Nonprofits
4 • Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina
International family planning
Nonprofit works to
improve women’s
reproductive health
Key part of economy
Nonprofit organizations
represent 10 percent
of the nation’s economy.
February 1994
For 20 years, Family Health
International has sought to
make safe, effective contracep
tives available in developing
countries, and to stop the
spread of sexually transmitted
diseases, including AIDS. Now,
it’s also working on a few pro
jects in the United States.
By Katherine Noble
y esterday, nearly 250,000
babies were bom. Toni^t,
during the evening news,
the planet’s population will grow by
another 10,000. Although family
planning has stabilized the birth rate
in the United States and Western
Europe, birth control is a foreign
concept to many in developing coun
tries.
For others, it either simply isn’t
available, is prohibitively expensive
or is too difficult to get.
An international nonprofit in
North Carolina has been working for
more than 20 years to make sate and
affordable birth control available to
every woman, and man, who wants
it. It’s also been working to prevent
the spread of sexually transmitted
diseases and AIDS.
At Family Health International,
respecting a woman’s ri^t to choose
to use birth control is a guiding prin
ciple.
“What we are trying to do is to
provide safe, effective and voluntary
ways for people to control the rate of
birth,” says Nash Herndon,
spokesman for the organization.
The term “population control”
isn’t part of the lexicon of the staff of
more than 400 people at this
research and technical assistance
organization. Control, they say, mbs
against the grain of their mission,
which is developing and providing
contraceptive choices to women and,
as more methods become available,
to men as well.
In fact, one of Family Health’s
newest projects is a study that seeks
to understand both the positive and
negative consequences of a woman’s
decision to use family planning.
For example, says Arlene McKay,
Family Health’s director of develop
ment and adviser to the organiza
tion’s Women’s Studies Project, in
some developing countries a woman
Carlos Alberto Petta, a leading obstetrician and gynecologist in Brazil, is spending a year
at Family Health International learning clinical trials techniques to use in his research on family planning.
HEALTH
gains respect in her community by
having children. For her, a decision
to use birth control has conse
quences far beyond what it does for a
women in the U.S.
Like all of Family Health’s
research, the results of the five-year
Women’s Studies Project will be
shared with policy-makers,
researchers, service providers and
women’s advocates in the countries
Photo by John Fletcher Jr.
in which the studies are done.
Family Health works only m coun
tries m which it can collaborate with
the government and other agencies
and individuals. Sustaining of the
family planning and health programs
they help start is possible. Family
Health says, only with government
cooperation and collaboration with
people who live m the country.
One way Family Health helps to
ensure that family planning and
reproductive health take hold in
developing countries is throu^ a fel
lowship program that brings top
researchers from other countries to
Durham for a year.
Carlos Alherto Petta, an obstetri
cian/gynecologist from Brazil, is the
second Mellon Fellow in
Contraceptive Health at Family
Health. He is studying clinical trials
techniques that he can use in his own
country. Last year’s fellow was from
Chma.
Like many of Family Health’s pro-
Look for FAMILY, page 5
Winning partnerships
Housing
awards
highlight
nonprofits
The state's first shared residence
for the elderly and a neighbor
hood rebuilding project spurred
by nonprofits are among the
winners of the 1993 Housing
North Carolina Awards.
The N.C. Housmg Fmance Agency
has named five housing projects in
Asheville, Ahoskie, Henderson and
two in Greensboro as winners of the
fourth annual statewide competition.
Programs were judged on afford
ability, creative financing, design,
cost-effective construction, services
and effectiveness.
Here are the 1993 winners:
Look for HOUSING, page 5
Saving plants and animals
Nature conservancy wins award,
opens land management office
Pitcher Plants are among the
plant species protected by
the state's Nature Conservancy.
Photo courtesy of The Nature Conservancy
The North Carolina Nature
Conservancy has long been rec
ognized as one of the country’s
most active chapters, and last
year it was named the nation’s
outstanding chapter. It recently
opened the state’s first region^
land management office in
Wilmington.
By Katherine Noble
f very week, hundreds of
plant and animal species
become extinct, the nat
ural communities that
were once their homes replaced by
concrete or damaged by pollution.
Most of these species vanish before
scientists have studied them, leaving
their possible benefits to man
unknown.
Thanks to the efforts of the North
Carolina Nature Conservancy, a non
profit organization dedicated to pre
serving plants, animals and natural
communities, some of these species,
and their homes, are being saved.
But the Conservancy does more than
simply stop development. It manages
the land it buys, helping sometimes
fragile natural commumties thrive.
ENVIRONMENT
Some of the most complicated
and demanding preserves are on
North Carolina’s southeastern
coastal plain. To better manage
these lands the Conservancy opened
its first regional land management
office in Wilmington in September. It
plans to open similar offices in the
mountains and other areas of the
state m the next few years.
“The area of land that we own as
nature preserves has grown so large
that it’s become apparent that the
best way for us to manage these is to
have people in the various regions in
the state oversee land m that area,”
says Ida Phillips, communications
officer for the state’s Nature
Conservancy.
Establishing regional offices for
land stewardship is a new undertak
ing for the 16-year-old Conservancy.
Before September, it ran all its oper
ations out of its headquarters in
Carrboro.
North Carolina’s efforts haven’t
gone unnoticed outside the state.
Last year, m recognition of its rapid
expansion and complicated and
demanding preservation efforts, the
international Nature Conservancy
named North Carolina’s Conser
vancy its outstanding chapter.
“We’ve just really had an mcredi-
ble year, and couple of years,” says
Look for NATURE, page 5
BRIEFLY
Homeless children
publish book
A book of stories and poems
written by students from A
Growing Place school for
homeless children in Raleigh
is now available from Voices
Community Press. The publi
cation of "IListen" was fund
ed by a grant from the
Junior League. For informa
tion, call (919) 836-9500.
Raleigh dance group
changes name
The Raleigh Dance Theater
has renamed itself the
Carolina Ballet Theater to
more accurately reflect its
mission to serve the Triangle
region and to coincide with
a major fundraising drive.
The 10-year-old organiza
tion about to launch a $1.6
million capital campaign for
the 1994-95 season.
State offers free
history catalog
The N.C. Division of Ar
chives and History is offering
a new catalog listing the
state's Civil \Yar Roster series
and other titles. Among the
division's longtime best sell
ers are paperback books on
Tar Heel legends, lighthous
es, pirates and highway
markers. For information,
call (919)733-7442.
Hospice sponsors
support groups
Hospice Center of Living in
Asheboro is sponsoring sup
port groups for caregivers of
Alzheimer's patients. Groups
will meet on Mondays and
will provide help with feelings
generated by caring for ill
family members. For details,
call Anneal Lambe, (910)
672-9300 from 8 a.m.
to 5 p.m., weekdays.
Divinity school
offers scholarship
The Gardner-Webb
University School of Divinity
in Boiling Springs has estab
lished a scholarship in honor
of a Shelby couple who start
ed the endowment. The
Carlos L. and Constance C.
Young scholarship will be
given to students "who have
committed their lives to full
time Christian service."
New clearinghouse
for family support
The North Carolina
Clearinghouse tor Family
Support and Empowerment
offers a database of
statewide programs for fami
lies and communities. The
Greensboro-based nonprofit
can help those interested in
starting new programs. For
details, call Laura Altizer,
(910)333-6302.