By Susan Wright, Co-Chair of Together Women Rise’s Advocacy Group with RESULTS 

Our Together Women Rise Advocacy Group with RESULTS advocates for U.S. policy and funding that benefits our grantees and women and girls around the globe. We are focused on preserving vital U.S. foreign assistance for health and education programs despite the current administration’s drastic cuts starting with the dismantling of USAID. In our webinars we share information, encourage each other, and learn strategies that increase the effectiveness of our voices.  

Please sign up here to join the Together Women Rise Advocacy Chapter with RESULTS. We’ll keep you up to date on upcoming webinars, actions, and training. You will have a coach to support you to advocate successfully. 

The government shutdown on October 1st, has already had a devastating impact. In our October webinar, we discussed the impact the shutdown has had on vital programs for women and girls both within the U.S. and globally. It does not look likely that the shutdown will end soon, especially since the House continues to be out of session.  

The shutdown has stalled disbursement of already committed funds for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and the U.S. is also absent from the important multi–lateral discussions on replenishment of the fund this year. The shutdown is having similar effects on U.S. contributions to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.  

It is especially important that, despite the current shutdown, you urge your senators and your representatives to support these global programs in all subsequent negotiations. 

We continued to learn about EPIC laser talks, a key tool in our advocacy. Here is the link to this month’s webinar recording and resources page. 

Join us for our November 18th webinar! We will have a special guest, Dr. Oraib Smaidi at our next Advocacy webinar, to discuss the current situation in health services with the closure of USAID. Since she will join us from Jordan, we will meet at a special time next month, on November 18 at 1:00 pm ET / 10:00 am PT.  Please mark your calendar for this thoughtful discussion and join with this link.