At Mercy Corps, we believe there’s a hero in all of us.
That’s why we’ve joined forces with the Justice League and DC Entertainment to bring lifesaving aid and long-term solutions to hungry families in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya.
We’re partnering with the team behind Batman, Superman and the rest of the Justice League to raise awareness and money for a crisis that’s fallen out of the spotlight.
Our first priority is to support our mobile medical clinics in Ethiopia, which offer lifesaving aid to mothers and children under 5. These clinics visit the most remote, drought-stricken communities and provide malnourished infants with immunizations, antibiotics, vitamins, medicine and therapeutic food to help them gain weight.
Life remains grim throughout the Horn of Africa. Every night, 13 million people in the region go hungry. Last year’s worst drought in generations dried up drinking water sources, decimated crops and livestock and left families destitute and unable to make enough to even feed themselves.
Scattered rains brought some relief but also flooding and disease. Conflict and lasting effects of drought has left millions of families struggling to escape hunger’s grip.
Today, we have an exciting victory to announce. And we didn’t even have to climb a building to get it.
Rainforest Action Network is known by most for our flashy banner drops and other creative ways of confronting corporations through non-violent direct action. What few people know is that RAN also spends countless hours behind the scenes in delicate negotiations with Fortune 500 companies.
And sometimes, these comparatively mundane boardroom tactics lead to forest protections by some of the most influential companies in the world—like denim giant Levi Strauss & Co.
In the fall of 2009, Levi’s received a letter from RAN asking it to cut any ties with notorious Indonesian rainforest destroyer Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) and its affiliates. This was one of a hundred letters in RAN’s campaign to convince global fashion companies to stop buying from APP and choose responsible alternatives like recycled paper instead.
The Levi’s team called us and immediately began working with us to create a comprehensive paper policy that maximized recycled fiber and barred paper suppliers connected to rainforest destruction, like Asia Pulp & Paper.
We are pleased to announce today that Levi Strauss & Co. has implemented its new paper policy in its operations around the globe. This makes Levi’s the latest company in an ever-growing list of major corporate customers to exclude Asia Pulp & Paper for its human rights abuses and blatant rainforest destruction, and to take a stand to protect forests and the rights of communities that depend on them.
Kudos to Levi Strauss & Co. for adding its powerful voice to the growing chorus of companies telling Asia Pulp and Paper, and logging companies like it, that rainforest destruction will not be tolerated. And thanks to all of you who support all of our work—from the thrilling direct actions to the tedious negotiations—we can’t do any of it without you.
Thank Secretary Sebelius for standing firm and issuing a final rule providing women access to birth control with no co-pays.
Because of you, many women will not lose access to no-cost birth control under the health care law.
WWW.NWLC.ORG
For months now, we’ve been updating you on a new “interim” rule that would provide women across the country access to birth control with no co-pays. This morning, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it was issuing a final rule providing contraceptives without co-pays and refused to expand the religious employer exemption.
Over the summer in its temporary rules, HHS deemed birth control a necessary preventive health service for women, thus requiring coverage without co-pays by the Affordable Care Act. It also would allow a narrow set of religious employers to deny this critical coverage to their employees. But that didn’t satisfy opponents of contraception.
They wanted the coverage to be dropped, or at least to expand the exception to nearly 1.5 million employees and the women in their families. HHS stood firm, taking a giant step forward in protecting women’s health. Join us in thanking Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for standing firm and issuing a final rule providingwomen access to birth control with no co-pays.
It is crucial that women have access to affordable birth control to prevent unintended pregnancies, plan the timing and size of their families, and protect their health. The reality is that nearly all sexually active women in the U.S., regardless of their religious beliefs, use contraception at some point in their lives. Contraception is a preventive health service that should be covered, as HHS has determined. While any exception is unwarranted, an expansion of the exemption would have meant that nearly 1.5 million employees and the women in their families would lose the right to no-cost birth control.
For many years, the National Women’s Law Center has worked to get contraception covered in all health insurance plans, and we won’t stop now. Over the past few months, you’ve joined our effort and sent over 100,000 messages as part of our birth control — we’ve got you covered campaign. And we need your help again — thank Secretary Sebelius for the basic coverage now provided, and urge her to work to make sure that those women whoseemployers fit into the exception get access to contraception.
Thank you for all that you do to support women’s access to reproductive health care.
Sincerely,
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