Last month, our family went on a cruise to Alaska. It really was an enjoyable trip but as I was thinking of the luxury of the experience I also thought of the life situations of many around the world that is so opposite from what I was experiencing. I’ve become more aware of global poverty and my role in being the change I want to see in the world that I knew if I could afford a trip like that that I could also afford giving more to alleviate the poverty of many through out the world. I started thinking about what I could give. It really was a vague thought while on this trip and one I knew I wanted to continue pondering.

Then this last week, like an answer to a prayer, I heard on NPR an interview with Peter Singer who wrote “The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty” which is his call to the people of the world to give a portion of their income to causes working to address global poverty. The website The Life You Can Save provides a calculator where you can find out what 1% of your income is (since I assume most WAVE readers earn less than $105,000 USD a year) as well as a list of organizations that are addressing poverty in a sustainable and community building way.

It was a bit of a wake up calling knowing that 1% of my income is less than what my family spends in eating out at restaurants each year (blush…) and yet its also a good lesson that giving to causes that actually make a difference in the lives of people is more possible than I had thought.

One of the organizations named on The Life You Can Save website is the Worldwide Fistula Fund which helps repairs physical damage to a mother caused by prolonged labor and lack of access to emergency maternity care in poor countries. The documentary A Walk to Beautiful highlights what is like for a woman who becomes completely incontinent as a result of childbirth and how she becomes an outcast in her community as a result. The treatment is estimated to be about $450 to restore a woman where she is able to rejoin her community.

Another organization that has come highly recommended to me is The Hunger Projectbecause it assists an entire village for five years. This one is highly attractive to me as it focuses on an entire community rather than an individual or family.

I am also familiar with the humanitarian work that the LDS Church does and I know that in addition to providing immediate emergency relief in natural disasters, they also work on community building in poverty stricken areas around the world. I look forward to the day when my husband and I can serve humanitarian service missions. Perhaps I’ll be able to put my midwifery training to use in this way.

In taking a look at my finances, I know this is something that I can do even in addition the tithing that I pay on my family’s income to the church. In viewing the comfort and opportunities available to me and my children, I know that it is something I should do.

I took the pledge on The Life You Can Save and used their calculator to figure out what the guidelines are for my income level. I am encouraged by the stories of the people on the site who report that they can comfortably give more than the recommended guideline even on low incomes. One man from the UK makes the equivalent of $25,000 a year and finds he can donate 5% of his income to global poverty efforts.

Have you heard of this idea of widespread societal giving? What do you think? Will you take the pledge? Which organizations do you feel drawn to support? How have you worked with other Latter-day Saints on humanitarian efforts?

As always, WAVE invites readers to submit their own experiences with volunteer and charitable efforts. Please share your stories of being involved in efforts to relieve global poverty by emailing service@ldswave.org.

This was submitted by WAVE reader Jenni R. Brighton, co-founder of The Amethyst Network, a non-profit organization providing resources and support to women experiencing infant loss or miscarriage.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This is a fact widely acknowledged in the media and everybody seems to get on board with everything from all-night cancer walks to facebook status games. My grandmother is one of those “1 in 8 women” who has been diagnosed with breast cancer, as are dear family friends, and I have joined those all-night walks and regularly remind my blog-readers to do their self breast exams.

However, October after October, I notice that the flood of awareness is decidedly (and almost exclusively) pink. It seems that we either overlook or are unaware of the many other “Awareness Months” going on in October.

Yes, 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. However 1 in 4 women will experience a miscarriage or infant loss, and 1 in 3 will be a victim of domestic violence.

But nobody talks about how October is Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Month, or Domestic Violence Awareness Month, even though both of those things are more common than breast cancer. About 1 in 20 women will be diagnosed with Gynecologic Cancers, and while the incidence rate is lower than breast cancer, the mortality rate is higher (over 1/3 do not survive). So shouldn’t we talk about that, since October is also the month of Ovarian Cancer Awareness and Uterine Cancer Awareness?

It’s also Lupus Awareness Month, and Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and SIDS Awareness Month, and Down’s Syndrome Awareness Month, and Celiac Disease Awareness Month, and Spina Bifida Awareness Month, but nobody seems to be talking about those either.

For more complete lists, see here or here. There are so many great causes to get involved with; let’s not fixate on just one.

While we’re on this topic, I’d like to put in a brief word about productive activism. I think that Facebook status games do not really raise awareness any more than the Farmville updates do. Think about how you would feel if it were you sitting in chemo: would you be more appreciative of a hand-knit chemo cap from a stranger, or of all your friends posting facebook status updates saying where they put their purses? What if your spouse was beating you? Or if your child had died? Wouldn’t you appreciate real support over passive games?

So I recommend posting a thoughtful (not copied!) message about an important cause. Blog about what matters to you and what you can do (or are doing) to help. Better yet, donate money or goods or time to an organization, and then post about what you did on your blog and share with others.

Are you involved in one of the causes observed in the month of October? What have you done to raise awareness, contribute to the cause or address these important issues impacting women and their families? How have you personally been affected by the October Awareness Month issues? Please share your experiences by commenting below or emailing service@ldswave.org.

Join with WAVE and MomsRising to tell your legislators that you want to see equal pay for equal work.

Just take 30 seconds to send a letter to your Senators with 1-click now:

http://action.momsrising.org/go/422?akid=2342.262765.EKgoNz&t=4

From MomsRising:

• Data recently released by the U.S. Census found that women who worked full-time, year round on average still made 23 cents less for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. (This marks no change from 2008’s wage gap and amounts to nearly $11,000 per year in lost earnings).  And, the wage gap for women of color in 2009 was even more staggering than for women overall. When Black and Hispanic women work full-time, year round, they only make 62 and 53 cents, respectively, for every dollar their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts earn. [1]

• Last week, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report which found that mothers who are working in management positions earned 79 cents for every dollar earned by fathers who are managers, unchanged from 2000.  Further, in 12 out of the 13 major industries, fathers were more likely than mothers to be managers. [2]

• Also last week, The Wall Street Journal reported: “…the pay gap could easily create a retirement savings shortfall of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Consider this example of a female and male manager, both 50 years old and looking to retire at 65.  She makes $81,000, he makes $100,000 in 2010, and each gets a standard 2% annual raise.  Not only will he end up earning more than $350,000 than she did over those 15 years, he’ll also end up saving 23% more for retirement– even though both contributed 10% of their income to their retirement funds each year and got a 5% average annual rate of return.” [3]

• Earlier this week, Bloomberg News reported: “Women managers in finance, a group that includes bank tellers as well as executives, earned 63.9 cents for every dollar of income men earned in 2000, based on median salaries, according to Government Accountability Office statistics analyzed by Bloomberg. In 2007, the last year for which data are available, the figure was 58.8 cents. The 41-cent gap was the biggest in any of 13 industries surveyed by the GAO, and only two others had a widening disparity.” [4]

Sadly, this unequal pay is a contributing factor to why now a full 1 in 7 people in the U.S. live in poverty, [5] as well as to the fact that nearly 1 in 4 kids in our nation are experiencing food scarcity due to family economic limitations. [6]

In this tough economy, more and more families are counting on women’s earnings. Unfair pay practices make things even harder. The Paycheck Fairness Act would deter wage discrimination by closing loopholes in the Equal Pay Act and barring retaliation against workers who disclose their wages to coworkers.

[1] U.S. Census Bureau and  NWLC: “State Wage Gap Data Show Little Or No Improvement from 2008”

[2] U.S. Government Accountability Office: “Women in Management: Analysis of Female Managers Representation, Characteristics, and Pay”

[3] The Wall Street Journal: “For Women, Pay Gap Means Retirement Shortfall”

[4] Bloomberg News: “Wall Street Says Women Worth Less as Disparity Over Pay Widens”

[5] U.S. Census Bureau: “Income, Poverty, Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2009”

[6] The Washington Post: “America’s economic pain brings hunger pangs”

MomsRising is also asking the question:

Have you ever experienced wage or hiring discrimination?  We’re pulling together stories of MomsRising members across the nation to share with U.S. Senators.  Share your story here (and feel free to share anonymously): http://action.momsrising.org/go/423?akid=2342.262765.EKgoNz&t=8

WAVE wants to hear too. If you write something to submit to MomsRising, share it with us here too. How has wage or hiring discrimination affected you as a Mormon woman?

Giving life should not mean risking death. – Amnesty International

The goal of the United Nations Millennium Campaign is to end global poverty by the year 2015. In 2000, 189 heads of states and national representatives signed the Declaration affirming that we have the ability to “free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected.”

The eight Millenium Development Goals (MGDs) are:

1. End poverty and hunger
2. Universal Education
3. Gender Equality
4. Child Health
5. Maternal Health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS
7. Environmental Sustainability
8. Global Partnership

A petition from Change.org is working to remind President Obama of  the United State’s commitment to partner globally to end poverty and specifically make global maternity mortality a priority. According to the framers of the petition:

“Women’s health is at the heart of all MDGs.

In Africa and South Asia, complications during pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death for women of childbearing age.

New data released in September 2010, shows a 34% reduction in global maternal death rates since 1990.  With just 5 years left to achieve the MDGs, we still have a long way to go to reach the global target of 75% reduction in maternal death.”

In fact, women in sub-Saharan Africa face  a 1-in-22 chance of dying from complications of pregnancy or childbirth. When all developing nations are assessed together, the odds are 1 in 75. According to newly released estimates on maternal mortaility in 2005, 536,000 women in the developing world die of maternal causes each year — a death every minute. And for every woman who dies, another 35 to 40 suffer debilitating injuries.

Only one in 17 births in Ethiopia is attended by a trained professional. For the poorest fifth of the population, such assistance is even rarer; fewer than 1 in 100 births involves a doctor, nurse, or midwife. These births often take place in rural areas that lack clean water and sanitation. If labor is obstructed or another complication arises, as happens in about 15 percent of all births, little can be done to help the baby or mother.(Nova Two Worlds)

To learn more about maternity care issues in developing countries, watch the documentary “A Walk to Beautiful” viewable on PBS.org

To keep up to date with the UN Millennium Campaign, find them on Facebook and join their email list.

The solutions, according to researchers are simple. For the cases of obstetric fistula experienced by the women in A Walk to Beautiful, only $450 is needed per patient. Education for girls and women is another answer. Experts at the World Health Organization, Population Reference Bureau, and elsewhere “point to education as a key way to address the abysmal state of maternal health in many developing countries. Education can ameliorate the root causes—poverty, the low status of females, and lack of understanding and access to reproductive healthcare. And educating girls and young women does more than improve the lives of mothers; it enhances the well-being of children, entire families, and broader communities.”

Maternal mortality is not just an issue in the developing world, but also one of concern in the United States as well. In 2006, the maternal mortality rate in the United States was estimated as 17 deaths per 100,000 births, higher than most other developed countries. It is also believed that the mortality rate is severely underreported in the United States and could be much higher. There is concern over the mortality reporting system and a call for more accurate reporting  measures to be in place.

WAVE readers are invited to add join with over 1,000 other concerned citizens in signing a petition to Congress to improve maternal mortality reporting and addressing the rising maternal mortality rate in the United States. Please also add your voice in support of global issues by signing the petition regarding the global maternal mortality rate and learn about ways that you can assist the UN in their goals to alleviate global poverty.

Thanks to the Church Humanitarian efforts, you can likely do this through your involvement with the LDS church and other volunteer efforts. If you are interested in joining with other Latter-day Saints to address maternal mortality, please comment below. If you are involved in or become involved in efforts to address maternal mortality on the national or global level, please share your experiences by emailing service@ldswave.org.

Let’s start with a couple rhetorical questions:

Is the primary reason LDS women are counseled to stay home to care for their babies and children because the workforce historically does not allow parents to bring their children to work with them?

If yes, what if the workforce changed and started welcoming mother-baby dyads into the office or onto the sales floor for those mothers feeling led to work outside the home?

Some companies are doing that, over 140 across in the United States, in fact. The list of organizations can be found at the website Babies at Work.org sponsored by the Parenting in the Workforce Institute.

The vision of Parenting in the Workforce Institute is stated as follows:

We are prepared to enable a dramatic expansion of this world in which babies come to work every day with their mothers or fathers and in which parents can lovingly care for their children while also getting their jobs done:

A world in which bank tellers and grocery store employees cuddle their babies while helping clients, and customers come to the businesses more often specifically to visit the babies

A world in which coworkers and managers start out skeptical about starting a babies-at-work program, but then find themselves bonding with the babies and wanting them to continue coming to work

A world in which parents can stay with their babies and work to support their families at the same time

A world in which both men and women in the workplace provide a social network for these new families and volunteer to help care for the babies

A world in which the business benefits of these programs are so significant that executives rave about how integral a baby program has been in the success of their business

A mother works at the computer while babywearing

In a call for support I found posted on Stand and Deliver, a blog about mothering, pregnancy and childbirth written by LDS woman Rixa Freeze, PhD, the founder of PWI is seeking people who will:

1.   Join the PIWI Network.  Whether you’ve taken a baby to work, work in a baby-inclusive company (or want to), or are simply supportive of our efforts to build a world in which families of all kinds are supported, we would love to hear your experiences and opinions.  Joining is free, and you can choose to donate $30 if you wish to receive a PIWI mug and a seal for your website to show your support.  We are also starting a PIWI Blog Network for advance notice of PIWI initiatives and opportunities to participate in blog carnivals and other events.  If you wish to join the Blog Network, please enter your information when you join our Network.

2.   Tell Companies About Our Bridge Project.  Spread the word to current baby-inclusive companies that might be interested in joining the Bridge Project—the first wave of our plans to celebrate and expand babies in the workplace.  Companies who join the Bridge Between Career and Family will have their baby program permanently featured on our website and will receive free initial baby-inclusive certification services and a discount on services to enhance the effectiveness of their baby program, outreach avenues for sharing their products and services with Institute supporters, an outlet for finding skilled employees among PIWI supporters, and priority for being included in future media pieces.

3.   Follow PIWI on Facebook and Twitter. Join our Facebook community and Twitter page; we will be communicating frequently in the upcoming days with our supporters there as well as on PIWI Place, our private community for PIWI Supporters.

4.   Grow Our Baby-Inclusive Database.  Tell us if you know of companies anywhere in the world that have allowed an employee to bring a baby to work (even informally) so that we can contact them and add them to our list.  Share with us your suggestions of companies that might be willing to work with us to set up a formal babies-at-work pilot program (at no charge for the Institute’s services).

5.   Expand Our Outreach.  Write and talk about parenting in the workplace–show the world that this is being done successfully in many different environments.  Send us your pictures and videos of bringing your babies to work.  Spread the word about our effort to bring parenting at work to the mainstream, and share your own experiences and thoughts about this concept.  Let us know when you post your work and we’ll do our best to share your thoughts with other supporters of parenting in the workplace.

For more on information on PWI, look for pictures, videos, interviews, and survey results on their Babies in the Workplace website, this blog, and their Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as through various other outlets that support their work, such as MomsRising with their new website, the Custom-Fit Workplace. Also keep an eye out for Rixa’s interview of PWI’s founder Carla Moquin.

For other innovative and child-friendly employment policies, check out MomsRising’s Open Flexible Work page where they discuss flexible work arrangements like flexible scheduling, telecommuting, job sharing, career customization, part-time work options and, on-ramps for parents who take time away from work in addition to taking babies to work.

If you had the opportunity to take your baby to work, would you do it? Have you been able to take your baby to work or arrange any of these other flexible work options? How did it work for you? How did it go with your baby? If you took your infant to work, what did you and your employer decide once your baby became mobile?

Originally posted on Change.org.

The National Women’s History Museum was founded in 1996 by Karen Staser. However, it has been limited to a virtual presense. Museum staff are hoping to make their drream of a physical location a relaity in the near future. The museum would like to showecase such historical items as the original, signed 19th Amendment to the Constitution, the 1848 Declaration of Sentiments from Seneca Falls, and some of the tens of thousands of women’s history items belonging to the Smithsonian Museum of American History that have never been displayed.

Despite the fact that the museum will be privately funded, the NAtional Women’s History Museum need Congressional approval to buy the federal land on which they want to build. The U.S. House of Representatives passed The National Women’s History Museum of 2009 back in October and sent the bill over to the Senate. Frustratingly, it has sat there collecting dust for almost a year because a male Senator put an anonymous hold on the bill.

There is no need to delay this important project any longer. Until a site can be secured, it is nearly impossible for the National Women’s History Museum to properly plan and raise funds. Tell your Senator now that you want them to fully support the National Women’s History Museum Act.

To sign the petition, you can visit the National Women’s History Museum’s website and sign their petition urging Senator to pass the act: http://www.nwhm.org/get-involved/promote/sign-petition/

From their site:

“Our Nation’s Capital has many wonderful museums, but one important museum is missing–one to recognize and honor the lives of women. Help us build the National Women’s History Museum by signing our petition.”

As the first advocacy opportunity posted by the Women’s Service Mission, please choose to act as you feel appropriate with this information. If you are in support and want to sign the petition, please do so. You may also decide that this is one project that is meaningful to you and that you may wish to find ways to be further involved. If you do, visit the NWHM’s website’s “Get Involved” page where they describe their different needs for volunteers and support.

In 2009, President of the United States Barack Obama issued a proclamation stating that each year on the date of September 11, the day would be observed nationally as a Day of Service and Remembrance of those who lost their lives in the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001 as well as for those who served in the days and months after.

In the proclamation, President Obama declared:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim September 11, 2009, as Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance. I call upon all departments, agencies, and instrumentalities of the United States to display the flag of the United States at half-staff on Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance in honor of the individuals who lost their lives as a result of the terrorist attacks against the United States that occurred on September 11, 2001. I invite the Governors of the United States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and interested organizations and individuals to join in this observance. I call upon the people of the United States to participate in community service in honor of those our Nation lost, to observe this day with other ceremonies and activities, including remembrance services, and to observe a moment of silence beginning at 8:46 a.m. eastern daylight time to honor the innocent victims who perished as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

In deference to this call and in the spirit of service, WAVE is issuing its first Women’s Service Mission Call to Action. This Saturday, September 11, please join members of your communities, ward, stakes and families in acts of service in your community.

My stake in Seattle will be participating in the Northwest Day of Service where we will be planting trees and landscaping at a local park. If you already have plans to serve, share them with us on our facebook page.

If you need help finding opportunities in your area to serve, you can search at www.serve.gov and www.911DayofService.org. Many organizations have listed volunteer opportunities on these sites to help mobilize the American people in heeding the president’s call.

You can also organize your family and neighbors in trash clean-ups around your neighborhood or at local parks or city streets, or volunteer at food banks or soup kitchens, animal shelters (call ahead because they may be overrun with volunteers). If you have other ideas or want to help others find service opportunities in your area, please visit us at our facebook page and share.

Also don’t forget that you are also encouraged to observe a moment of silence at 8:46 am as well as display an American flag that day.

When you have participated, please share your stories and experiences with us on facebook or email the Women’s Service Mission at service@ldswave.org.

Latter-day Saint women have a legacy of addressing the needs of the sick, afflicted, poor and needy and for adopting a pragmatic approach in solving issues in communities. The Relief Society, in fact, is founded on women’s efforts to help others and is exemplified in the Relief Society Motto “Charity Never Faileth.”

The leaders of the LDS church encourage its members “to be vigorously engaged in the world.”[1] Elder Robert S. Wood of the Seventy encouraged members of the Relief Society to “work with fellow members of community to bring about change” when there are issues in schools, neighborhoods and communities. The LDS people have also been counseled to petition media outlets, support public policies that strengthen families and be engaged in volunteer efforts and employment in education, local government, and charitable causes. [2] [3] [4]

Mormon.org states, “Being a good citizen can be as simple as researching political issues so you can be an informed voter, or organizing a soccer league so that kids in your neighborhood have something fun and safe to do after school. Or maybe you want to take on a bigger problem facing your city or state, like finding ways to reduce crime or improving the local library. However you choose to improve the world around you, you can be confident that “when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God” (Mosiah 2:17).”

At WAVE, we are working to encourage civic involvement and advocacy efforts on issues that impact women around the world.

Many Latter-day Saint women are already engaged in volunteer activities or employment that address social concerns. Their particular issues of concern may be preventing domestic violence, raising awareness for health issues, seeking equal compensation for women and men in employment, creating access to education for women in developing countries, finding solutions to poverty and homelessness, and being involved in public service. Often the strength of these efforts comes when concerned citizens work together through letter-writing campaigns, signing petitions, joining with organizations and other citizens working on these issues.

WAVE’s Women’s Service Mission will be a place where advocates can come together around certain issues that they share an interest in. Consider it a clearinghouse of current civic involvement opportunities of interest to Latter-day Saint women. If you are looking to raise awareness, find supporters and work together with others on social concerns, you can submit your advocacy opportunity.

Perhaps you are unsure of which efforts you want to put your energy into or find it overwhelming to get started. With the Women’s Service Mission, you’ll be exposed to many different opportunities that will be as diverse as the women of the church. There will be plenty to choose from and you may find that adding your voice to an effort to effect change is easier than you thought.

The Women’s Service Mission will also highlight organizations and causes that support and promote certain public policies, programs or efforts that address the needs of women, families, children and communities. This way, readers will be exposed to and have the opportunity to expose others to many worthwhile and meaningful efforts.

To give you a taste of social concerns that will be highlighted by the Women’s Service Mission, expect to see advocacy opportunities on:

• Family policies like paid maternity leave and protected pumping breast milk breaks for breastfeeding mothers
• Preventing domestic violence and providing support to victims of domestic violence
• Environmental policies and sustainability
• International campaigns to fight hunger, increase access to education to women and girls, and alleviate poverty
• Efforts to reduce homelessness and poverty in local communities and on the national level
• Public health campaigns
• Campaigns to influence media’s portrayal of violence, advertising and depictions of women

WAVE readers are invited to submit information regarding your own volunteer and advocacy efforts, and to pass along advocacy opportunities that you encounter. You are also invited to write brief articles (250-750 words) regarding why a certain issue needs to be addressed and what can be done about it. Feel free to create your own calls to action and solicit support, involvement and encouragement from other WAVE readers. If an issue is posted that you disagree or agree with, write in and give us a for or against argument. The Women’s Service Mission can host rebuttals and debates on issues which can assist readers in seeing topics from a variety of sides as they formulate their opinions. From time to time, book discussions will be hosted on topics that WAVErs show interest in.

To submit your ideas, articles, suggestions, experiences and advocacy opportunities, email service@ldswave.org.

Remember that there is a diversity of thought among our LDS sisters and that we are counseled to be civil in our political dealings and to follow the dictates of our conscience in public policy and debates.[5] WAVE does not have a political platform or take a stance on the issues posted or shared, but merely offers the opportunities for individuals to work together and be actively engaged in civil discourse. Please be respectful of differing opinions regarding social issues and public policy. Please consider gospel principles when submitting and engaging in advocacy efforts. Explanations for how and why an opportunity has a foundation in gospel principles are encouraged.

WAVE is determined to give LDS women a voice in working for good in the world. The Women’s Service Mission provides ways to do that on a variety of issues affecting women and their families.

[2] M. Russell Ballard, “Let Our Voices Be Heard,” Liahona, Nov 2003, 16–19

[3] M. Russell Ballard, “What Matters Most Is What Lasts Longest,” Liahona, Nov 2005, 41–44

[4] Dallin H. Oaks, “Unselfish Service,” Ensign, May 2009, 93–96

[5] Mormon.org “Our Values: Good Citizenship”