Ritu Sharma (at podium), Executive Director of Women's Edge Coalition
Ritu Sharma (at podium), Executive Director of Women's Edge Coalition. Photo #04-308. 7/28/04
July 28, 2004
By Shanta Bryant Gyan*
WASHINGTON
(UMNS) -- United Methodists are being encouraged to join in a
nationwide effort to challenge American women to talk to their elected
officials and candidates in the upcoming election about the importance
of investing in women around the world as a way of fighting global
poverty and building a more peaceful world.
The
campaign seeks to motivate a million American women to urge their
elected officials and political candidates to make women’s issues a
priority in U.S. national security and foreign policies.
Susie
Johnson, an executive with the Women’s Division, United Methodist Board
of Global Ministries, said the campaign asks United Methodist women to
respond to the call for justice in the world.
“It
will mobilize women to find solutions to violence and other issues and
presents an opportunity for women and their families to live full lives
to bring peace to the world,” added Johnson, who sits on the coalition’s
board of directors.
“We
know that investing in these women brings incredible payoffs,” said
Ritu Sharma, co-founder and executive director of the Women’s Edge
Coalition. “Women put any money they have back into their family’s
education, health, and well-being—helping to end the cycle of poverty.”
The
coalition produced a citizens’ action guide, “A Safer, Better World
Begins with Women,” which highlights 12 pressing international issues
and offers questions for women to raise with their elected officials and
candidates. The issues in the guide range from education and health to
rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan to nuclear weapons and non-military
alternatives.
“It
gives a whole spectrum of issues to challenge policymakers to invest in
women for them to be free and full human beings in the world,” Johnson
explained.
Johnson
said the UMW social action coordinators in the denomination’s annual
(regional) conferences would be given a copy of the guide.
For more information on the campaign, visit the Women’s Edge Coalition website at (www.womensedge.org). To order copies of the guide, contact edge@womensedge.org or call (202) 884-8376.
*Shanta
Bryant Gyan is a freelance writer in the Washington area. She also is a
public relations consultant to the Women’s Edge Coalition.
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