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May 11, 2007
SHE HASN'T CHANGED...
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Jacobson in action |
Jodi Jacobson, the high-profile founder and executive director for the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE) announced this week that she is stepping down as of May 31 to become director of advocacy for the American Jewish World Service (AJWS), run by longtime New York City politician Ruth Messinger.
CHANGE has been a leading advocate for sane, evidence-based U.S. international policies that promote sexual and reproductive rights and health for women and girls. Jacobson was frequently quoted in national daily media for her opinions on HIV/AIDS issues — such as prevention dollars earmarked for abstinence-only prevention programs — and testified numerous times before Congress. In 2005 she told the New York Times , "There has been a dangerous and profound shift in U.S. donor policy from comprehensive prevention, education and provision of condoms to focus on abstinence only."
In her farewell letter to colleagues and friends, Jacobson said she hopes to mobilize the AJWS' "latent but powerful" constituency behind sound U.S. global AIDS policies. The AJWS is a sprawling organization dedicated to alleviating poverty, hunger and disease in the developing world and funds 375 NGOs and CBOs. Jacobson also noted that some of AJWS' partner organizations have "direct experience with U.S. policy from the effects of the prostitution pledge to negotiating grant funding with PEPFAR."