Thirty-Four Million Friends at work. (Opinion).

ON FEBRUARY 8, 2003, THE last day of my trip to Mali and Senegal, a young Mali girl visiting a Youth Promotion and Health Center--jointly sponsored by the government of Mali and the United Nations Population Fund--went online and showed me that our idealistic Thirty-four Million Friends campaign to raise $34 million had surpassed $500,000. The campaign asks 34 million Americans to contribute $1 to make up for our president canceling the US contribution. Perhaps President Bush and his advisors don't realize the impact of their decision. Perhaps they don't know what that money is needed for. Perhaps they should read on ...

On February 2, our convoy had been driven to Tambacounda province in eastern Senegal. I was traveling with UNFPA officials from New York and Senegal, Senegalese government officials and media. In a tiny village in Goudiry district, we visited a three-year-old UNFPA clinic that had changed the life of people in the surrounding area. The maternal death rate has fallen appreciably thanks to a doctor who performs Caesarean sections, an anesthetist and a midwife. Basic requirements in the US, untold luxury in Senegal. We also witnessed a ceremony featuring a mayor and Imam giving diplomas to community-based health workers whose training was sponsored by UNFPA. Along with the diplomas were "suitcases" of medical supplies that the workers would take with them to remote areas. With the distances so great and the lack of transportation so profound, the community-based model is the only one that will work.

Our next visit was to the Tambacounda health district, where 82% of the people can't read, and income is about $2 per day. Fifteen rural areas have no rural health clinic. Only 22% of births are assisted by a trained midwife. About two out of 10 children die before the age of five. We met with school students who held up signs that read, "Welcome Mrs. Roberts and 34 Million Friends." I attended a class discussion of the dangers of early marriage and pregnancy. The children's notebook funded by the government and UNFPA had on the front this admonition: "Little girls are entitled to as much food, education and medical care as little boys." In this part of the world, this is a revolutionary message.

Next, back to Dakar where I spoke at a press conference, televised on the largest French-speaking TV station in West Africa, about the effort of the American people to reach out to the world by taking part in Thirty-four Million Friends. We visited the OBGYN department of Dakar's main hospital, Le Dantec, where we found wonderful doctors, terrible infrastructure, a lack of paramedics, a lack of lab equipment, supply shortages and too many patients. In all my visits to clinics and hospitals I saw no sheets, towels, pillows or pillowcases, or toilet paper.

In Bamako, Mali, the entire UNFPA delegation was waiting for us. There we had one of the most amazing visits of our trip. In Sabalibougou, local women had decided that they needed a health clinic for mothers and their children. They started a little garbage collection business, made a little money, and approached the government, NGOS and the UNFPA. The result: an amazing clinic. One of the women responsible was 51 with eight children and now brings her husband's younger wives to the clinic for their pre-natal visits.

The "Point G" hospital in Bamako has an area for fistula patients called the Oasis. UNFPA is funding a "Fistula Initiative" in Africa and supports the Oasis and Dr. Kalilou Ouattara who does the fistula repair operations. Obstetric fistula is often the result when young girls have long, hard, unassisted labor. A tear develops between the vagina and bladder and/or rectum and, unless repaired surgically, can lead to infection, incontinence and consequently rejection by their husbands. We met with Sisoko, a young girl of 22 who had a bladder-vagina fistula with her first pregnancy. Her husband abandoned her, but perhaps because of her vibrant personality and intelligence, another man married her despite her problem. She became pregnant and attended a hospital to give birth. Unfortunately, she was left in labor too long and this time a rectal fistula developed. Neither baby survived and Sisoko has had a colostomy and now lives at the Oasis. The first grants from the Thirty-four Million Friends account will go to the UNFPA fistula initiative and $40,000 will go to the Oasis and to Dr. Ouattara for his fistula repair surgeries.

What the Bush administration did was unconscionable. What the American people are doing is wonderful. You, who are reading this, have two Consciences, one in your hand and one in your heart.

Funding UNFPA

In response to the Bush administration decision not to fund UNFPA in 2002, Lois Abraham of New Mexico and lane Roberts of California initiated a campaign to encourage 34 million people to donate a dollar or more to the UNFPA. Donations are accepted by check made payable to "The UN Population Fund," to The UN Population Fund, Attn: Chief, Resource Mobilization Branch, 220 East 42nd Street, 23rd floor, New York, NY 10017. Alternatively, you may make a tax-deductible donation at www.uscommittee.org.

JANE ROBERTS, the originator of the Thirty-four Million Friends Campaign with Lois Abraham, has just returned from a UNFPA-sponsored trip to Senegal and Mali.