Together Women Rise: Appropriations Training (Mar. 2021)

We had a great March webinar. We celebrated COVID relief successes and looked at the 2021 campaigns on global education and nutrition. We learned about the appropriations process and tools available to us. We took action together online and prepared for taking deeper action with congressional staff. Here are the details:

• Webinar recording and Powerpoint slides (pdf version)
• Find contact information for your members of Congress. If you can’t find then name of the Foreign Policy aide, call the office and ask or contact Leslye Heilig or Ken Patterson.
• Appropriations tools and resources: Appropriations requests and laser talks, online action to engage other advocates
• Combined education & nutrition laser talk for speaking to the Foreign Policy aide:

Hi _______:

My name is ________ and I’m an advocate with Together Women Rise and a constituent of the Congresswoman. We have ___ other constituents as part of our chapter. I’m calling to get some information from you on how to submit appropriations requests to the Representative so they can be included in her submissions to the State and Foreign Operations Sub-Committee of Appropriations. I want to also tell you a little about our requests. Sound okay? First, has your office set a deadline for receiving appropriations requests from constituents? And in what form do you need the requests—can I just send your our requests, or do you need us to fill out a form?

Thanks for this information. I’d like tell you a bit about our requests:

Engage: Together Women Rise is passionate about improving the lives of women and girls around the world. The Congresswoman can make a big difference for women and girls by ensuring the US provides robust funding and leadership for global nutrition and education.

Problem: Personally, I find it distressing that one in five of the world’s children under age five are malnourished. That’s 144 million young children denied essential nutrition for normal brain and body development. The resulting damage is irreversible. And an estimated 80% of the world’s school-age children have experienced disruptions to their education. For children living in poverty, and girls in particular, the disruptions have been devastating.

Inform: We can change this. For nutrition, greater investment in a handful of interventions like vitamin A supplements, pre-natal nutrition for women, therapeutic foods like Plumpy’Nut, and exclusive breastfeeding could make all the difference. And for education, The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) has proven that coordinating resources around country-owned national education plans will improve education and make the most of precious resources. Since 2002, GPE has supported over 160 million more children to be in school receiving a quality education.

Call to Action: I will send you a short piece on both requests. Can you please read them and recommend that the Congresswoman include them in her requests to SFOPS? When can I get back to you on these requests?