The University of New Mexico

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Media Contact: Laurie Mellas, 277-5915

Nov. 28, 2006

UNM Researcher Documents Struggle for Reproductive Health Rights
Oral histories archived at Smith College, in print and online

University of New Mexico Professor Deborah McFarlane recently completed a nationally-funded project to preserve the history of international population programs. The Population Pioneers Project is made up of oral histories and personal papers collected from reproductive health leaders throughout the world. McFarlane teaches in the UNM political science and women studies departments.

First-hand accounts from some of the most controversial policy makers of our time are available in print and on-line at http://www.smith.edu/library/libs/ssc/prh/prh-intro.html .

“Their perspectives can teach lessons that can be applied to increase effectiveness of future programs,” McFarlane said.

McFarlane, project director, and Rebecca Sharpless interviewed 38 pioneers in the field. The oral histories are housed in the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College in Massachusetts, which has extensive holdings on the history of birth control, including the papers of Margaret Sanger. The Countway Library of Medicine at Harvard University also joined as a partner to help in collecting the pioneers' personal papers.

A $300,000 grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation funded the project, which began in 2002 and ended June 30.

Interview subjects included all United States Agency for International Development population directors from the 1960s to present, and other notables such as Pakastani physician Nafis Sadik, the first woman director of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, Mercedes Concepcion of the Philippines, known as the “mother of Asian demography,” Fred Sai of Ghana, formerly at the World Bank and medical director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, and UNM's Everett Rogers who applied communication theories to family planning.

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