Haiti, which once had the highest rate of HIV/AIDS outside of sub-Saharan Africa, has in
recent years seen a decrease in infections. Once lumped into what some called the US Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention’s ‘4-H club’ of risk factors—homosexuals, hemophiliacs,
heroin users and Haitians—the country’s HIV incidence plunged from around 6% in
1995 to closer to 2% in recent years. But the 12 January earthquake that shattered the lives of
Haitians and destroyed more than half of the AIDS clinics in Port-au-Prince could threaten to reverse this progress.

The Minister of International Cooperation, Beverley Oda, unveiled the new Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) Children and Youth Strategy on Nov. 20, 2009. It aims to increase child survival —including maternal health— to improve the quality of education and ensure the safety and security of children and youth. In the Americas where maternal mortality rates are stagnating and
teenage pregnancy is on the rise, this goal cannot be accomplished without renewed attention to sexual and reproductive health.

I applaud Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn for their remarkable work of highlighting the enormous multiplier effect that the empowerment of women has on families and entire communities. Their efforts have brought to life the dynamic stories of so many girls and women in developing countries who have overcome unthinkable hardship. Yet I was struck by the lack of attention paid to Latin America and the Caribbean in “The Women’s Crusade.” Latin America and the Caribbean is a region of extreme contrasts.

In many parts of the world women and girls are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, particularly poor women in marginalized communities. Discrimination, poverty, and marginalization are drivers of the HIV epidemic as much as the specific social behaviors that typically lead to infection.

IRIN examines how a "dramatic plunge" in international donor funding for family planning could undermine other health- and humanitarian-related goals, including fighting poverty and hunger. About 200 million women do not have access to contraception, which could cause a surge in the world's population leading to a reversal of humanitarian gains, according to some experts.

To the Editor:

Re “Would You Let This Girl Drown?” (column, July 9)

I wholeheartedly agree with Nicholas D. Kristof that we should focus on successes when seeking support for humanitarian causes.

During the election campaign of 1912, a mentally-unbalanced man fired a shot at Theodore Roosevelt, the candidate of the Bull Moose Party, at a rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The bullet was slowed by TR’s lengthy speech, which he had double folded in his pocket, and by his eyeglasses case, nevertheless the bullet entered his body and he was bleeding profusely. Roosevelt declined to seek immediate medical attention and mounted the podium, announcing that he had been shot but that “it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.”

BUENOS AIRES, Jun 10 (IPS) - In an effort to promote the free enjoyment of human sexuality, separate from reproduction, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) launched the world's first declaration of sexual rights in the Argentine capital on Wednesday.

"We want states to commit themselves to protecting these rights, and for the United Nations to adopt them in future meetings," Carmen Barroso, IPPF regional director for the Western hemisphere, told IPS.

The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) has begun a petition drive to advocate “access to sexual and reproductive health services” for all people, “regardless of age.”

The petition campaign, reported by the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM), commemorates the 15th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development, a 1994 conference in Cairo that outlined the new medical goals of the U.N. Population Fund. The petition campaign is called “15 and Counting.”