Imagine my delight yesterday at opening the Washington Post to see a front page article on our African American Women’s Giving Circle. The title of the article said it all, “A Circle With a Deep Center: Black Women Pool Resources in Grass-Roots Effort to Alleviate D.C.’s Social Ills.”
Unfortunately, my delight was tempered upon noticing the article printed just above it, which detailed the Bush Administration’s most recent attempt to limit women’s access to birth control.
An interesting juxtaposition—local women joining together to support organizations providing health care to disenfranchised communities in Southeast D.C., right next to federal efforts to further limit access to health care, particularly for the underserved.
And we wonder why we’re not making headway on health care in the United States?
Earlier in the week, there was an article contrasting federal support for HIV/AIDS programs globally and domestically. According to the article, the District of Columbia has the highest prevalence of HIV infection of any jurisdiction in the U.S. at about 1 in every 20 residents. The DC Department of Health states that women account for nearly one-third of all newly reported HIV/AIDS cases, with African American women accounting for the majority (9 out of 10).
Similarly, a women’s health report card published by the National Women’s Law Center gave D.C. a failing grade in its efforts to meet the health care needs of women. The neighboring jurisdictions of Maryland and Virginia did not fare much better, both receiving unsatisfactory grades.
I am truly inspired by the efforts of the African American Women’s Giving Circle because together they are making critical investments to improve the lives of women and girls in D.C. where others have turned a blind eye.
However, it is disheartening to think that their efforts are not fully supported on a much larger scale by our government, policymakers and other key decision makers, who have the ability to truly enact widespread change and to make a systematic difference in the lives of women and girls and their health and well-being.
Because, in the end, it truly does take a village.
Jennifer Lockwood-Shabat is a program officer at The Women’s Foundation, responsible for grantmaking in the realm of health and safety. She has more than a decade of experience as a policy advocate on reproductive health issues impacting the low-income and uninsured.
