The Federation, which has 1.25 million members, provides family planning services, loans for small businesses, and training programs for women. Poverty, they find, is their best method of contraception. Family planning counselors give the economic facts of life to women and girls, explaining how much it costs to raise a child. Sometimes women resort to illegal abortions because they cannot afford another child. Consequently, deaths from abortions are rising.
Women are creative.
Sewing projects, honey production, and rug and mat weaving are taught by Federation personnel. They also have a project that gives support to women lawyers to help them secure office space. Humanitarian aid workers have been resigning in protest of the sanctions for the past two years. In September 1998, Dennis Halliday, UN Assistant Secretary General and Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, publicly denounced the sanctions. He was followed by Hans Von Sponeck, Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq and Jutta Burghardt, head of the UN World Food Program in Baghdad.