaria bed nets, oral rehydration, exclusive breast-feeding, immunizations and proper medical care at birth.  This is a budget-neutral bill, as funds only need to be reappropriated.  Senator Boxer is fully on board with this particular bill and they are in discussions about it. 

We came away from our day on Capitol Hill feeling like suffragettes.  A friend of mine, Diane asked me if it was an intimidating or an empowering experience and I was pleased and proud to tell her that it was not at all intimidating and was most certainly empowering.  As we were being prepared for our Lobby Day on Monday, we were reminded that our Senators and Representatives work for us.  It is their job to listen to us and they exist in their roles to be our voices.  Sitting in those offices, speaking passionately about what tugs at our hearts, what we so vehemently believe in was an amazing experience.  We were warmly welcomed in every office, intently listened to, and were asked intelligent questions so that they could fully understand where we were coming from.  We were respected, encouraged and educated as to how we can continue our pursuit of advocating for women and children in our government.  We were told that every letter and e-mail is read and answered, every phone call is listened to and noted and that there is power in numbers.  In Senator Feinstein’s office, we were told that if they receive 15 or 20 letters in a given week regarding a particular bill, they would sit up and take notice, recognizing that it is important enough for us to write about. (photo: the California constituency...40 women strong!)

 Lobbying on behalf of children and women around the world in hopes of getting bills passed was a wonderful experience and we ended our day feeling that perhaps we CAN make a difference if we are willing to speak up for those who have no voice.  You should try it!  Hey, if Laura Ackerman can do it, anyone can!  (Photos from Lobby Day: Angela Mason, Mary Gleason, Jeanie Ralphs, Shari Lucas....and me :)