Committee Updates

Joan Patchen Fund Grant; WILPF Humboldt Branch Report; Poor Peoples Campaign: A Call for Moral Revival; W$D Zoom Meetings; Get Involved: No Killer Drone Group; TNPW First Anniversary; Protest U.S. Enabled Blockade of Yemen

Joan Patchen Fund Grant

Joan Patchen served in many capacities and inspired many great actions as a WILPF member. She was Program Coordinator for the international WILPF Congress held in Baltimore. A gifted artist and actor, she also taught nursery school on Cape Cod and worked as an agricultural artificial insemination technician in Kentucky, among her many career experiences. Joan's joy in life, her enthusiasm for creating a better world, and her booming and infectious laugh helped lead the Cape Cod branch during one of its most productive eras. Her family and friends established the Joan Patchen Fund as a way to continue Joan's work through the efforts of WILPF branches.

Inquiries about applying for a grant from the Joan Patchen Fund can be addressed to Elenita Muñiz, Cape Cod WILPF, at elenita@meganet.net.

WILPF Humboldt Branch Report

WILPF Humboldt Branch is planning for our annual International Women's Day celebration, which will be on March 8 in conjunction with the Arcata Playhouse's Zero to Fierce Womxns Festival. We're also taking applications for our Edilith Eckart Memorial Scholarship (Deadline: April 1, 2022) — applications are open to people in Humboldt county for local to global projects. Last year, we helped fund a program supporting individuals and families hosting young people aging out of foster care; a Native American group creating a self-defense video for and by tribal youth; a Hmong community group raising awareness about domestic violence; and a Black Music and Arts group for a kids day camp. We are also raffling off a quilt to benefit the scholarship. You saw the quilt in your last Peace and Freedom magazine, but the raffle's still going on. Get your tickets now.

Poor Peoples Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival

As we go through the next months, we will ask you to take steps to organize and join us in one of the most enduring campaigns to fight for and mobilize political voting power for those who lack adequate representation in America today.

Please go to the Poor Peoples Campaign website to join the campaign and receive updates as we move towards this momentous date. If you would like to be a part of the committee to organize our mobilization on this date, or if you have questions or comments, please reach out to Emily Keel at ekkeel@protonmail.com.

The Women, Money, & Democracy Committee Re-Envisions Itself

What’s next for WILPF US’s Women, Money & Democracy Committee? Stay tuned.

The W$D Committee includes brilliant women from across the US and meets via Zoom every third Tuesday at 8 p.m. eastern. If you are interested in joining W$D, contact Marybeth Gardam at mbgardam@gmail.com.

WILPF’s new No Killer Drone

WILPF’s new No Killer Drone group meets on Zoom at 4 p.m. EST on the first and 3rd Sundays of the month.  It is a time to discuss what we are reading and watching in the news, discuss this book, and plan actions. If you are interested in being involved, please contact Eileen Kurkoski at eileen4wilpf@gmail.com or 617-928-0958.

TPNW First Anniversary Celebrations
On the weekend of January 22, 2022, WILPF members gathered around the country to celebrate the first anniversary of the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).  Click here to view photos that were sent to the Disarm Committee Chairs to post at WILPF SMART and add to the larger collection at Nuclear Ban Treaty Days of Action on Facebook.

If you have photos that we haven’t received yet, please send them, with descriptions of places and people, to disarmchair@wilpfus.org so we can add them!

And be sure to let people know they can send letters to their Senators and Representatives in support of the TPNW!

You can check on how many countries have ratified the TPNW at ICAN – the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

Protest U.S. Enabled Blockade of Yemen

We ask individuals and organizations across the states to protest at the district offices of their U.S. House of Representatives members on Tuesday, March 1, with the above demands. Congress: Lift the Blockade. Stop U.S. Complicity in War on Yemen.

Please add your organization to this joint statement by clicking here. For more information, visit the Every 75 Seconds website or contact them at info@every75seconds.org.