Shelburne, VT - On April 22nd, Population Media Center (PMC) will celebrate Earth Day. PMC is an international nonprofit organization that strives to bring about the stabilization of human population numbers at a level that can be sustained by the world’s natural resources, in order to improve the well-being of people around the world and lessen the harmful impact of humanity on the earth’s environment. PMC uses entertainment-education strategies, like serialized dramas on radio and television that encourage positive social and health behaviors, such as the use of family planning and the empowerment of women.

Please join us in celebrating Earth Day on April 22nd. William Ryerson, President and Founder of Population Media Center will be available for interviews.

Population and Environment
Currently, there is a great deal of concern in the media, government, business, and general public regarding the issue of global warming. However, the impact of rapid human population growth on global warming is often overlooked. Decreasing consumption levels will not be enough if the human population continues to rise. The United Nations Population Division estimates that by the year 2050 the world population will reach 9.2 billion, with most of this increase occurring in the developing world. It is estimated that by 2050 over 50% of carbon emissions will come from developing nations. Not only does population growth significantly contribute to an increase in carbon emissions, but it creates a strain on other resources such as water, food, and energy.

Make the Link Between Population and Environment
For more information about population and environmental issues, PMC’s founder and president, William Ryerson, will be available for interviews. Mr. Ryerson has a four decade history of working in the fields of population and reproductive health. As a graduate student, he was Founder and first Chairperson of the Yale Chapter of Zero Population Growth (ZPG). He also served on the Executive Committee of ZPG, as Eastern Vice President and Secretary of the national organization. In 1970, he was featured in Life Magazine’s Earth Day issue organizing student activities on the Yale campus for the first Earth Day.

During the last two decades, he has been working to adapt the Sabido methodology of entertainment-education for behavior change on family planning and family size issues to various cultural settings worldwide. He has also been involved in the design of research to measure the effects of such projects in a number of countries, one of which has led to a series of publications regarding a serialized radio drama in Tanzania and its effects on HIV/AIDS avoidance and family planning use. He received a B.A. in Biology (Magna Cum Laude) from Amherst College and an M.Phil. in Biology from Yale University (with specialization in Ecology and Evolution). He served as Director of the Population Institute’s Youth and Student Division, Development Director of Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania, Associate Director of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, and Executive Vice President of Population Communications International before founding Population Media Center. Mr. Ryerson is listed in several editions of Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the East. In 2006, he was awarded the Nafis Sadik Prize for Courage from the Rotarian Action Group on Population and Development.

Two of PMC programs were featured in the January/February 2008 edition of Mother Jones magazine, Gugar Goge and Ashreat Al Amal.

Read the article, “As the World Learns.”

Thursday, August 09, 2007 Sun Star (Philippines)
By Edmund B. Sestoso

The Population Commission (Popcom) has shifted its population campaign from scientific ways to natural family planning after the United States government stopped the supply of contraceptives, including pills and condoms.

Popcom Central Visayas Regional Director Leo de la Rama said, several years back, their office supported by several non-government organizations had massively campaigned for scientific approaches to family planning like vasectomy and tubal ligation and encouraging the use of condoms and pills.

“These contraceptives for several years were given to us by the USAid and that the same will also be given to the couples for free, but now this will be purchased by the users unless the National Government and the local government units will shoulder the cost it entails,” de la Rama said.

For full article, visit:

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/dum/2007/08/09/news/popcom.shifts.campaign.to.natural.family.planning.html

Hanoi, Vietnam – The Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) in co-operation with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has announced that it will provide $770,000 for a three-year, social content radio serial drama project in Vietnam. The drama will be created using the Sabido methodology, a highly effective entertainment education technique that PMC has implemented in thirteen countries worldwide. The serial drama will address issues relating to reproductive health and HIV/AIDS.

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On June 13th 2006 William Ryerson, President of the Population Media Center (PMC) received the Nafis Sadik Prize for Courage at the Annual General Meeting of the Rotarian Action Group on Population and Development in Copenhagen, Denmark. The award recognized Ryerson’s 35 year dedication to the field of reproductive health. The prize is named after the previous Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr. Nafis Sadik, a national of Pakistan. In addition the Rotarian Action Group on Population and Development named Ryerson a Paul Harris Fellow.

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Ode Magazine
Issue 32

By Kim Ridley

Steamy tales of sex, betrayal and suspense can carry important social messages
Young and poor, Fikirte is in many ways Ethiopia’s Everywoman. Her life takes a turn for the worse when she meets Damtew, who is so obsessed with revenge against Fikirte’s innocent grandfather that he kills him and then begins to prey on her. He swindles Fikirte and seduces her half-sister, giving her HIV. He spreads vicious rumors to turn Fikirte’s family against her and to crush her dreams of finishing school. Still not satisfied, Damtew tries to murder Fikirte—twice.
Does Fikirte’s life sound like a soap opera? It is. The saga of Fikirte, Damtew, and the other captivating characters of Yeken Kignit (“Looking Over One’s Daily Life”) kept millions of Ethiopians glued to their radios for two and a half years. It also persuaded some of them to change their lives.
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By Pamela Polston, Seven Days

Western women of a certain age often talk about their “biological clock” - the physical imperative to bear children before it’s too late. But for Mother Earth, that clock is ticking for quite the opposite reason: She has too many children already, and if this terrible human fecundity is not slowed, it may indeed be too late - to feed the ones who are starving, or to sustain the ones who consume too much.

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PMC was featured in the Spring 2005 edition of Ms. Magazine.

Read the full article, “Soap Operas are Changing Lives - For the Better!”

Population Media Center’s radio serial drama in Sudan went on the air November 22, 2004 after 2 years of preparation work. Titled Ashreat Al Amal (“Sails of Hope”), the Arabic language program deals with reproductive health issues. It will air for approximately 18 months (there are 150 episodes) over Khartoum Radio. The project is supported by a grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

The program deals with the major themes of HIV/AIDS education and the importance of educating women as a means to a better life, and the minor themes of female circumcision, negative consequences of too much drinking and gambling, and pre-natal care.

Through the characters of Hamid and Jabir, the program addresses the importance of reducing stigma of people living with HIV/AIDS and shows how one can interact with those who have AIDS. Hamid (a transitional character) is HIV positive and is refused a job by Jabir. Hamid’s wife’s former husband, Al Dai (another transitional character), comes to take his children away and declares that it is not safe for kids to live with someone who has AIDS. Later in the program, we will see that Jabir’s other evil-doings – stealing money, lying, blackmailing – lead to his assassination. Al Dai will grow to learn to accept people living with HIV/AIDS.

Through the character of Awatif, the program will address the issue of family planning and pre-natal care. Awatif, Hassan’s wife, suffers from acute anemia resulting from non-birth spacing, and repeated, prolonged bleeding from the births of her many children. She is in the process of delivering another child and encountering complications in delivery because she had become so run-down with running the household and having an office job while pregnant. After recovering from her terrible, but not lethal childbirth, Awatif slowly comes to realize that it is hard to pay the school fees for all of her children. Her former husband convinces her to take him back (he had left her to pursue another woman), but she agrees only if he will agree to use condoms. Hassan refuses. Awatif and Hassan will fight over this, but eventually Awatif will overcome.

Population Media Center is a non-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to using media to aid the stabilization of human population numbers at a level that can be sustained by the world’s natural resources and to lessen the impact of humanity on the earth’s environment. Its work emphasizes education on the benefits of small families, elevation of women’s status, promotion of gender equity and encouragement in the use of effective family planning methods.

Ethiopian Reporter June 16, 2004

Mr. William Ryerson, founder and President of PMC, has a 30-year history of working in the field of reproductive health, including 15 years of experience in adopting the Sabido Methodology for behavior change communication to various cultural settings worldwide. He has also been involved in the design of research to measure the effects of such projects in a number of countries, one of which has led to a series of publications regarding a serialized radio drama in Tanzania and its effects on HIV/AIDS avoidance and family planning use. Mr. Ryerson was recently in Addis Ababa to be present at the second anniversary of the launching of PMC-Ethiopia Entertainment Education Radio serial that dramas that was observed last Saturday. Melese Telahoun of The Reporter who caught up with Mr. Ryerson posed a number of questions to him on PMC’s achievements on the international level in general and in Ethiopia in particular. Excerpts:

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