Hello friend,

For my birthday I'm asking for donations to this excellent charity, FEM, which uses radio ads to give important, life-saving information about contraception in sub-Saharan Africa.

This is important to me for a few reasons:

(1) I'm appalled by the recent dismantling of USAID, which is costing lives due to the sudden withdrawal of funds from programs like this in the developing world.

(2) I care about charities aimed at improving women's lives. Access to contraception has been shown to help girls and women stay in school longer, improve their employment prospects, and earn more. FEM's work also prevents hundreds of maternal deaths from unwanted pregnancies each year.

(3) I care about people having access to accurate information. In Africa, one in five women who are sexually active and not seeking another child are not currently using contraception, often due to lack of awareness of modern contraceptives and (often misplaced) concerns about side effects - eg believing that it makes you permanently infertile.

(4) FEM has been shown to be one of the world's most effective charities, in terms of the money you donate translating into actual measurable benefits. Founders Pledge estimated FEM’s cost-effectiveness to be 26 times that of GiveDirectly (itself shown in countless studies to be an extremely cost-effective charity).

Thank you!

Love Izzy x

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's one of the most efficient ways to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.