MTV Supports Ending Humant Trafficking

MTV has a campaign called MTV EXIT (End Exploitation And Trafficking) in which they are trying to raise awareness and funds to end human trafficking around the world.

To learn more about this campaign and listen to songs and music videos that were developed to raise awareness for this cause go to:
http://www.mtvexit.org/?lang=en_us

Some Lessons You Learn the Hard Way (Or, Sometimes Google Gets it Wrong)

This is Anuja Acharya, and for my research with WomenNC, I am partnering with Lillian's List. Lillian's List is an NC organization that supports Democratic, pro-choice women running for public office in NC. It's basically an NC version of EMILY's List.

A few weeks ago, I set up an interview with Carol Teal, the director of Lillian's List, to discuss the past, present and future work of the organization. Just before leaving my house, I Googled "Lillian's List" and found directions to the office: 304 East Jones Street. Great. I grabbed my laptop and hit the road.

I pulled onto East Jones Street exactly 7 minutes before I was due to meet Ms. Teal. Congratulating myself on my impeccable timing, I knocked on the door of the building labeled "304".

Only to informed by an exasperated looking clerk that a) that I was in the wrong office because b) Lillian's List had moved to a new office over a YEAR ago.

And like that, self-congratulation became self-contained crisis.

I had (thank goodness) had the sense to program Ms. Teal's number into my phone, so I explained to her my situation and got the actual address for the office. Then, I got in my car and drove like a madwoman.

I was only about 15 minutes late to meet Ms. Teal. I was lucky that she was a tremendously understanding woman, and I made sure to finish my interview with her within the time frame I had promised. Lillian's List is a fantastic organization that does great work, and I couldn't have been more pleased that I had selected to partner with them.

But here's a word to the wise: sometimes, Google gets it wrong. Who could imagine?

Hello! My name is Abby and I'm one of the 2012 WomenNC CSW Fellows. A little about myself: I'm a junior at UNC-Chapel Hill studying Biology with minors in Chemistry and Entrepreneurship. I'm a morning bird and I love to wake up early and run, only to return and cuddle up with cup of black coffee before the day starts. However, when I'm not running around campus I'm also a beekeeper! Going into hives with thousands of angry worker bees (fun fact: all worker bees are female) gives me a bit of a thrill.

Anyways, I wanted to share a little bit about my experience so far with WomenNC, because I could talk about beekeeping all day. My topic for the Commission on the Status of Women focuses on community health systems for rural North Carolina women. Specifically, I'm working with two organizations: the HOPE Projects (Health, Opportunity, Partnership, Empowerment) and the North Carolina Breast Cancer Screening Program. My research has consisted of a lot of literature searches and interviews over break (at various coffee shops, of course!) and picked up a lot of momentum in the first two weeks of 2012. This past week in particular has been pretty incredible--I've felt so much support from my incredible mentors in WomenNC throughout the last few months, but this is the first week that I've began to tell my professors just why I'm missing a week of school in February. I've been able to share with four women, four strangers to me as of Monday, about my research and my anticipation for the Commission on the Status of Women. Back to back to back to back I had overwhelmingly insightful and joyful conversations with my professors, who were elated about this chance and excited to support me. Even my Plant Biology professor was offering me insight on resources in the School of Public Health that she knew of! While I've felt a strong community within WomenNC for preparing us for our research, it was truly wonderful to see that community to extend to my academics at Carolina

I want to share a cool resource given to me by Ms. Jo Anne Earp and Ms. Alexis Moore of the North Carolina Breast Cancer Screening Program. After a recent interview to learn more about NC-BCSP, I was given a beaded necklace with six different sizes of wooden bead

s on it. The necklace is beautiful, but what really moved me was it's practicality: each bead represents the size of a breast lump that could be recognized by different screening processes. T he necklace is worn by community health workers who specifically focus on raising awareness on breast cancer screening. The littlest bead is smaller than a pea and represents the size of a lump that might be found by getting mammograms every 1-2 years. The bea

ds gradually increase in size until the largest bead, which is as big as a walnut, serves as a visual representation of a lump that could be found by a women who rarely examines her own breasts. This brilliant visual representation is a great example of a tool for lay health workers to explain the importance of mammograms in approachable terms.

These next few weeks will absolutely be busy with research, compounded by classes and homework starting up. However, I'm excited nonetheless to continue this incredible experience as I near the end of my paper and began to prepare a presentation for the CSW! On February 16th, WomenNC will be hosting a fantastic dinner at the NC State Faculty Club to introduce the WomenNC CSW Fellows. Please sign up and come join us! You can register at http://www.womennc.org/Home.html. I hope to see you there!

-Abby Bouchon

My first time blogging

After finishing my final exams, i commenced my research on rural women and agriculture. I want to look at fruits and vegetables sold in grocery stores and supermarkets. Is it the local farmers that provide the fruits and vegetables? or is it big companies? and how much of it is imported?

With these questions in mind i began searching about the number of women farmers in the United States. According to the USDA 2007 Census of Agriculture, "more than 30 percent of U.S farm operators are women." This census is done every five years. The 2002 Census had women operators at 22%. I am happy that the percentage has increased. I spent a day just wandering through the USDA website. I ended up on International Agricultural Trade among the U.S, Canada and Mexico. I learned that the United States exports and imports a lot in the agriculture sector. The U.S value of agricultural exports are around $93 billion and its imports around $73billion. The agriculture sector is a growing sector as the population of the world increases and as more middle classes are rising in the Emerging markets, such as, China, India, Brazil, South Korea, South Africa, Russia and more.

I went to the farmers market with my friend Hazel about two weeks ago. I talked to a few women there. Some work on the family farm and others sell the produce for the farmers. The prices for the fruits and vegetables were very good. I bought a lot and was very happy. I pitied the years i purchased fruits and vegetables at Food Lion, Wal-mart and Grand Asia. The fruits and vegetables i got from the farmers market did not go bad after 3 to 4 days. I knew for years that F&V at the grocery stores are sprayed with preservatives when they are taken from the farm, transported through planes, trucks or trains, and displayed nicely in stores. By the time we buy that lettuce, orange or banana, it is 1-2 weeks old, but looks perfect and fresh. Ever since i went to that farmers market i have changed and made a promise to myself to buy locally grown as much as i can. I am in Michigan for the break. My friend and I drove about 1 hour to buy F&V that is locally grown in Michigan. It has been a week and it has not rotten.

As a solution to the problems faced by local farmers, I asked Meg Phipps to give me names of organizations. I ended up choosing the Produce Box. It was founded by a woman named Courtney Tellefsen.

Their mission is "We deliver locally grown farm-fresh produce and products to your door every week during our North Carolina growing season. We are committed to working with North Carolina farmers only (the main reason we started the program) and don't ship in products from other states or countries. Join us and become part of our "community of families" who enjoy delicious fruits and vegetables, eat healthier each week and support our farm neighbors"

I have copy pasted this from their website. http://theproducebox.com/

1. Get as much farm-fresh, field grown produce as possible into the local food system.

2. Make it easy, convenient and affordable.

3. Help local farmers reduce waste by having them “pick to order”.

4. Use more than one farm to provide the most variety and best quality fruits and vegetables the area has to offer.

5. Keep operating costs REALLY LOW by using neighborhood coordinators and deliverers and pass those savings on to the members.

I contacted Courtney and asked her permission to use her organization as an example. We will talk on skype in a few weeks and meet in person after i return to North Carolina. So far it is going well. One area i need more info is about farmers and rural women farmers in NC. I have started looking at the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

A Bittersweet Goodbye

Everyone,

This will be my last blog post for the summer, as my time with WomenNC as a summer intern is drawing to a close. By no means is my time with this wonderful organization ending, as I will still be an active member and advocate for WomenNC. I've had a wonderful summer filled with many learning experiences. I have met many wonderful people and have enjoyed great conferences, meetings, and conversations with a wide array of individuals. For those of you who I've met, you've definitely shaped my life and made me a stronger person. I've learned not only a lot about WomenNC this summer, but a lot about myself. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with Anita, Beth, Devi, and everyone else on the WomenNC crew, and will absolutely stay in touch with everyone. I hope that WomenNC continues to grow, that CEDAW is ratified in the United States, and that we, as a whole, can empower women and girls throughout the world. Thank you all for this wonderful experience and your kind support throughout the summer. Best of luck to everyone in all future endeavors and I hope to see you in the very near future!

Cheers,
Holly Holbrook

Wait...what?

Earlier today I was working on the twitter site for WomenNC. As I scrolled through the recent posts from those we follow, I found an interesting article from Jezebel, titled "The Time Michele Bachmann Thought She'd Been Kidnapped By Lesbians." My first thought was "Wait...what?", and of course I clicked on the link to read the article. The article discusses Ms. Bachmann's encounter with two women, a lesbian and an ex-nun, in the bathroom. Bachmann states that these two women tried to kidnap her, while these women state that they only wanted to discuss issues further with the then senator. The state declined to press charges.

Although most people who read this article are probably thinking a lot of the same thoughts I was, I think I also took a different approach to the article. Not only to I believe that this is ridiculous and that the state made the right choice in not pressing charges, but I also believe that it is absurd that Bachmann went to these lengths and claimings. We should be about Women's EMPOWERMENT, not putting one another down. We should be about supporting one another and providing a better life for current and future generations. We should discuss issues intelligently, just as these two women tried to do with Michele Bachmann. And so be it if the women talking to her were lesiban, heterosexual, bisexual, ex-nun, Christian, Muslim, agnostic, purple, black, white...it doesn't matter. And it shouldn't matter. They weren't trying to kidnap anyone. They were trying to have a conversation about issues concerning them. And what's so wrong with that?

It's instances like this that set us, women, back. If we all worked together to create a great life for one another, so many great things could be achieved. Fortunately, we're making progress in many ways. But to think that we could all unite and do great things would be amazing. We could ratify CEDAW in the United States, we could help women internationally, we could help our neighbors...the possibilities are endless. Let's stand together and make these dreams a reality.

Pins

My bookbag for school is covered in pins, ribbons, and little trinkets that I've collected during my college career. Many of these pins are for organizations on campus that I support or am involved in, or are special because a friend or family member gave them to me. At this point, my bookbag is covered. I probably have twenty plus pins, and people are constantly commenting on my pins or asking me about them. I'm actually really excited about being back on campus so that everyone sees my bookbag again along with all of my new pins!

This past week, Devi, Beth, and I attended the WILPF conference in Chapel Hill. During our lunch break, Devi and I took the time to walk through the many tables set up by various organizations. At this time, I found some really great pins to add to my collection. I put these new pins on my bookbag, many of which discuss peace and women. One of my favorite pins from the day states "The rising of the women is the rising of us all," which was a pin made for International Women's Day.

When I first received this pin, I put it on my shirt and didn't really pay much attention. However, later that day when I returned home, I took that pin off of my shirt and stopped to really read it. After a great day of learning at WILPF, it was really nice to sit back and think about the rise of women. We, as women, can truly make a difference. We, as WomenNC, can truly make a difference. We, as Americans, can truly make a difference. By ratifying CEDAW, Women are able to rise above our current standing and empower one another.

Although many college students have pins on their bookbags and are passionate about a variety of subjects, I feel that many students don't take a lot of time to consider what their pins are really saying. Many just place the pin on their bag and move along. But the small quotes and pictures on these pins really do speak volumes.

Something as small and simple as a pin on a bookbag can really get the word out. Pay attention to the little things.