Very Virtual (for Now)

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 earlier this year, Membership Relations has shifted gears, transitioning all in-person events to virtual gatherings. As we self-isolate, we still want to provide our members with engaging opportunities with our organization. Thank you all for your participation and support as we’ve made the transition. We look forward to seeing you at future events, whenever it’s safe again to congregate!

Virtual Earth Day

We kicked off our virtual events by celebrating the 50th anniversary of Earth Day with our first ever Earth Day Challenge! Leading up to Earth Day, over 90 participants signed up to follow daily tasks that help decrease our collective impact on the environment such as saying no to single-use plastic and reducing water usage.

Our Earth Day Challenge included the opportunity to watch live presentations by President John Seager and Communications Manager Hannah Evans. John discussed how population growth and pandemics are interwoven, and Hannah highlighted the connections between climate change and population growth. Collectively, over 120 members tuned in for these livestreams!

Summer Speaker Series

At the end of May, we started our Summer Speaker Series, hosting Zoom calls with experts in the fields of conservation, reproductive health care, and reproductive rights.

To kick off the series, our sister organization, Population Connection Action Fund, sponsored Senior Vice President for Media and Government Relations Brian Dixon in his discussion “The State of Advocacy for U.S. Investments in International Family Planning Programs.” Over 50 participants tuned in to hear Brian speak about current U.S. policies that place barriers on access to reproductive health care in the developing world. Brian focused specifically on our #Fight4HER campaign, which is working to permanently repeal the Global Gag Rule.

Our second speaker was Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Founder and CEO of Conservation Through Public Health. Her presentation, “Responding to COVID-19 Through a One Health Approach to Gorilla Conservation,” discussed improving the health and livelihoods in and around protected areas of Uganda by promoting the peaceful coexistence of people, gorillas, and livestock.

The third session of our speaker series was with Drs. Rodrigo Barillas and Michelle Dubon of WINGS Guatemala, which provides quality reproductive health education and services to underserved, primarily rural Guatemalan youth, women, and men. Their talk, “WINGS Guatemala in the Time of COVID-19,” shed light on how their organization has adapted during the past several months to continue meeting the needs of the communities they serve.

All of the presentations are available to watch on our website.

If you have questions about these events or are interested in how you can get involved, please feel free to reach out to us at engage@popconnect.org!