2005 Year-end Appeal
| More than a book, OBOS is a health movement and deserves a place on every woman's bookshelf. - Publishers Weekly, May 2005 |
Dear friend:
Because of donors like you, we have accomplished much during 2005. And we seek your continued support for 2006. By now, we hope many of you have seen the totally revised Our Bodies, Ourselves: A New Edition for a New Era. This 8th edition debuts in the 35th anniversary year of this trusted resource on women, health, and sexuality. More than half of the content is new and the design and format are much more user-friendly. The book also features a new generation of authors and a new companion website.
Enclosed are a few quotes about the new edition. Book reviews and articles are also posted at our website. With your help we hope to make this resource available to many women and girls with limited incomes as well as to the global “OBOS” translation/adaptation groups now working around the world to develop their own editions.
Our Bodies Ourselves remains one of the relatively few non-profit women’s health organizations independent of corporate influences that so often compromise the quality of health information and advocacy. We do not accept funds from pharmaceutical companies and depend primarily on individual and foundation income. Royalties income is typically not more than 10-15% of our annual budget.
Other highlights to share with you from this year:
- Our newly redesigned and expanded website is user-friendly and carries excerpts from our books, unique online content, women’s health updates, and extensive links and resources on a wide range of topics.
- We made presentations at 60 college campuses and community groups about such issues as breast implants, misleading advertising by the pharmaceutical industry, stem cell research, reproductive rights, microbicides research, environmental threats to women’s health, health care reform, hormone therapy, and the media’s impact on women’s health.
- The Spanish-language adaptation of Journey to Parenthood is nearing completion. Our collaboration with the Maternity Center Association represents the latest project of the Latina Health Initiative and will provide a valuable supplement to Nuestros Cuerpos, Nuestras Vidas. The booklet, which will be posted on both organizations’ websites, includes new information on such topics as gestational diabetes and special concerns of Latinas.
- The new Korean adaptation of OBOS was published in Seoul, South Korea (see our website for more details).
- Healthy Body, Healthy Mind – a book inspired by OBOS – was produced by the Tibetan Nuns Project in Dharamsala, India for Tibetan-speaking women in the Himalayan region.
- A cultural adaptation in Polish with excerpts posted on the website of the Network of East-West Women-Polska.
- We completed the manuscript for our forthcoming book about menopause – the first in a series of single-topic publications – which is expected to be published in June 2006.
With your help, we will continue this vital work. In particular, we are seeking support for the following:
- Further development and expansion of our website, including the creation of a new OBOS women’s health blog. Please visit us at www.ourbodiesourselves.org to read more about our projects and to see new content.
- Our new book on pregnancy and birth, which begins production in early 2006. This is the second in our series of single-topic books. We hope to produce a unique contribution during an era in which childbirth is becoming increasingly medicalized without improving outcomes, decreasing costs, or even maintaining mothers’ satisfaction.
- Outreach to more high school and college students through campus speaking and collaborations with other organizations such as Teen Voices.
- Our ongoing work with members of the media, where we provide a much-needed feminist and consumer perspective that is truly independent of inappropriate industry influences.
- Our work with groups hoping to produce new adaptations of OBOS in Arabic, Hebrew, Vietnamese, Nepali, and other languages. For more information about these projects, see our website.
Please mail in your tax-deductible donation today or contribute online.
Thank you for your support and continued commitment to women’s health.
On behalf of the whole board and staff at OBOS,
Amanda Buck Varella and Bonnie Shepard,
Co-Chairs, Our Bodies Ourselves Board of Directors
Judy Norsigian, OBOS Executive Director
P.S. If you contribute $250 or more, we will send you two free copies of the new edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves, inscribed by contributors, to the persons of your choice.
|
