A mother’s point of view:

Mothers love their children in ways that are emotional and sometimes unreasonable. A tame mother cat can turn into a projectile of dangerous fur when her kittens are threatened. Mothers are often forced to make unnatural decisions concerning their children. Here are few examples:

• Which of my six children will eat today?: Most often, it will be the girl child and the mother who go hungry
• Which of my children will live? Female foeticide has become epidemic in parts of the world, since the magic of ultrasound now allows us to probe the secrets of the most personal of all spaces – the womb – home to the growing foetus.
• Which of my children will be sold into labor slavery? A recent front page story in India told about a group of seven to ten year old boys sold for racing camels in Middle East. The cost of a boy sold into this life of intolerable living conditions and stunting , mind-numbing work: US$70
• Which of my children will be sold into sexual slavery? There is a mountain kingdom in the Himalayas where girls between the ages of 10 and 15 are sold for abuse in brothels. In poor countries, raw hunger forces many mothers to sell their daughters. Cost of a young female body, mind and soul for life: US $50/-. The cost of a buffalo will be more than US$300/-

The Rotarian Action Group for Population and Development (RFPD) works on the problems which mothers face every day.
We need to address the concerns of poor families. Parents love their children. If they are forced to behave otherwise, it is because they have more children than they can care for."Over population" is the enemy of happy families.

Like a mother drained of life by a dozen hungry children, Mother Earth is also a victim of population imbalance. The Earth is losing its capacity to nurture us, her children. There are too many people competing for too few resources. Razing forests has exacerbated the monsoons. Rivers are drying up and water from bore wells are turning salty from drought. A third of all children below the age of five in developing countries die unnecessarily, because they do not have clean water to drink. Some say the next global war will be fought over water.

Rotary is a century-old organization whose members represent excellence in their professions, over 1.2 million brilliant men and women, in 200 countries and geographical regions in 32,000 Rotary clubs. Maternal and child health is one of the Rotary’s six areas of focus. We have the power to influence nations and to change values. Rotary is the perfect organization to handle this root cause that now threatens life, and the earth.Everyone in the world wants happy families. Happy families prevent conflict, deter terrorism and prevent war. The population topic has already attracted over 20,000 Rotary families from around the world to join the Rotarian Action Group for Population and Development (RFPD), Rotary’s largest Action Group. Hundreds of successful Rotary population projects worth approximately US $ 23,51,741,000 have been completed since 1993.
Don’t forget these families striving to stay afloat in the sea of uncertain conditions. To them, this is a matter of life and death.

To know more, go to
http://www.rifpd.org/blogs/
E-mail: rfpd.hq@rifpd.org
Website: www.rifpd.org or
www.maternal-health.org
or
write to me at:
rekha.shetty@mindspower.com
http://creatinghappyfamilies.blogspot.in/2015/07/creating-happy-families.html

PDG Dr. Rekha Shetty is a member of the Rotary club of Madras Temple city, India and was one of the first lady Rotary Governors from Asia in 1999-2000. She was chairman of RFPD, during 2012-2015, and a Director of WASRAG during the same period. She has championed the needs of families everywhere.