Hey team, as always some great stuff here from those wild women at CodePink. Read on and lend a hand if you can. E

 

May 9, 2008

Dear Friend,

Outside Speaker Pelosi’s DC office on Thursday, we found a disconcerting site: the Congresswoman in bed with George Bush! It seems the two of them, behind closed doors, have been colluding to guarantee $162 billion more of our tax dollars for war!

With Mother’s Days approaching, we appealed to the Speaker as a mother. We asked her to please stop funding war and destruction, and instead support our family needs here at home and the Iraqi refugees who are struggling to survive. Click here to tell Speaker Pelosi to get out of bed with Bush, to stop funding this disastrous war, and to help the refugees instead!

You, too, can do something for Mother’s Day to help the Iraqi women whose lives have been shattered by the US occupation.

When you donate today, 100% of the proceeds will go toward the Collateral Repair Project, a grassroots movement working with CODEPINK to address the catastrophic displacement of the five million Iraqis who had to leave their homes and communities because of violence and instability. CRP offers food, education, job training and other vital services to refugees.

• $25 will feed one internally displaced person in Iraq for one month
• $100 will feed a family of five living in Iraq for one month
• $250-500 will support small women-based microprojects to promote economic self-sufficiency for women in Jordan
• $1,500 will launch the Najaf sewing training project, training 50+ women sewing/embroidery. They will be able to make a small living and clothe their families.

CODEPINK Co-founder Medea Benjamin recently returned from Jordan and Syria where she witnessed firsthand the urgent needs of Iraqi women.

Layla Atiya is a 50-year-old woman from Baghdad whom I met outside the UN food distribution center in Damascus. She was a Shia who married a Sunni, something very common pre-invasion. They had a large family-eight children-but Layla’s husband worked hard as a mechanic and managed to provide a decent life for his family.

In March 2005, he was kidnapped by Shia militias trying to rid the neighborhood of Sunnis. Ten days later, his body was found dumped in a ditch, riddled with drill holes from torture. A week later, masked men came and took away her oldest son. Hysterical, she packed up the seven remaining children-ages 2-16-and fled to Syria.

Layla receives $120 a month from the UN, but it doesn’t even cover her rent. She can’t afford to send her children to school. “I can barely feed my children, much less provide them with a decent future,” she cried. “What will become of us?“

This Mother’s Day, please join CODEPINK in helping Iraqi mothers. If you donate in your mother’s name or the name of a mother you love, we will send her a beautiful E-card to acknowledge your generous gift.

With love for the mothers all over the world,
Alicia, Dana, Desiree, Farida, Gael, Gayle, Jodie, Liz, Medea, Nancy, Rae, and Tighe

p.s. To learn more about Medea’s experiences in Jordan and Syria, read her blogs here.

Dear Friends,

The perennial diplomat that I am and that many friends fault me for, I must admit that I am guilty, but i believe that gaining full perspective is important — even in the case of war-criminal-shaping up to be the worst president (if one dares still call him that at this point) in United States history George W. Bush. Every now and then the old dog can surprise us. The article below about his aid to African nation Liberia is impressive. It is what makes America have the potential to be such a positive and powerful influence in the world. Does that make GW a good guy all of a sudden? Nah. Too much water under the bridge. It will take us decades to reverse the damage these liberty-snatching, constitution-bashing war-mongrels have caused in our once-great-State. But it does go to show that when the puppeteers who are pulling the strings let him (whoever they are), the man is capable of some downright good deeds.

A good friend of mine who works for the UN in Liberia sent me this article and I thought you all might find it interesting. In fact even a bit inspiring. Now, if we could just convince him to get his grubby hands out of Iraq and Iran and tend to his business here at home –i.e. the job he was hired to do — then he may not lose this game scoring a big fat -0- points. For now, he hasn’t even scored one point yet in a game that’s lasted seven long years. That’s a long time not to get even one point on the scoreboard. But hey, from what it looks like, not many people are even tuned in to the game. But you are. And thank god for YOU!

Yours, Ed Hale

Read ABC News article here:

Bush parting gift to liberia
Liberians Give Bush Two Medals in Gratitude for Bush’s ‘Legacy’ Gifts

By JON GARCIA
FREETOWN, LIBERIA, Feb 22, 2008

From our friends at International Rescue Committee

Girls will be girls. Even girls who have survived a brutal war and witnessed terror that none their age should ever face. Girls everywhere are full of beauty, boundless energy and resilience that can carry them through the worst of things. That’s what women’s advocate Ann Jones discovers working with IRC and the girls we help in Sierra Leone. If you’ve been following Ann’s blog on the Global Crescendo project in West Africa you already know the powerful change women can create when their voices are unleashed. Now, find out what the girls have to say. Photo: Ann Jones

Here Come the Girls
Read Ann’s recent blog post and see more photos

Send a Postcard
Spread the word about how the IRC is giving girls a better chance at life