OVER 100 Members of Congress Support Funding for SASP!

The Sexual Assault Services Program (SASP) was authorized in the Violence Against Women Act of 2005 (VAWA) and for the first time, provides a direct and dedicated funding stream for rape crisis centers.

Although funding for fiscal year 2007 is yet to be finalized, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Rob Portman, has heard from a bipartisan group of 110 Members of Congress expressing support for funding the Sexual Assault Services Program (SASP) at its authorized level of $50 million in FY 2008.

The National Alliance to End Sexual Violence (NAESV) and their partners have been hard at work crafting strategies and building support for SASP that will provide much needed funding this year and in the future. OMB is a crucial piece of this puzzle, as they impact greatly how much money is asked for from each federal department each year. The amount of funding asked for sends clear signals to those in Congress who actually vote on funding months later. Achieving an "ask" of $50 million which would appear in the President's proposed budget to Congress next year would be a tremendous victory and signal strong support for the program.
To view the letter: www.naesv.org/News/OMB06.pdf

I viewed the letter and carefully looked over the signatures and much to my disappointment did not see my State Representative’s name. Shame on you Adam. Mr. Putnam will be getting a letter from me very soon. If you would like to contact your Representative, follow this quick link: http://www.house.gov/writerep/

With all this holiday free time we might as well dabble in some politics, right?
Happy Holidays!
Kelly

Help the planet via free light bulbs!

Between 12/7/06 and 12/21/06 you can purchase 4 packs of compact fluorescent light bulbs at Lowes for $7.98, with a rebate of $7.98 per pack. This means FREE light bulbs.

Why are these light bulbs so great? They will save you money on your electric bill because they are very efficient (use a quarter of the power an incandescent bulb uses), they last up to eight times longer than inefficient incandescent light bulbs, and their efficiency saves energy created by coal burning power plants that pollute our air. The best lights to replace are the ones you use the most often while at home.

A link to the rebate coupon is below for 4-packs of 60-watt "Sylvania Mini Twist Lightbulbs" Item #146558. There is a limit of TWO 4-packs per household.

*Rebates must be postmarked by 1/21/07.*

http://www.lowespromos.com/PDFs/1327-2.pdf

Peace-
Becca and Kelly

Unite for Change

I hope you can feel our excitement as I type this. Kelly and I have unveiled the first phase of our campaign, Unite for Change and we could not be more pleased. When you can, please check out our site www.UniteForChange.com and learn more about our latest effort to end sexual violence. We welcome your feedback. We hope to complete the site within two weeks so let me know your thoughts and suggestions.

Much love now and always-

Becca (and Kelly)


Life is best if lived without fear but with awareness.

Still recovering from Katrina

While we were in New Orleans, we drove accross the LA/ MS stateline to see how Bay St. Louis was recovering after Katrina and to pay our respects so to speak. The photo above made my heart melt. (The board on the tree reads: Please protect tree, planted by grandson.) This photo captures the cry for help and the chance for hope that can be felt throughout the Katrina stricken region.

New Spray-on Condom: A Car Wash for your Penis

It was almost exactly a year ago today that the world’s first “spray on condom” hit the market in China. The product, which was called the Nanometer-silver Cryptomorphic Condom (NCC) was actually a spray for women, which coated the inside of the vagina and created a “physical membrane” that prevented fluid transmission and provided contraceptive and disease prevention.

Yesterday’s LA Times reported on a new venture, by a German company, to develop a spray on male condom. The product, which is both described and illustrated on the company’s website http://www.vinico.de/home/index.php actually sounds a little like spray-on tanning, but for your penis. It is a canister that you insert your penis into, and then latex is sprayed onto the penis, forming a condom around it.

Jan Vinzenz Krause from the Institute for Condom Consultancy who is developing the concept explains:

"It works by spraying on latex from nozzles on all sides," he said. "We call it the '360 degree procedure' - once round and from top to bottom. It's a bit like a car wash."It’s an interesting concept, and at a projected $13 for 20 applications, it would be a surprisingly inexpensive condom product. But it sounds like a product that would be unlikely to ever make it to the North American market, both for financial and safety reasons.

To develop an inexpensive mechanism that could evenly spray latex consistently without clogging would be a challenge. And the fact that each condom is made “live” raises questions as to how the failure rate be determined and evaluated. In North America there is an acceptable failure rate for products like condoms and surgical gloves. The FDA would need some way of determining the quality of the condoms, and it’s not clear how they would be able to test this affordably.

Finally, given the fact that both men and women say lack of spontaneity is a reason for not using condoms, one has to wonder how “hold on honey, I just need to spray on my protection” will go over.

Read more – LA Times: German sex educators plan spray-on condom

Related - About Contraception

Source- Cory Silverberg About.com