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See Jane Advocate bio picture

Welcome to See Jane Advocate

Having babies doesn't mean you stopped caring about the world...It just means you need quicker, easier and cheaper ways to do it! This blog exists to help busy moms impact the world by providing quick, accessible, attainable methods of advocacy that you can do in just a few minutes a day. 

I hope you find some ideas to inspire you! Thanks for visiting!

Advocate to Add Women’s Voices to Peace Negotiations

Monday, June 14, 2010

 

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I am particularly passionate about defending the rights of women and girls and protecting them from abuse and violence. Because of that, I truly admire the work of UNIFEM and their campaign called “Say NO- End Violence Against Women“. I regularly receive their updates and calls to action and I got one yesterday that was particularly moving. It’s a call to sign a petition which looks truly worthwhile and seems like it might really make a difference. So I thought I’d share. 

Here is the call to action in it’s entirety: (The link to the petition is at the bottom)

Women and girls hardly ever fight the world’s wars, but they often suffer the most. Increasingly, they are the direct targets of fighting, when sexual violence is deliberately used as a tactic of warfare.

And yet fewer than 10 percent of the people who negotiate peace deals are women, and only about three dozen individuals have been convicted and jailed by international war crimes tribunals for committing or commanding widespread sexual violence.

Sexual violence in conflict is NOT inevitable. It can be stopped.

Ten years ago, in its landmark resolution 1325, the United Nations Security Council called for women’s full and equal participation in all elements of peacemaking, and for prevention of this kind of violence. But implementation of this historic resolution has been too slow.

Make women count for peace by adding your name to this petition and ask your government to support three steps to implement Security Council resolution 1325:

  • Prosecute those who command and/or commit sexual violence and exclude them from armies and police forces after conflict.
  • Ensure that women participate in peace negotiations and all post-conflict decision-making institutions.
  • Increase the number of women in troops, police forces and civilians within international peacekeeping efforts

Go now and SIGN THE PETITION. Be a voice for women who don’t have one yet. It’ll take you less than 30 seconds.

Posted in Advocacy, Women's Rights

by Courtney Christenson

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Amnesty International Letters to Prisoners of Conscience

Friday, June 4, 2010

Amnesty International is an awesome organization that works to improve human rights through campaigning and international solidarity.

One of the coolest things they do is fight for the rights and release of “Prisoners of Conscience” which is anyone imprisoned because of their race, religion, color, language, sexual orientation, belief, or lifestyle so long as they have not used or advocated violence. It also refers to those who have been imprisoned and/or persecuted for the non-violent expression of their conscientiously-held beliefs.

There are thousands of these prisoners in countries all over the world and Amnesty puts pressure on the governments of those countries to release those prisoners without conditions and creates campaigns to help their supporters advocate for the prisoners as well. You can find out more about their campaigns on the Detention and Imprisonment page of their website.

A big part of this program involves supporters sending letters to the prisoners of conscience telling them that they are not forgotten. When these letters get delivered it is often the one glimmer of hope they needed to keep on keeping on…Amnesty has all kinds of amazing stories from released prisoners who told them what a difference that one little card made. If the letters get confiscated before reaching the prisoners, it often results in better treatment of the prisoner because the government becomes aware that the world is watching them. Either way, it’s a win-win. 

So all you have to do today is print out your letter of solidarity, sign it and send it to Amnesty International. They’ll see that it gets to a prisoner of conscience. If you’d like to find out about specific cases, or send cards to specific people, check their list of Priority Cases and follow the directions on how to become their advocate and or encourage them personally.  

Click HERE to download the card.

Send cards to:
Amnesty International
PO Box 98233
Washington, DC 20090-8233

 

SolidarityCardPicWEB2

 

Posted in Advocacy

by Courtney Christenson

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FEED bags

Thursday, May 13, 2010

I wanted to introduce all of you to one of my favorite things. My FEED Bag. It is my diaper/purse/carryall bag and if I could have it surgically connected to my body, I would seriously consider it. It’s big, but not bulky, has side pockets that perfectly fit sippy cups and bottles, has an inside pocket that perfectly fits my clutch that contains all my non-baby-related items, and it’s reversable (a white side and burlap side) and machine washable. Oh, and they are made with 100% organic cotton in certified fair-trade facilities. Can we say *PERFECT*?

Now on to the even better part. The proceeds from each bag provide 1 years worth of meals to hungry children in developing countries. The bags are made as part of a program run by the World Food Programme which is the UN’s department dedicated to fighting hunger. They have several different bags, some that feed 1 child for a year, others that feed 2. They also have smaller, more affordable bags that provide 3 meals and 3 books for a school, backpacks that provide a duplicate backpack for health workers in developing countries, bags that donate specifically to Haiti and even teddy bears that provide baby food for younger children. So go CHECK OUT THE BAGS!

So far, the FEED bags have helped to provided food for 102 million people in 74 countries. The work being done is amazing and the products are incredible. What’s not to love? 

Go get yourself one! Or go in with a friends to give one as a diaper bag for the next baby shower you’re invited to!!!

(I’m sporting the FEED2 bag…I couldn’t live without the cross-body strap that let’s me be hands-free!)

FEEDpicforjaneSM

Posted in Hunger/Poverty, Shopping for a Cause

by Courtney Christenson

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Donate Your Old/Broken Cell Phone and Save Lives

Monday, April 5, 2010

I recently stumbled upon one of the most brilliant and “outside the box” ideas I have ever seen to help people in developing countries. 

Basically, by using recycled cell phones to create a kind of “911″ text message service, a med student from Stanford has revolutionized a hospital in rural Malawi. In just 6 months of using this new program 150 patients received emergency care, community health workers saved 1,000 hours of travel time which they used to visit more patients, the number of people being treated for Tuberculosis doubled, and the hospital saved $3500 worth of fuel, which was used to purchase medication. 

Instead of explaining it here (which would take me way to long to write, and you way to long to read)…Watch this 2 minutes video to hear the story:

Here’s how the logistics work: when your old (and even broken!) phone is received by the recycling center, it is given a value. They use this value to purchase appropriate, usable cell phones for community health workers at the medical clinics. The average donated phone in the US will allow them to purchase 2-3 cell phones for clinics and give 50 families access to emergency medical care, health information, transport services, and clinic resources.

Oh, and did I mention that they even pay for postage??? What an awesome, totally free way to provide medical care to people who need it!!! My one and half year old may be sad to lose “her” cell phone (my old one that broke), but she’ll get over it in about 11.7 seconds and someone is Malawai will appreciate much more than she did!

Click HERE to learn more, find step-by-step instructions on how to donate you’re old phone and print off the free postage label.

Posted in Hunger/Poverty, Random Ideas

by Courtney Christenson

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Advocate to Combat Domestic Sex Trafficking

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Domestic-trafficking

Human trafficking is one of the most horrific human rights issues faced by our world today. The number of people bought and sold in worldwide order to be exploited is estimated to be around 2 million, and nearly half of those are minors (ILO, 2008).The majority of victims are are female and are trafficked in order to be exploited in the commercial sex industry (ILO, 2008). 

This issue is often only thought of as an international problem, but there is also a huge problem of domestic trafficking (trafficking that occurs within our borders) for both sexual and labor exploitation. One of the largest forms of domestic sex trafficking in the U.S. involves traffickers manipulating and coercing women and children to enter the commercial sex industry (strip clubs, street-based prostitution, escort services, and brothels) by using a variety of recruitment and control mechanisms. Domestic sex traffickers, commonly referred to as pimps, particularly target vulnerable youth such as runaway and homeless youth and reinforce the reality that in the U.S. the average age of entry into prostitution is 12-13 years old (Polaris Project, 2010). At least 100,000 children are trafficked within the US for sexual exploitation each year, and there are 200,000 to 300,000 considered “at high risk” of being trafficked (DOJ, 2009). 

The US’s anti-trafficking initiatives have thus far been focused on victims who are trafficked across international borders, but have overlooked women and children who are trafficked domestically within the US. Very little has been done to prevent or deter traffickers from exploiting at risk women and children in the US, and once they have been exploited (and on the slight chance that they are rescued) there are very few resources to help rehabilitate them. Many of the shelters that victims are referred to simply do not have the necessary resources to deal with the physical, emotional and psychological trauma that they have experienced. 

S. 2925  “The Trafficking Deterrence and Victim Support Act of 2009” provides critical funding to develop and enhance comprehensive, collaborative efforts to combat sex trafficking, especially of children, in the U.S. by providing six block grants of $2,500,000 each to state or local government entities who have designed a holistic approach to investigating, prosecuting and deterring sex trafficking, and providing special services and shelter to the victims.  

These are much needed funds for an difficult and often overlooked problem. 

Polaris Project, one of the most effective and thorough anti-slavery organizations in the world has made it extremely easy for you to ask your senator to stop fighting about controversial health care bills and start dealing with issues of life and death. Urge your senator to pass this bill that will help prevent lives from being ruined by sexual exploitation. Simply put in your zip code and it will automatically send your message to your appropriate representative.

(To read more about the problem of domestic trafficking, you can read an excellent article on the Department of State’s website called In Our Own Backyard: Child Prostitution and Sex Trafficking in the United States)

Posted in Advocacy, Children, Slavery

by Courtney Christenson

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Advocate to End Slavery in the DRC

Monday, February 22, 2010

It strikes me as a strange juxtaposition to sit here and use my laptop (with my cellphone sitting in front of me) to write about what an injustice it is that people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) being enslaved to make my technology possible.

I would explain it, but an amazing little organization called Emote360 can do it much better, faster and in a cooler way than I ever could with their 1 minute advocacy video on this subject. They actually won an award at the Hollywood Film Festival for this project! Thanks for letting me use it guys!

Check it out:

So…What do you do? (The texting advocacy program is over, by the way, so don’t bother trying!) The advocacy efforts of several different human rights organizations have paid off and there is now a new piece of legislation being moved through Congress to reduce the use of conflict minerals coming from DRC by enhancing transparency and accountability for companies whose products contain mineral ores or their derivatives produced in the DRC. 

Please Ask your representative to co-sponsor this bill. It is SUPER easy to do thanks to Amnesty International. Just fill in your info and click ‘Send’. If you’ve Taken Action before on Amnesty.com all you have to do is put in your e-mail address. EASY! (Plus, once you do this, the next time I feature something from their website it will take you less than 10 seconds!) Thanks for being an advocate!

Posted in Advocacy, Slavery

by Courtney Christenson

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Eliminate the Rape Kit Backlog

Monday, February 15, 2010

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Every year, more than 200,000 individuals report their rape to the police. Almost all of them are asked to submit to the collection of DNA evidence from their bodies, which is then stored in a small package called a rape kit. This collection of evidence is an invasive and traumatic process that takes four to six hours to complete. But the potential benefits are enormous: testing of the DNA evidence in a rape kit can identify an unknown perpetrator, confirm the presence of a known assailant, corroborate the victim’s account of the rape and exonerate innocent suspects. Unfortunately, in the United States today there are an estimated 400,000-500,000 untested rape kits sitting in police evidence storage facilities and crime labs across the country. The saddest part is that many of these crimes have already passed their statute of limitations, which means that many of those women will never receive justice.

National studies have shown that cases in which a rape kit was collected, tested, and found to contain DNA evidence are more likely to move forward in the criminal justice system. When New York City began to test every booked rape kit the arrest rate for rape skyrocketed from 40 percent to 70 percent.

In 2004 Congress attempted to eliminate the rape kit backlog by passing the Debbie Smith Act, but more is needed. The Justice for Survivors of Sexual Assault Act of 2009 will solve the rape kit backlog by requiring law enforcement to prioritize rape kit testing and account for the number of untested rape kits in their storage facilities.

Please urge your Members of Congress to support and co-sponsor the bipartisan Justice for Survivors of Sexual Assault Act of 2009.

Human Rights Watch has made it extremely easy for you to do on their Take Action to Eliminate the Rape Kit Backlog page. They have an e-mail drafted for you, and they will automatically send it to your specific senator and federal representative if you provide them with your address. 

It will take less than 1 minute. Thanks for being an advocate!

Posted in Advocacy, Women's Rights

by Courtney Christenson

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Be an Advocate for Children Enslaved on Cocoa Farms

Monday, February 8, 2010

JaneNestleWEB2

Since I first posted about the issue of child slavery on cocoa farms (and promised not to eat any chocolate that was not fair trade), my eyes have truly been opened to the incredible scope of this issue and the blatant disregard for basic human rights shown by the major chocolate producers around the world.

Here’s a little history: There are roughly 280,000 children working on cocoa farms in west Africa, with about 200,000 of those working in The Ivory Coast. A substantial number of those children have been trafficked from other African countries. The work these children perform is categorized as “dangerous” and they are forced to work long hours while being denied an education. The cocoa industry became aware of this issue about 10 years ago and even ratified an agreement in 2001 promising to end the worst forms of child labor by 2005. They did not deliver on this promise, and were given an extension to follow through in 50% of the cocoa regions by 2008. Instead they altered the wording of the agreement to say they simply had to REPORT the problem…not actually do anything about it. (You can learn more about this issue at www.stopthetraffik.com or check out their Where Does Our Chocolate Come From Fact Sheet or FAQs.)

As a little note of hope…things are slowly changing. Due to advocacy work by the amazing organization Stop The Traffik, Cadbury has recently launched a line of fair trade certified chocolate in the UK and Ireland and Mars has recently promised to make their Galaxy bars certified fair trade by the end of this year. They have also promised to make the rest of their chocolate products fair trade by 2020. (You can read more about these changes in Stop The Traffik’s News Section)

Nestle is the only major US chocolate company refusing to make any real changes in this area. They have recently promised (kind of randomly) to make their 4 piece Kit Kat bars fair trade, but none of their other products (including the 2 piece Kit Kats) will be. This seems to imply that they have only made this change so that they can say they offer fair trade chocolate. But Nestle has clearly missed the point. So we’re going to target them. I’ve decided that simply boycotting their slave tainted products is not enough…that we need to actually advocate for the rights enslaved children who live a horrific life simply because it increases Nestle’s profit margin.

Here are 5 ways you can be a voice for these kids:

1. Send Nestle an email or letter. Stop The Traffik has a letter already drafted for you. It kindly, yet strongly and clearly, asks them to stop buying cocoa from farms who enslave children. Click HERE to download the letter directly to your “Downloads” folder on your computer….just fill in all the info and you’re set! You can send your letter via e-mail by  filling in your info and copy/pasting it in Nestle’s Contact Form. 

You can also send your via letter snail-mail to Nestle’s US Headquarters: (If you don’t live in the US, you can find the address to Nestle’s headquarters in your country HERE)  

Nestlé USA, Inc.
800 North Brand Blvd.
Glendale, CA 91203
United States of America

2. Have your kids send Nestle a letter. Stop The Traffik has thoughtfully supplied a kids version of the advocacy letter that is easy to understand and skips the horrific details. What an amazing opportunity to teach you kids about the power of their voice! You can directly download that letter HERE.

3. Send Nestle a fair trade chocolate bar, with a tag wrapped around it that sends a message. It could say something like: “The Nestle slogan is ”Good food, good life”. It’s a shame that the child slaves on your cocoa farms won’t have either of these because of you. Make your chocolate fair trade or rewrite your slogan without lies.” Or (if you’d like to be a bit nicer): “Chocolate is sweeter from non trafficked workers!”. Or make up your own! Or let your kids make it up! 

4. Call Nestle and ask them to supply fair trade chocolate. Stop The Traffik has supplied a script for you to follow based on the many calls they have made. It provides detailed answers to the canned Nestle responses you’ll hear from their operators. You can see the script HERE, and answers to tricky questions/responses you’ll hear from Nestle HERE. 

Here is their US Phone Number: 818-549-6000 (If you live outside of the US, you can find their number in your country HERE)

5. Host a chocolate fondue party for your friends (using free trade chocolate, obviously) to spread the word about this issue. Get them to advocate too! At the end of the night you can have everyone sign one of the letters and mail them out. What a great excuse to eat chocolate!

Well, I think that is MORE than enough ways to advocate! Thanks for being a voice for those who don’t have one! Please let me know if you have anymore information or ways to advocate.

Posted in Advocacy, Children, Involve Your Kids, Slavery

by Courtney Christenson

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Aid for Haiti

Sunday, January 24, 2010

haiti

I can’t imagine anything worse happening to people who were already in a terribly desperate situation. Since we got back from South Africa on Friday I’ve been researching the best ways to help survivors of this disaster. 

As much as I’d love to come up with some creative donation drive for food or water, everything I read said that would probably do more harm than good. During times of crisis, donating food or clothing actually costs relief organizations more money than they are worth due to processing, sorting, distributing, etc and diverts precious resources away from those who need it. However, organizations are able to take cash donations and multiply them to do as much good as possible. According to one aid worker in Haiti: ““When people give $1, it translates into $7 in the field,” he said. “If they spend $5 for bottled water, that’s nice and it makes them feel good, but probably it costs us more than $5 to send it. If they give us $5, we can get $35 worth of water.”

So (though I thought I’d never do this) in the best interest of those in need, I’m going to ask you to straight up donate cash. It doesn’t need to be much, and maybe you could give up your Starbucks for a couple of days to recoup the cost.

For Your Kids:

Your kids can donate too! Help them figure out a way to raise $10 that they can donate to the crisis as well. Here’s a couple of ideas:

- If you’re school age kids normally buy lunch at school, encourage them to pack their own lunch for a few days and have them donate the money you would have given them for lunch to the organization of their choice.

- Help your kids set up a beverage stand in your neighborhood (orange juice or lemonade if you’re somewhere warm, hot chocolate in thermoses if you’re somewhere cold) and donate the proceeds to the organization of their choice. You’re kids will be so proud of their effort, and guaranteed you’ll inspire others as well. 

Also, to make it easier for you, I’ve put together a list of organizations I feel confident asking you to donate to:

- UNICEF had a private donor cover all of their administrative costs for the Haiti disaster, so 100% of your donation will go to help children in Haiti.

- World Relief is an excellent organization that I’ve had personal experience with. They had teams working in Haiti before the disaster and now have relief teams on the ground as well. Any donations made to them will be well used. 

- By far the easiest way to donate is to the American Red Cross. By texting “HAITI” to 90999, you can donate $10 which will appear on your next bill. 

- Doctors without borders. They’ve set up 3 emergency hospitals and are helping countless people in terrible physical distress.

Posted in Children, Hunger/Poverty, Involve Your Kids

by Courtney Christenson

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National Human Trafficking Awareness Day

Monday, January 11, 2010

EndHumanTrafficking

Monday was National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Therefore, I’m going to take this opportunity to make those of you who are unaware of this issue…more aware! (I would have posted this then, but Gary and I have travelled to South Africa and internet access is currently fairly limited…so forgive my lateness!)

The first step in advocacy of any cause is learning about the issue. We can’t very well advocate for victims if we don’t know about it. So…this post is simply an educational one. Read, learn and understand the importance of becoming a voice for this incredibly difficult issue.

First, a definition: Human trafficking is the “…recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons…” by improper means, such as force, abduction, fraud or coercion, for an improper purpose such as forced  labor, servitude, slavery or sexual exploitation.

Human traffickers prey on the weak and use creative and ruthless ploys designed to trick, coerce, and win the confidence of potential victims. Very often these ruses involve promises of a better life through employment, educational opportunities, or marriage.

Some statistics:

  • There are a wide range of estimates for the scope and magnitude of modern-day slavery. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that there are at least 12.3 million adults and children enslaved around the world. Some organizations, such as Free the Slaves and The Not For Sale Campaign, estimate the number to be much higher, at 27 million. 
  • The Department of State estimates that 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year and 50% of those victims are children and 80% are female. Of the female victims, 70% (560,000) are trafficked into the commercial sex industry and 30% (240,000) into forced labor.
  • The ILO estimates that human trafficking is a 32 billion dollar industry, making it the second most profitable organized crime industry in the world…just behind drug smuggling and tied with arms dealing. 
  • An estimated 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the US each year. Trafficking cases have been reported in all 50 of the United States. 

This issue is all tangled up with so many different issues (everything from employment laws, immigration, AIDS and education to pornography, government corruption, women’s rights and poverty) that it often begins to feel extremely overwhelming. I’ve had the opportunity to present information on this issue to many people over the last several years, and the reactions are generally one of two things. Either people get overwhlemed by the sadness and scope of the problem and become paralyzed by their emotions…or they get angry and want to go all Jack Bauer on someone. 

The problem is that this issue does not offer very many ways for you to feel like you’re making a tangible difference. You CAN make a difference…small differences, but a difference none-the-less. Here’s a few ideas:

If you have more ideas for how to get involved, please leave a comment!


Posted in Advocacy, Slavery, Women's Rights

by Courtney Christenson

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